For the second straight week, the UVA Football opponent is starting a quarterback who is a native of the Commonwealth.
This week, it’s Ethan Vasko at Coastal Carolina, a redshirt sophomore who led Oscar F. Smith in Chesapeake to back-to-back state championships.
Vasko, a 6’3”, 220-pounder, originally committed to ODU before his high-school senior season, but flipped his commitment to Kansas after leading Oscar F. Smith to the 2021 state title.
Vasko transferred to Coastal Carolina after his freshman season at Kansas.
The coaching staff at Virginia, then led by Bronco Mendenhall, apparently didn’t recruit the three-star Vasko, with no offer from UVA being on the books.
Vasko did get an offer from Virginia Tech, under then-head coach Justin Fuente.
His other offers, before Kansas jumped in late in the game, had come from Buffalo, UConn, Columbia, Fordham, Penn and William & Mary.
ICYMI: UVA Football
Maryland’s starting quarterback, Billy Edwards, was a three-star at Lake Braddock in Northern Virginia who originally enrolled at Wake Forest in 2021, then transferred to Maryland after his freshman season.
Edwards, listed at 6’3”, 222, didn’t appear to get any recruiting interest from Mendenhall’s staff, either.
There aren’t any records of an offer to Edwards being on the table from Virginia.
He did have a longer list of suitors than did Vasko – Edwards’ offers included Appalachian State, East Carolina, JMU, Liberty and ODU, along with a number of FCS schools.
Edwards was 28-of-43 for 263 yards and two TDs in Maryland’s 27-13 win at Virginia on Saturday night.
Vasko, who we get to see this coming Saturday, was 15-of-21 for 103 yards and a TD through the air, and ran for 92 yards on 16 attempts, in Coastal’s 28-21 win at Temple this past Saturday.
This is your reminder of how poorly the UVA Football program has been recruiting the state of Virginia for years now.
Since 2015, Virginia has signed only three players listed among the Top 10 recruits in the state in their high-school senior years – Bryce Carter (Life Christian Academy/Chester) and Logan Taylor (Episcopal/Alexandria) in 2021, and Kam Robinson (Essex/Tappahannock) in 2023.
It’s not looking much better going forward.
Coach Tony Elliott wasn’t able to get a commitment from any of the Top 10 players in Virginia in the 2025 recruiting class, with the top-rated commit being Kempsville/Virginia Beach cornerback Christopher Spence, a three-star recruit.
Elliott has commitments from five of the Top 50 in the Class of 2025.
For context: Virginia Tech has commitments from 10, including four-stars Micah Matthews (Turner Ashby/Bridgewater) and Brett Clatterbaugh (Eastern View/Culpeper), and Elliott’s former employer, Clemson, has four, including the top-ranked player, Ari Watford (Maury/Norfolk), and four-star Gideon Davidson (Liberty Christian Academy/Lynchburg).
Maryland, still basking in its win on the playing field from Saturday night, has commitments from three Top 50 Virginia prep players, including four-stars Jaylen Gilchrist (Salem/Virginia Beach) and Messiah Delhomme (Warwick/Newport News).
Video: UVA Football recruiting struggles
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Chris Graham
