UVA shopping for a CB, and Fresno’s Neal is visiting today

By Jerry Ratcliffe

The NCAA football portal opens up again today and Virginia is wasting no time taking advantage of the opportunity.

UVA will host former Fresno State cornerback Julian Neal today as Tony Elliott looks to beef up his secondary. Neal is a 6-foot-2, 200-pound corner, ranked the No. 4 cornerback in the 247Sports portal rankings and the No. 70 overall player in the portal.

Elliott told media following Virginia’s spring game last Saturday that he hoped to strengthen the Cavaliers’ secondary, and Neal would be a good place for UVA to start.

“We know what we’ve got to address and we’re going to attack it hard,” Elliott said. “We’re really trying to attack the back end of the secondary in the next portal window and if we can do that, we’re going to put together a roster that is much more competitive and deeper than what we’ve had since we’ve been here as a staff.”

Neal, who is coming off a visit to Syracuse, has been contacted by numerous schools, including Florida State, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Auburn, USC, Kentucky and Arkansas. He played at Fresno the past four seasons but appeared in a total of seven games in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, he played in 11 games, made nine tackles (seven solo), and two tackles for loss. As a fourth-year this past season, the San Francisco native started four games for Fresno, played in all 12 and posted 35 tackles (22 solo), five for loss, one sack, two interceptions and defended six passes.

Neal actually transferred to Stanford in December, but backed out of that commitment once Troy Taylor was fired as head coach and replaced by Frank Reich.

Cornerback, one of the premium positions in the portal, is a position of need for Virginia with starter Kempton Shine out of eligibility and another starter, Jam Jackson, suffering a knee injury near the end of spring practice. Elliott said scans may have detected ligament damage, but that won’t be determined until later this week.

“They’re going to take another week, kind of let them rehab a little bit and then reassess,” the coach said. “I’ll know more in about a week and a half, two weeks.”

Elliott is short on numbers at corner with junior Dre Walker returning. The Cavaliers brought in only one corner from the portal during the winter, Ja’son Prevard, who played at Morgan State last season.

Elliott said his staff could also be looking to add another offensive lineman and another running back during the current portal opening.