Former Virginia QB RJ Harvey Coming Home to UCF as an RB

This month, the UCF Knights have made use of the transfer portal to upgrade their defensive secondary — twice — as well as their receiving corps with Power 5 commits.

They dipped back into the portal Wednesday to supplement their offensive backfield. Former Virginia Cavaliers quarterback RJ Harvey, an Edgewater High graduate, has decided to transfer to UCF and will line up at running back for the Knights, his father, Robert Harvey Sr., told the Orlando Sentinel. Harvey Sr. said RJ reported to campus Monday.

Virginia announced in March that Harvey, a three-star dual-threat recruit in the 2019 class, was leaving the program. He took a redshirt after seeing no action on game days as a freshman. The expectation was that Harvey would head to a junior college. Instead, he entered the transfer portal in July and engaged in discussions with UCF and Florida State.

The Knights, unlike the Seminoles, recruited Harvey while he was still in high school, and that relationship was a significant factor in Harvey’s decision to come home and play for Orlando’s hometown team, according to RJ’s father.

“Florida State never really recruited RJ before that, and he felt more comfortable with UCF and, of course, [running backs] Coach [Anthony] Tucker is still there,” Robert Sr. told the Sentinel. “Coach [Josh] Heupel and Coach Tucker both talked to him and he just felt more comfortable with them.”

Harvey was clocked at 4.41 seconds in the 40-yard dash before arriving at UVA. He accounted for 48 total touchdowns — 25 passing and 23 rushing — as a senior at Edgewater in 2018, when the Eagles reached the Class 7A state semifinal. He also rushed for more than 1,300 yards that season. Also worth mentioning: Harvey is a model student who had a 4.4 weighted GPA entering his junior year.

Harvey was listed at 5-foot-8, 190 pounds by Virginia, but his father said he’s at least an inch taller. In any case, once he is eligible, Harvey will slot into a backfield that boasts a couple of highly productive seniors in Otis Anderson and Greg McCrae, 2019 breakout RB Bentavious Thompson, redshirt sophomore Trillion Coles, redshirt freshman Damarius Good and true freshman Johnny Richardson.