When receiver Devin Chandler decided to enter the transfer portal and leave Wisconsin, he eventually landed on Virginia as his new destination. He publicly announced that move via Twitter on Thursday morning of Dec. 2.
There was only one problem. Chandler made his UVA choice with Bronco Mendenhall at the helm. Only a few hours after his announcement Tweet, news broke that Mendenhall had resigned as had coach of the Cavaliers.
Eventually, of course, Virginia hired Tony Elliott and things worked out for Chandler to still join the Hoos. He’ll add depth to a Virginia receiver room already stacked with talent.
In 10 games at Wisconsin, Chandler (6’0″, 184) saw limited action and mostly recorded production as a returner on special teams. In total, he had 10 kick returns for 241 yards. In high school, however, he hauled in 128 catches for 2,391 yards and 33 touchdowns. He was the Tennessee state runner-up in the 110-meter hurdles in 2019.
It will be interesting to see Chandler’s progress at Virginia. While listed as a junior, he has three years of eligibility thanks to the pandemic year freeze that gave athletes an extra season.
Here’s a quick take Q&A with Chandler following a preseason practice.
When you decided to come here, it was with Coach Mendenhall and then everything kind of happens right at the end there. Any nerves as all of that is happening?
Chandler: A little bit of skepticism, like I wasn’t really too sure what to think or what was going on. I just knew I didn’t want to panic over the situation because I feel like that would make everything worse. Coach Hagans had called me and he told me to trust him and everything would fix itself. For as long as I’ve know Coach Hagans, he’s always been a man of his word so me and my family trusted him and I think we made the right choice. We definitely did.
Once everything settled and it’s Coach Elliott from Clemson, that’s a big-time offense obviously. Any excitement that followed the nerves?
Chandler: Definitely, it was huge excitement because he’s from Clemson and everything but I personally have never had an African American head coach as my coach and I feel like that’s a huge representation for me. I really look up to Coach Elliott and respect him for the fact of holding that role. That was really big to me.
He was hands on in this practice with receivers. Today he was really in there with you guys.
Chandler: He’s like that every day. He knows the talent that’s in our position group. He wants to maximize that as much as he can.
You’re also working with returners, which I know you did at Wisconsin. What do you like about the returner role?
Chandler: If you want to be a returner, you’ve got to be fearless. For as long as I can remember, like even my mom tells me stories from when I was little doing crazy stuff no other kids would do. I know returning is something I love – 11 dudes flying at you at once, everybody knows who the ball is going to, but you have to make them all miss and score. I love that about the game. It gives me a lot of adrenaline.
Being a receiver coming into this room with those guys as productive as they were last year, what are you picking up from them and how do you feel like you’re progressing?
Chandler: That’s another reason why I wanted to come here because I knew I would take a lot from a lot of these receivers. This receiver group has a lot of talent. I knew coming here I’d be able to pick up a lot of things, especially from the older guys, Tay [Dontayvion Wicks], KT [Keytaon Thompson], and Billy [Kemp IV] and all those guys. I knew coming here I would be able to develop as a receiver on the field and football IQ wise from them and Coach Hagans.
