Terry Kirby was one of the premier football prospects to sign with Virginia during the George Welsh coaching era and now the Cavaliers have landed a commitment from his son, Tekai Kirby, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound tight end from St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Not surprisingly, UVa staff members who recruited the younger Kirby included Chris Slade, a prime UVa recruit who was a teammate of Terry Kirby’s at Tabb High School near Yorktown and at Virginia when the Cavaliers were No. 1 in the country in 1990.
Quarterback Shawn Moore from Martinsville was a Heisman Trophy finalist on that 1990 team and, like Kirby, had a son, Mike, who was a defensive lineman for the Cavaliers. Shawn Moore currently is an associate athletic director at UVa.
The Cavaliers received two more commitments over the past weekend, running back Noah Vaughn from Maryville, Tenn., and defensive end KeAndre Walker from Denver, N.C.
Earlier in the week, they had landed 6-foot-4, 270-pound defensive tackle Rodney Lora from Woodberry Forest, a prep school outside Charlottesville where former UVa lineman Jackson Matteo is the head coach. Lora had offers from seven ACC programs, including Virginia Tech.
- DJ Toliver, a 6-foot-5, 270-pound offensive lineman from Lord Botetourt, has offers from UVa, Virginia Tech, Louisville and Liberty for the Class of 2024. Toliver’s father, Elton, played at UVa.
MORE RECRUITING
Virginia and Virginia Tech are both in contention for Caleb Woodson, a 6-3, 200-pound safety from Battlefield High School in Northern Virginia. Wake Forest and Florida State are also under consideration for Woodson.
Arch Manning, a top quarterback prospect who has family ties to Virginia and had a stopover at UVa during the spring, has made an oral commitment to Texas as many had expected. Jay Woolfolk is the obvious successor to back-up Brennan Armstrong, who is in his fifth year at UVa.
The highest-ranked player among in-state quarterback prospects is Khristian Martin of Highland Springs High School. Martin is rated the No. 24 prospect in the state by rivals.com.
- Of the nation’s top 100 baseball recruits on Baseball Factory’s site, Virginia and Virginia Tech had a combined one player, right-handed pitcher Bradley Hodges from Fleming Island, Fla., who was 68th on the list and a Virginia commit.
STAFFING
Torian Gray, a highly regarded defensive back at Virginia Tech during his playing days, is prepping for his second season at South Carolina with Frank Beamer’s son, Shane. Gray also has been an assistant coach at Tech, Florida, Maine and Connecticut, as well as two stints with the Washington Redskins.
SCHEDULING MODEL
Virginia and Virginia Tech will continue to play annually as part of the 3-5-5 scheduling model that has been agreed upon by the ACC. UVa will also face Louisville and North Carolina annually, while the Hokies are slated to meet Pittsburgh and Wake Forest. (Under a 3-5-5 schedule, each team has three permanent opponents, then plays five other ACC teams that year and the other five the following year).
The ACC is eliminating Atlantic and Coastal Divisions and will require every football program to play every conference opponent at least once at home over a four-year period. Every ACC team will play a conference opponent at least once on the road over a four-year program.
TRANSFER PORTAL
In its ranking of the Division I men’s basketball programs with the most success in using the transfer portal, CBS has Miami, Illinois, Providence, Butler and Creighton at the top of its list. Of the six “losers” on the list, none were from the ACC.
In women’s basketball, Virginia will be without seven players who left the program and headed to the Transfer Portal. Virginia Tech had six players head into the Transfer Portal.