COMMITMENT: Three star in-state DL Rodney Lora commits to Virginia

Just hours after the Virginia Cavaliers got their sixth commit of the 2023 class, the seventh rolled right along as defensive lineman Rodney Lora joins the Wahoos from Woodberry Forest High School. The Virginia native is ranked as the 78th defensive line recruit in the country by the 247Sports Composite ranking and 17th in the Commonwealth.

Lora chose UVA over other programs including Michigan, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Rutgers, Indiana, Boston College, and West Virginia. He visited Charlottesville over a week ago back on June 13th and was clearly blown away as he picked the Wahoos even after Michigan and UNC visits in the last week.

Lora hasn’t had the most conventional high school football career. In fact, he noted that in his commitment tweet mentioning how he played through pandemic in his sophomore season and then missed six games due to injury this last fall. Nevertheless, his talent was enough to prove his worth as he joins a rapidly growing 2023 recruiting class for new head coach Tony Elliott.

The 6’4” 270 pound rising senior is now tied with wide receiver Amare Thomas as Virginia’s highest rated commit of the 2023 class. He now joins fellow Virginia native Miles Green on the prospective 2023 defensive line which could add another commit soon. Specifically, Lora’s high school teammate Armel Mukam is a three star edge rusher who has an offer from UVA. Mukam is clearly a close friend of Lora’s as the new Wahoo noted in his twitter statement how Mukam told him “to gamble on myself,” which paid out in today’s commitment.

Even with only seven commits so far, UVA’s 2023 group now ranks 59th nationally. Along with Lora, Greene, and Thomas, the class consists of cornerback Jarvis Lee, offensive lineman Cole Surber, running back Donte Hawthorne, and today’s first commit, tight end Tekai Kirby.