QB Kurt Benkert Transferring To UVA

By: Chris Horne |

East Carolina University quarterback Kurt Benkert announced on Sunday that he is transferring to the University of Virginia.

Benkert, who graduates from ECU this spring, will be eligible to play for the Cavaliers in the 2016 season and will have two years of eligibility remaining. He’ll be the sixth scholarship quarterback on Virginia’s 2016 roster, joining seniors Connor Brewer and Matt Johns, red-shirt freshman Nick Johns, and true freshmen Sonny Abramson and Devante Cross. New UVA head coach Bronco Mendenhall has not yet settled on a starting quarterback following spring practice, with Brewer and Johns both seeing action with the first team.

The 6’3″, 225-pound Benkert played in only three games in three seasons with the Pirates. He completed eight-of-10 passes for 58 yards and one interception in a reserve role in 2014, his red-shirt freshman campaign. He had five carries for 23 yards and two touchdowns as well that season.

Then ECU head coach Ruffin McNeill, who is now on Mendenhall’s staff at Virginia, named Benkert East Carolina’s starting quarterback in August of 2015. Days later, it was announced that Benkert would miss the 2015 season with a right knee injury.

When healthy, Benkert boasts some impressive physical skills. Per ECU’s official site, he runs a 4.72-second 40 and a 4.10-second shuttle, possesses a 31-inch vertical leap, and is a player “whose arm strength perhaps already ranks among the best in the history of the Pirate program.”

Benkert arrived at East Carolina in January of 2013 out of Island Coast High School (Cape Coral, FL), where he threw for 2,261 yards with 20 touchdowns and four interceptions his senior year. He also rushed for 300 yards on 80 carries, leading Island Coast to an 8-3 overall record in 2012.

Virginia has now added two transfers to the program this offseason, with Benkert joining former North Carolina offensive lineman Jared Cohen. UVA officially welcomed Cohen to the program on March 31.