The University of Virginia football program will have plenty of competition at the tailback position in 2021. Wayne Taulapapa, the primary starter each of the past two seasons, returns as the most experienced performer in UVA’s system. Former Harvard standout Devin Darrington arrives on Grounds this summer as a graduate transfer. Ronnie Walker Jr returns for his second year in the program after transferring in from Indiana, and Mike Hollins is back for what will after opting out in the 2020 campaign. In addition to those four, Virginia welcomed first-year Amaad Foston to the program this month; the Georgia native is one of six midyear enrollees for the Cavaliers.

Foston, who measures in at 6’0”, 210 pounds, received high praise from Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall during Mendenhall’s Early Signing Period press conference this past December.

Asked if Foston could be a “workhorse” type of player, Mendenhall answered: “We’re hopeful. So, to this point, I don’t think there’s been, and this is not, I’m not talking negatively about any of our existing running backs, Mike Hollins was probably the next most-touted, I would say, Amaad is, we’re hopeful to develop a featured running back, who’s capable on any play to score a touchdown, to break tackles, to just really energize a running game that complements a quarterback that can run. You saw some of that with Shane Simpson this year and the combination with Wayne [Taulapapa]. But there is another tier of dynamicism that can happen. Amaad to this point, that’s more of the direction we like of someone that you look at the numbers and the production and the high school career and you say ‘Holy smokes, that looks really good’. And we would love to do that every year to where you have, or every other year at least, where you have the right kind of development as a featured back and here’s the understudy and then there’s a guy learning under him and it just keeps rolling through to when we hand the ball off, it could be the same as throwing it downfield to Lavel [Davis Jr.] or someone else, or like Bryce Perkins carrying the ball and, you know, he could go the whole way. So this is more like, Amaad is more of that caliber, which is exciting for us. We’re thrilled and we hoped this becomes kind of the beginning of a direction we wanted to have happen. This just is probably the closest that we’ve had in terms of fulfilling it.”

A knee injury put the John Milledge Academy (Milledgeville, GA) standout on the sideline to start his senior season. Ultimately, the decision was made that he would not attempt to play in 2020. Foston produced eye-popping numbers previous season, which turned out to be his last on the high school level, when he rushed for 2,772 yards and 46 scores while leading JMA to an undefeated record and a Class AAA state championship title. He had 42 carries for 423 yards and eight scores in the championship game, a record-breaking performance in Georgia High School football. The 2019 output followed a sophomore campaign in which Foston rushed for 2,199 yards and 27 scores.

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