Each of Virginia’s last two offseasons were highlighted by the quarterback acquisitions that the Cavaliers made through the transfer portal.
This past winter, former Missouri starter Beau Pribula and ex-Pitt starter Eli Holstein signed with the Hoos. In the previous cycle, UVa inked former North Texas and TCU QB Chandler Morris, who became a team captain and threw for 3,000 yards and 16 touchdowns this past fall while helping the Cavaliers to their record-setting, 11-win campaign.
Behind the scenes, though, fifth-year UVa coach Tony Elliott and his assistants aren’t giving up on the goal of one day starting a quarterback who they recruited out of high school and developed.
“It’s more rare,” in the transfer-portal era of the sport, Hoos quarterbacks coach Taylor Lamb said. “But I think it’s possible.”
Said Elliott: “I believe it is. I think it just needs to be a point of emphasis in the way that you operate your program.”
College football has trended against that.
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Virginia head coach Tony Elliott watches from the sidelines
during the University of Virginia versus Stanford University
football game at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville on Saturday,
Sept. 20, 2025.
CAL CARY, THE DAILY PROGRESS
The last two national champions, Indiana and Ohio State, had transfer quarterbacks in Fernando Mendoza (California) and Will Howard (Kansas State), respectively, guide their teams to the crown.
All four semifinalists in the last CFP had transfer QBs behind center with Indiana’s Mendoza, Miami’s Carson Beck (Georgia), Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss (Ferris State) and Oregon’s Dante Moore (UCLA). Even the ACC title game this past December featured two transfer signal-callers in Morris and Duke’s Darian Mensah (Tulane), who has since transferred to Miami to replace Beck.
But, “we want to recruit the best high school kid each year that we possibly can to have him in our system,” UVa offensive coordinator Des Kitchings said, “and hopefully we get to a point where we don’t have to seek a transfer quarterback because we have that [starter] in our program.”
Lamb pointed to former Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson as the example of how it has happened successfully elsewhere in a Power Four program. Simpson, a recent first-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams, arrived at Alabama in 2022 and developed for three seasons behind former Tide starters Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe before finally taking the reins this past fall and playing a pivotal role in Alabama reaching the CFP.
The actions of Elliott, Kitchings and Lamb have matched their aspirations, too, even during spring practice in March and April when they needed to get newcomers Pribula — he’s the projected starter at this point — and Holstein familiar and up to speed with the offense in order to be ready come fall. First- and second-team reps were divided between Pribula, Holstein and redshirt freshman Cole Geer throughout the spring.
Kitchings and Lamb recruited Geer, a former star at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, as part of UVa’s 2025 high school signing class.
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Virginia quarterback Cole Geer (16) in warms up before the Gator
Bowl NCAA college football game in Jacksonville, Fla., Saturday,
Dec. 27, 2025.
FILE PHOTO
“It was awesome for me,” Geer said about all the practice work he earned in the spring, “because you’re not just going to learn from the film about how you’ll do in a game with the helmet strapped on.
“So, being able to get those reps and not think about what could go wrong, but to play free and let mistakes happen and then to go back in the film room with Beau, Eli and Coach Lamb and then work on fixing them, that was important.”
He said at the end of this past season, the coaching staff was transparent with him about how they would target quarterbacks with experience in the portal, and Geer said he completely understood why Elliott, Kitchings and Lamb felt like they needed to do so.
UVa, of course, benefited from Morris’ experience last fall, and to create similar stability on offense heading into 2026, a proven veteran would help foster that.
“At the end of the day, they’re trying to feed their families like any other coaches,” Geer said. “They’ve got to make the right decisions for this team to keep their jobs, and Chandler was a huge help. But shoot, they pump me up and they let me know, ‘I’m the guy of the future.’”
And the trio of Elliott, Kitchings and Lamb aren’t sacrificing or investing less in Geer just because Pribula and Holstein are on the roster now.
Kitchings said in the spring, there were plenty of 7-on-7 and team-period reps to go around, and opportunities for Pribula, Holstein and Geer to work with the first-team wide receivers and offensive line and the second-team units as well.
“Even though Cole has only been with us for almost a year, sometimes we forget that he’s a young kid,” Kitchings said, “because he’s been around and he’s got some charisma about him. He’s a hard worker and smart kid, but still has some room to grow and improve.”
In practice, UVa is trying to find all the ways to help him get better.
How the staff viewed Pribula’s spring reps differed, because Elliott and his assistants have to plan how to use Pribula come Aug. 29 when the season begins in Brazil against NC State.
“It’s an evaluation of [Pribula] and that’s no different than this time last year with Chandler,” Kitchings said. “We’re assessing what are his strengths with running the football because he’s come in with a reputation of being able to run it, but also what are his strengths and weaknesses, too, with being able to throw the football?”
