UVA Football Hosting Cincinnati Cornerback Transfer Jordan Robinson

Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

As expected, Virginia football's early transfer portal activity in the spring window appears to be heavily concentrated on reinforcing the cornerback position. Cincinnati cornerback transfer Jordan Robinson is visiting UVA, according to a report by Greg Madia of the Daily Progress on Wednesday (April 16). Robinson played two seasons at Kentucky before spending the 2024 season at Cincinnati.

Former Cincinnati and Kentucky CB Jordan Robinson is visiting #UVa, sources told The Daily Progress.

Transfer portal tracker: https://t.co/tXSPL5bLIA pic.twitter.com/ByZQwepO5a

— Greg Madia (@GregMadia) April 17, 2025

A 6'4", 210-pound defensive back from Columbia, South Carolina, Robinson began his college football career playing for Livingstone College at the Division II level. At Livingstone, which is located in Salisbury, North Carolina, Robinson started all 10 games as a true freshman and recorded two interceptions, six pass breakups, and 26 tackles in the 2021 season.

Robinson then transferred to Kentucky, where he appeared in four games in 2022 and took a redshirt as he made the transition from DII to the SEC. The following season, Robinson played in 11 games and made his first start against Tennessee. Robinson recorded 13 total tackles, eight of them solo stops, and finished the year with two pass breakups and one tackle for loss.

Robinson then entered the transfer portal and committed to Cincinnati, where he played in 10 games this past season for the Bearcats and registered 18 total tackles, 11 solo stops, two tackles for loss, one pass defended, one forced fumble, and one fumble recovery.

As we wrote in our preview for the spring transfer portal window opening on Wednesday, cornerback is by far Virginia's most urgent position to address. The team's two starting cornerbacks last year were Kempton Shine and Jam Jackson. Shine exhausted his eligibility and Jackson came back for another year, but went down with a knee injury near the end of spring football. Tony Elliott said that they wouldn't know for another two weeks if Jackson's injury would require surgery.

"And then with Jam, a red zone play in a scrimmage situation, [he] came down wrong," Elliott said of Jackson's injury in the final week of spring practices. "We initially thought hyper extension. They did some scans. They did notice that there may be some some ligament damage, but they don't know what extent. So they're going to take another week, kind of let them rehab a little bit, and then reassess. So I'll know more probably in about a week and a half, two weeks on Jam." 

Virginia brought in just one cornerback in the winter transfer portal window, Morgan State's Ja'son Prevard. Dre Walker is the only other cornerback with significant experience on the roster and he was injured for extended stretches of the 2024 season as well, missing eight total games. Even before the injury to Jam Jackson, the Cavaliers were likely going to be in the market for at least two or three cornerbacks in the spring transfer portal. They could be after even more.

That evaluation has held true so far in the first couple of days of the spring window, as Virginia has hosted at least two cornerback transfer targets that we know of: Fresno State cornerback and former Stanford commit Julian Neal and now Jordan Robinson from Cincinnati.