Good Ole Podcast: A Virginia Athletics Podcast · 247Sports, Virginia, Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Cavaliers Football, Virginia Cavaliers Basketball, College Basketball, College Football

Episode 133: Virginia football kicks off spring ball, the storylines to watch

·43 min·2 clips
Jacob Holmes had 8.5 sacks at Fresno State; Virginia’s interior line had 5.5 combined.
Good Ole Podcast opens with spring football back in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers are set to begin practice on Monday. The hosts frame that as the first real checkpoint after a busy offseason. Virginia has added 19 transfers. The roster rebuilding has been especially heavy along the offensive and defensive lines. That makes spring feel more like a reset than a light tune-up. Two new quarterbacks are now on campus. The former quarterback is now at UNLV. Greg Madia joins the show for the conversation. The discussion quickly turns to what changed and why it matters. The defensive line gets the most attention. The hosts keep circling back to the interior. Jacob Holmes is the player who draws the sharpest focus. He arrives from Fresno State with real production behind him. Over the last two seasons, Holmes recorded eight and a half sacks. Virginia's interior defensive linemen combined for five and a half sacks in that same span. That comparison sets up the whole segment. The point is not only that Holmes can rush the passer, but that Virginia needs that kind of interior threat. The show works through how he might fit. There is a clear sense that he could change what the defense gets from the middle. He could also help create more room for the edge defenders around him. That is part of why he feels important even if he has not gotten the loudest attention. The hosts note that several other transfers have gotten more fanfare. Fisher Kamak, Hunter Osborne, Junior Carter, Jason Hammond, Anthony Britton, McKade Buchanan, and Terrell Jones all come up in that context. Even so, Holmes keeps pulling the conversation back. He is presented as an intriguing piece rather than a headline name. The segment stays grounded in personnel and fit. It does not try to oversell certainty while spring still has to answer the real questions. Near the end, the show shifts from practice preview to the broader coverage calendar. Recruiting visits are about to pick up again. The hosts point listeners to ongoing spring and recruiting coverage. They also mention that five-star offensive lineman Darius Gray already has an April official visit locked in.

As heard by us

A tight spring-practice preview that puts Virginia's roster overhaul and Jacob Holmes' pass-rush upside in focus.

Virginia's spring practice opener sets the frame here, but the interest is in how much of the roster is being reworked, especially across the lines and in the quarterback room.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Spring practice starts Monday, and Virginia's offseason overhaul is the story.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Listen to the show on