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APRIL 2019 19 first-ever European quarterback to sign with a Power Five school. Luke Wentz, a 6-4 and 207-pound signal-caller from Troisdorf who was one of two recruits that signed in Febru- ary, and Kariem Al Soufi, a 6-4, 350-pound offensive lineman from Paderborn, both impressed the Virginia coaches when the group of European players they were on a bus tour with stopped on Grounds. "This summer, we had a group come from Europe of around 30 players," Mendenhall explained. "Out of that group, we offered five and three committed. One didn't qual- ify academically. "When Luke, our quarterback, was in camp we also experimented with him at wide receiver and defensive back. He runs really well and is a really good athlete. "When I saw the kids from Europe, they had just driven through the night to get to our camp and they competed ferociously and they worked really hard. They were so thankful and hungry for an opportunity. I was just very impressed not only with the group, but with Luke in particular. We're re- ally excited about him. He's kind of blazing a trail now for that position, and where is better for a great person and a strong student and a good player to be than UVA? I think that's really a strong fit." Mendenhall and his staff have experience with athletic quarterbacks, from former BYU great Taysom Hill to current UVA standout Bryce Perkins. "He is an athlete," Mendenhall said of Wentz. "His dad was an athlete. What Tay- som is in terms of 'Thorterback' [a term the UVA head coach uses to describe a durable, dual-threat player that can beat you with his arm or his legs, as dangerous as Thor, a hammer-wielding god from Norse mythol- ogy] and when you think of Bryce, he's more like the Flash Gordon kind. Luke is somewhere in between. "… He's fast and he's big, and he's a fierce competitor and a really hard worker. He has a live arm. It'll be fun to see where and how and what his production really looks like here at UVA and how long it takes, coming from Europe and playing that position." The other recruit to sign in February was longtime commit Jairus Satiu, a 6-3, 200-pound athlete from Utah that UVA plans to play on defense. Rivals rates him as the No. 9 prospect in Utah. "Jairus is a player that we were aware of when I was the coach at Brigham Young," Mendenhall said. "He was just young at that time. However, we paid attention to him then, and he spent last semester at Fork Union. "We really liked how he performed there, and he's been really working academically to ensure that he could meet UVA's admis- sion standards for our program. He'll be a linebacker for us. He's another really good player at a position of need and a really good fit." Elsewhere in the class, the Wahoos nabbed a pair of players in Michael Hollins and Nick Jackson who could see early play- ing time once they arrive on Grounds. Hollins, a 5-10, 214-pound three-star run- ning back from Baton Rouge (La.) Univer- sity Laboratory School, has already been mentioned by Mendenhall as someone who UVA could look to this summer and fall to replace departed fourth-year tailback Jordan Ellis. Rivals ranked him as a three-star pros- 2019 UVA FOOTBALL SIGNEES Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (High School/Previous School) Josh Ahern LB 6-3 215 Burke, Va. (Lake Braddock) Kariem Al Soufi OL 6-4 350 Paderborn, Germany (Friedrich-Spree Gesamtschule) Nathaniel Beal III WR 6-5 200 Houston (Strake Jesuit College Prep) Jowon Briggs DL 6-2 286 Cincinnati (Walnut Hills) Chayce Chalmers* DB 6-2 208 Gainesville, Va. (Stonewall Jackson) Antonio Clary* DB 6-0 200 Jacksonville, Fla. (Sandalwood) Fentrell Cypress II DB 6-0 173 Rock Hill, S.C. (Northwestern) Tenyeh Dixon DB 6-0 185 Washington, D.C. (Woodson) Dorien Goddard* WR 6-3 222 Greeneville, Tenn. (Greeneville) RJ Harvey QB 5-10 182 Orlando, Fla. (Edgewater) Mike Hollins RB 5-10 214 Baton Rouge, La. (University Lab) Ja'Quay Hubbard OL 6-6 330 Sharpsville, Pa. (Sharpsville) Nick Jackson LB 6-2 222 Atlanta (The Lovett School) Jonathan Leech OL 6-5 270 Hoschton, Ga. (Mill Creek) Seneca Milledge RB 5-6 170 Fort Myers, Fla. (Dunbar) D'Sean Perry LB 6-3 223 Miami (Gulliver Prep) Jairus Satiu LB 6-3 200 Lehi, Utah (Skyridge/Fork Union Military Academy) Ben Smiley III DL 6-4 280 Chesapeake, Va. (Indian River) Zachary Teter OL 6-5 290 Lakeland, Fla. (Lake Gibson) Luke Wentz QB 6-4 207 Troisdorf, Germany (Reismann-Gymnasium) Dontayvion Wicks WR 6-2 195 Plaquemine, La. (Plaquemine) Major Williams DB 6-0 176 Fort Myers, Fla. (Dunbar) Hunter Stewart LB 6-3 220 Alexandria, Va. (Gonzaga College High School) * Enrolled in January 2019 Ja'Quay Hubbard — a 6-6, 330-pound four-star offensive tackle from Sharpsville (Pa.) High School — injects talent at a position that was arguably UVA's biggest area of need. PHOTO COURTESY RIVALS.COM