UVA Football Roster: Post-Spring Update

It's been an eventful few weeks for the Virginia football roster. Spring football brought with it a number of position changes, and there have been a flurry of announced additions and departures. Below is a breakdown of the changes we've seen. You might want to read them more than once to keep your head from spinning.

Departures:

Grant Polk, an offensive tackle who redshirted last season, decided to leave UVA in hopes of playing closer to home in Florida. He was Virginia's highest-ranked offensive line recruit in the 2015 class, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Virginia is in decent shape at tackle in 2016, but Polk could have competed for a starting role in 2017.

LaChaston Smith, a rising senior running back, is no longer with the team. Smith was a touted outside linebacker recruit in the 2013 class. With players like Kevin Parks, Taquan Mizzell, and Albert Reid ahead of him, Smith was never able to rise up the RB depth chart.

Nick Johns, a quarterback who redshirted in 2015, announced his departure from the program on May 4. Johns came to UVA with high hopes, but might unfortunately be most remembered for an early-career DUI charge.

Tre Harbison, a true freshman running back who enrolled in January, is planning to transfer according to a report. Harbison was Virginia's highest-rated recruit in 2016, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Virginia is stocked at running back in 2016, but Harbison would have competed for playing time in 2017 and beyond.

Darrious Carter, who was recruited as an "athlete" in 2014, is no longer on the roster. Carter had been listed at defensive end in 2015. There hasn't been any official word on Carter, but we're counting him as a loss at this point.

Additions:

Former UNC offensive lineman Jared Cohen committed to Virginia at the end of March. Cohen can play immediately and has three years of eligibility remaining. He'll likely compete for a starting guard spot this fall.

Former East Carolina quarterback Kurt Benkert committed to Virginia on May 1. Benkert can also play immediately. His strength and athleticism are off-the-charts according to the scouting reports. He is definitely a threat to win the starting quarterback position this fall.

Offensive Changes:

Chris Sharp came to Virginia in 2015 as a bigger back and compliment to Olamide Zaccheaus. Sharp has reportedly moved to defensive back, and is now listed on the roster as a safety.

Christian Baumgardner was originally recruited as a tight end. Virginia's new offensive system doesn't rely heavily on tight ends. And more important, Virginia lacks the depth the coaching staff would like to see at defensive line. So Baumgardner practiced at defensive line during the spring. We'll be listing him as a defensive lineman going forward.

Another former tight end, redshirt freshman Tanner Cowley is now listed as a wide receiver.

Defensive Changes:

Virginia's move from a 4-3 base to a 3-4 necessitated a few roster shifts among defensive linemen and linebackers. Bronco Mendenhall's 3-4 defense at BYU typically featured bigger defensive linemen than Mike London recruited for his 4-3 defense at UVA. And the 3-4 requires a bit more specialization at the linebacker spot between the ILBs and OLBs. To fit those demands, we've seen the following changes:

Mark Hall, who has outgrown his outside linebacker position, has moved to defensive end. Hall has played in 29 games during his career and racked up 27 tackles.

Rising sophomore Chris Peace is still listed at defensive end, but he wasn't mentioned as practicing there during the spring. We're currently projecting them to be outside an outside linebacker in the new system. Peace made 12 tackles last season

Rising sophomore Corey Jones, who was originally recruited as an OLB/DE tweener, is now practicing solely at OLB and was named a first-teamer at the end of spring ball. Jones didn't see the field in 2015 after redshirting in 2014.

Rising senior Zach Bradshaw and rising sophomore CJ Stalker now both project to play at ILB after playing last season at OLB. Bradshaw has collected 70 tackles in 3 seasons as a Cavalier. Stalker played in seven games as a true freshman and collected two tackles.

In addition to shifts in the front seven, we've also seen reports of position changes in the secondary.

Juan Thornhill, who played sparingly as a freshman safety, reportedly started practicing at cornerback during the spring. We've listed him as a cornerback for the time being.

And Kirk Garner, who heretofore has played at cornerback, has been said to have shifted over to safety. We've listed him there for the time being.

Scholarship Breakdown:

Virginia entered the spring with 84 scholarship players. With the additions of Cohen and Benkert and the subtractions of Smith, Polk, Johns, Harbison, and Carter the Wahoos are at 81 scholarship players. Virginia is still waiting on final word from potential Arizona State lineman transfer Jack Powers. His possible addition would put the scholarship count at 82. If Virginia remains under the 85 scholarship player limit, I wouldn't be shocked to see punter Nicholas Conte put on scholarship for his senior season.

Here's Virginia's scholarship situation broken out by position and year. Stay tuned to Streaking the Lawn for more roster coverage as we roll into the summer.

3

CB Tim Harris

CB Wilfred Wahee

SS Kelvin Rainey

2

S Kirk Garner

S Quin Blanding

3

CB Darious Latimore

CB Myles Robinson

CB Juan Thornhill

2

CB Kareem Gibson

S Christopher Sharp

10

5

Nick Grant

Deedrick Daniels

Chris Moore

Bryce Hall

Jordan Mack

3

DT Andre Miles-Redmond

DT Donta Wilkins

DE Mark Hall

1

DE Andrew Brown

0

4

DT James Trucilla

DE Eli Hanback

DE Naji Abdullah

DE Steven Wright

8

4

Christian Baumgardner

Osiris Crutchfield

Christian Brooks

Trysten Hill

1

ILB Zach Bradshaw

2

ILB Micah Kiser

OLB Malcolm Cook

4

OLB Chris Peace

OLB Eric Gallon

ILB C.J. Stalker

OLB Cory Jones

3

ILB Jahvonni Simmons

ILB Dominic Sheppard

OLB Gladimir Paul

10

4

Landan Word

Matt Terrell

Robert Snyder

Juwan Moye

2

Matt Johns

Connor Brewer

1

Kurt Benkert

0

0

3

2

Sonny Abramson

Devante Cross

3

RB Taquan Mizzell

RB Albert Reid

FB Connor Wingo-Reeves

1

RB Daniel Hamm

2

RB Jordan Ellis

Olamide Zaccheaus

0

6

0

1

Keeon Johnson

2
Andre Levrone

Doni Dowling

2

David Eldridge

2

Warren Craft

Tanner Cowley

6 

4

Joseph Reed

Cole Blackman

Hasise Dubois

Aidan Howard

0

1

Brendan Marshall 

2

Evan Butts

Richard Burney

0

3

0

4

C Jackson Matteo

G Sean Karl

T Eric Smith

T Michael Mooney

4

C Eric Tetlow

T Sadiq Olanrewaju

G Jack McDonald

T Jack English

3

G Steven Moss

T Jake Fieler

G Jared Cohen

2

G Ryan Bischoff

C RJ Proctor

13

2

Ben Knutson

Dillon Reinkensmeyer

1

K Dylan Sims

1