UVA wide receiver Terrell Jana selected No. 17 overall in CFL Draft

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Maybe Virginia football didn’t have any players taken in last week’s NFL Draft, but the Cavaliers didn’t come up empty in Monday night’s Canadian Football League Draft.

Former UVA and Woodberry Forest wide receiver Terrell Jana was chosen as the No. 17 overall pick of the 2021 CFL Draft. Jana was selected by the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Jana was the first wide receiver taken in the draft. He is the third Cavalier player plucked from Virginia by the CFL in the last three seasons as wide receiver Dejon Brissett was taken second overall in 2020, while long snapper Joe Spaziani, son of former UVA defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani, was taken in the sixth round in 2019 by Toronto.

Jana left Virginia ranking No. 12 on the Cavaliers career receptions list with 123, the bulk of those coming during UVA’s 2019 Coastal Division title run. He also finished No. 17 all-time at Virginia with 1,481 career receiver yards.

During that 2019 Orange Bowl season, Jana was a big part of the offense and became one of only five FBS receivers with 100+ targets, 70 percent catch rate and 10+ yards per target.

In 2020, he earned the Richmond Touchdown Club’s Humanitarian Award for his work with UVA’s Groundskeepers, formed after the racial and social justice movements of 2020.