CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Virginia football added 54 new players this offseason, but it’s a group of veterans who started their careers under the previous coaching staff that Tony Elliott hopes will bring a unique level of hunger and urgency to the 2025 season.
Five players who played for former coach Bronco Mendenhall remain on the UVA roster.
Safety Antonio Clary, defensive tackle Jahmeer Carter, linebacker James Jackson and offensive linemen Noah Josey and Jack Witmer.
All have their UVA degrees. None have played in a bowl game.
“These guys, Jahmeer and Noah in particular, have endured a lot,” Elliott said during the ACC’s annual football media days on Tuesday. “They want to win. They want to win badly. They had opportunities to leave, but they believed that what we’re building, we’re on the verge of doing something special.”
Carter and Josey joined Elliott, transfer quarterback Chandler Morris and transfer defensive end Mitchell Melton representing the Cavaliers at the conference’s annual kickoff event.
Carter joined the UVA program in 2020, making him the team’s second-longest tenured player behind safety Antonio Clary.
Clary played as a true freshman in 2019, the last year the Cavaliers took part in a bowl game, but he suffered a season-ending injury in the fifth game of the season.
Carter played in nine of 10 games in 2020 and has 55 career contests under his belt going into 2025. He’s made 35 consecutive starts.
“I think back to when Coach Elliott first got here,” Carter said Tuesday. “Like many of us, we had a decision to make if we wanted to stay or if we wanted to transfer elsewhere, but the thing about Coach Elliott is he cares about you outside of football. I think that’s very important because, in this day and age, it’s hard to find a coach that truly cares about their players like he does. For me it was a no-brainer that he’s a leader of men and he cares about your development.”
Josey joined UVA in 2021, after originally committing to Mendenhall, and became a mainstay in the offensive front’s starting lineup in 2023. He’s started 28 straight games for the Cavaliers.
Virginia is just 17-29 in his time in Charlottesville, with only 10 ACC wins to its credit.
Four of those came in Josey’s true freshman season.
Still, he believes that trend can change in 2025.
“The sky is the limit for this team,” Josey said. “I think with the talent we have and the resources we have, we can do whatever we put our minds to, and I believe championships are not out of the question for us.”
Josey figures to be the Cavaliers left guard this season, joining McKale Boley as one of just two returning starters on the offensive line.
Carter, at nose tackle, is one six returning starters on the defense.
The success of the 2025 Cavaliers will largely be driven by transfer additions – Elliott added 32 new players through the NCAA transfer portal – but program rocks like Carter and Josey aren’t being whisked aside as Elliott strives to revive the sagging program.
“We’ve done it the right way,” Elliott said. “Three years ago, on the front end, we made a decision to honor the commitments of the young men that were committed to the previous staff. We also decided to honor the commitments of the young men that were currently on the roster, to embrace them and work alongside them until graduation.”
Those commitments have been honored. Now, Elliott wants to see the veterans leave UVA as winners.
