COMMITMENT! Virginia adds athletic quarterback Davis Lane

June is typically a busy month for the Virginia Cavaliers when it comes to football recruiting. And with June 1st marking the start of the first in-person visit since before the pandemic, June 2021 ought to be doubly so.

The month started on the right foot in Charlottesville with a commitment from in-state quarterback Davis Lane.

Lane is a 6-foot-2, 195-pound prospect out of Liberty Christian Academy in Lynchburg. Rivals and 247 Sports both rate him as a three-star recruit. Lane chose UVA over offers from Army, Navy, Old Dominion, and Utah State, as well as several Ivy League schools. He wasted no time making his college choice, after UVA offered just four days prior to the commitment.

Off the gridiron, Lane excels as a track athlete. At the 2021 VHSL Indoor championships in March, Lane recorded a 55-meter dash time of 6.41 seconds—the fifteenth fastest time set by any high school athlete during the 2021 indoor season.

That track speed shows in spades on the football field. Lane can turn a defender’s pursuit angle on its head in an instant and pulls away in the open field. He throws well off-platform and on the move, but there’s an exaggerated drawback in his windup that will need to be tweaked and his accuracy needs improvement. A little more bulk on his frame should make him the model of a Thorterback.

While Lane’s addition is good news on its own for UVA, the big question is how it affects Virginia’s standing with Lane’s teammate at Liberty Christian: five-star offensive tackle Zach Rice. Rice had been clamoring on Twitter for teams to offer Lane and Lane’s announcement came in between Rice’s visits to UNC-Chapel Hill and an Ohio state university. UVA will host Rice for an official visit the weekend of June 11-13. Hopefully QB1 will give Virginia the inside edge to land the highest-rated recruit of the Mendenhall era.