Virginia gets QB commitment from Florida high school passer Colandrea

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia has landed a quarterback commitment for the recruiting class of 2023 in Florida dual-threat prospect Anthony Colandrea.

A 3-star, rated a composite No. 72 QB prospect in the country and No. 175 overall prospect in the state of Florida by 247Sports, Colandrea is a 6-foot, 175-pound standout from Lakewood High in St. Petersburg. He announced his commitment to UVA via his Twitter account on Friday.

Colandrea had 19 total offers, having decommitted from Middle Tennessee and choosing Virginia over Kentucky, Hawaii, Bowling Green, Troy, Buffalo, Furman, Richmond, Utah State and Western Kentucky.

A bit undersized in some analysts’ views, Colandrea has patterned some of his game after Kyler Murray, the former Heisman winner from Oklahoma and now a star with the Arizona Cardinals. Colandrea has been on college radar for a few years now because of his passing skill.

Childhood dream. #Gohoos pic.twitter.com/IfHJutY5kH

— Anthony Colandrea (@acolandrea10) July 8, 2022

Last season as a junior, he passed for 3,252 yards and 27 touchdowns, completing 63 percent  of his attempts, while being intercepted 10 times. Sixty of those passes were to his tight end, Amari Niblack, who signed with Alabama.

Leading Lakewood to a 10-3 record and the third round of the state 3A playoffs, he shined against some of the state’s top teams. Against Cardinal Gibbons (4A state champs), he threw for 285 yards, and passed for 223 yards vs. Chaminade-Madona (3A champions).

Virginia offered him June 13 after he visited Charlottesville.