The other part of the equation in a coaching staff’s quest to develop a quarterback from high school recruit to college starter is the personality and maturity of the signal-caller himself, and Geer understands the situation he’s in.
He’s always going to compete to the best of his ability against Pribula and Holstein until a starter is officially deemed and even afterward, but Geer also recognizes Pribula only has a season left to play and Holstein has two.
“The whole thing is that it’s a mindset,” Geer said. “And right now, I’m young. It’s my second year and this is the first time I’ve had a full year in college, so the biggest thing is to be patient, but stay ready for when my time comes.”
Geer said he learned that workmanlike approach at Deerfield Academy, where early in his high school days, he was the backup to Liam O’Brien. O’Brien was a few years ahead in school and went onto become the starting quarterback at Penn in the Ivy League.
“He taught me everything about playing quarterback in high school,” Geer said, and since getting to UVa, Geer noted, he spent last season trying to learn as much as he could from Morris and is doing the same now with Pribula, particularly, because Geer feels his style of play is very similar to Pribula’s style of play.
“We’re similar stature wise and athletically, where we can deliver all the throws,” Geer said, “but can do everything with our legs as well.
“And after practice, me and Beau have post-practice film sessions where we’ll go up to the quarterback room and watch together,” Geer said, “and he’s really the guy I go to. It’s similar to Chandler, when he was the older guy I’d go to. I don’t feel ashamed or embarrassed to ask any question I want.”
Geer considers those chances — before with Morris and now with Pribula — part of the development process.
Elliott agreed that players have to find their own ways to further themselves also while trying to climb the depth chart.
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Virginia quarterback Cole Geer looks downfield during a trick
play against Missouri during the first quarter of the Gator Bowl
NCAA college football game in Jacksonville, Fla., Saturday, Dec.
27, 2025.
FILE PHOTO
“The responsibility of development rests with the player,” Elliott said. “Right? And then you’re looking for two things. You’re looking for a source of knowledge, which typically is your position coach, and then you’re looking for an opportunity. So, I think if you if you have coaches that have the expertise and the [player] has the right perspective, the right mindset, and you structure your program to create the opportunities, I think you can develop guys.”
Geer said he has faith in the staff for a few reasons. First because even after he broke his hand during his senior year at Deerfield Academy and did not play much, they stuck with him and never strayed from him, and then, he felt like they valued his effort this past fall.
He was UVa’s No. 3 quarterback behind Morris and Daniel Kaelin, who has since departed back to Nebraska. Bjorn Jurgensen, another quarterback from UVa’s 2025 high school recruiting class, transferred to Hawaii after this past season.
But Geer appeared during the Cavaliers’ blowout win over William & Mary, and then Elliott, Kitchings and Lamb found a way to get him on the field in the Gator Bowl for a trick play.
“Personally, it showed that my work ethic was paying off and people were noticing it,” Geer said. “Coach Lamb told me he was going to get me into the game, and I was like, ‘I’m an 18-year old freshman, there’s no way I get into the game unless people start going down.’ But they did that and it was really an awesome way for me to get out there and feel the speed of the game a little bit.”
Geer’s only wish was that the trick play would’ve gone better.
Out of the huddle, Geer lined up as an H-Back next to Morris before motioning out wide and aligning behind a pair of wide receivers. Morris threw a backward pass to Geer and Geer looked like he was going to throw, but his blocking didn’t hold up and he needed to scramble back to the line of scrimmage to avoid being tackled for a loss.
UVa hasn’t developed a high school recruit into a starter and retained that quarterback throughout his career since Matt Johns, who was brought to Charlottesville by former coach Mike London and played for both London and ex-coach Bronco Mendenhall. It has been a decade since Johns played.
Of the starting quarterbacks since, Kurt Benkert transferred in from East Carolina and Bryce Perkins was a junior college transfer from Arizona Western Community College.
Brennan Armstrong was recruited by the Cavaliers out of Shelby High School in Ohio, but he transferred to NC State for his final season. Armstrong was the starter in Elliott’s first season at UVa in 2022.
Then the next two seasons were shared by Tony Muskett, a Monmouth transfer, and Anthony Colandrea, who left after the 2024 season for UNLV. Morris stepped in after that.
“100%,” Geer said about whether or not he thinks it’s possible for a quarterback like himself to be developed and eventually start and stick with the college he began his career with.
In addition to Geer, UVa has true freshman Ely Hamrick on the roster. Hamrick was the QB that the Hoos took in their 2026 high school recruiting class. Oscar Smith quarterback Lonnie Andrews III is committed as part of their 2027 group.
“Everybody has their own journey, everyone has their own reasons for things,” Geer said. “It’s about finding the right fit. I found my right fit at Virginia and I think it’s smart to remember when you come out of high school that you’re not getting drafted after your first year. So, you have four or five years.”
