Virginia picked up a significant commitment from the transfer portal on Thursday, landing Penn State offensive lineman Jimmy Christ, a former four-star prep recruit from Northern Virginia.
Christ, a 6’7”, 316-pound tackle, didn’t get much run in his time in Happy Valley, only logging 72 snaps in two seasons.
The Sterling native, the 11th-ranked recruit in the Commonwealth in 2020, had originally committed to Virginia and then-head coach Bronco Mendenhall in the 2020 recruiting cycle before deciding to reopen his commitment.
This is a huge get for UVA head coach Tony Elliott, who had indicated all spring that offensive line would be a priority in the second transfer portal season.
The O line lost four key contributors who accounted for 68.1 percent of the offensive snaps in 2022 – Logan Taylor, a four-star recruit from the 2021 recruiting class, is headed to Boston College; John Paul Flores, a transfer from Dartmouth in 2022, is on his way to Louisville; and Jonathan Leech and Derek Devine just decided not to return for what could have been their final year of eligibility.
New offensive line coach Terry Heffernan has four guys who got decent run last season to build around – centers Ty Furnish (505 snaps) and and Jestus Johnson (194 snaps) at center, along with guard Noah Josey (277 snaps) and tackle McKale Boley (135 snaps).
There were two other pick-ups from the early transfer portal season – Ugonna Nnanna, a 6’4”, 300-pound offensive tackle, a three-star prep recruit from the Class of 2020 who only got 28 snaps in two seasons at Houston, and didn’t get on the field in 2022, and Brian Stevens, a 6’2”, 290-pound guard who was a first-team All-Pioneer League selection at Dayton, an FCS-level school, in 2022.
Stevens has two years of eligibility remaining. Both Nnanna and Christ will have three years of eligibility remaining.
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