CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Jacquon Gibson was at the airport, leaving a visit at another university, when Virginia assistant football coach Adam Mims called the UMass transfer wide receiver.

“He was like, ‘Yo, I need to get you down here,’” Gibson said this week.

UVA was close enough to Gibson’s Fayetteville, N.C. hometown that he was open to the idea. He didn’t have any personal connections with Virginia or the Cavaliers’ staff, but his high school coach – DeShawn Baker – played at South Carolina State while current UVA coach Tony Elliott was on staff there.

“Once I knew they was good, it was family at that point,” Gibson said. “I committed the first day I came here.”

Elliott praised Baker – who he still calls “Shake and Bake” – as an excellent running back “with soft hands out of the backfield,” and a “great, great leader.” He said he had the talent to play at a bigger college.

He said the two have stayed in touch and that he’s impressed with the work Baker has done at Hough High School, where Gibson spent his senior season. So, when Gibson asked his old high school coach about Elliott, the recommendation was a strong one.

“I just told him, Coach Elliott is a straight, straight shooter, man,” Baker told Cville Right Now. “You got to go in there and work your tail off. He going to give you an opportunity. As long as you go in there and work and do what you’re supposed to do and he can trust you, he’s gonna give you the keys to the car. And Jacquon’s one of them kids that, you’re going to be able to trust him. He going to always do the right thing.”

Still, Elliott said his staff did the work to recruit Gibson.

“That did help,” Elliott said. “I’m not going to take credit, because it wasn’t like I called Shake and Bake, and said, ‘Hey, Jacquon’s got to come here.’”

At Virginia, Gibson is one of two transfer wide receivers already having an impact for the No. 25 Cavaliers (2-0). A third, UCLA transfer Rico Flores Jr., has been battling a hamstring injury but may be available for Saturday night’s game against West Virginia (2-0) in Charlotte.

Gibson’s fellow MAC transfer Da’Shawn Martin, who played at Kent State before joining the Cavaliers, had a 27-yard scoring catch in the first quarter, Martin’s second touchdown of the season.

Gibson caught two touchdown passes in the first quarter of UVA’s 59-3 home win over Norfolk State on Saturday.

“You expected with his physical frame that he’d be able to be a very good run after the catch type of guy,” Elliott said. “He is improving down the field, being able to make plays on the ball down the field from what we’ve seen out in practice. He’s only gonna continue to get better. So, he’s definitely what we thought we were getting and still has some upside that he can tap into.”

The 5-foot-11, 196-pound Gibson spent four years at Massachusetts and played in 36 games with the Minutemen. He redshirted in 2023 after playing in four contests.

In all, he caught 81 passes for 856 yards. His lone touchdown came in 2024 on a 19-yard reception in a win over UConn.

He’s already doubled that touchdown production through two games at Virginia.

Saturday, he’ll play at Bank of America Stadium, a three-hour drive from where he grew up and just 20 minutes south of where he played his senior season of high school football for Baker.

“It’s kind of like a homecoming to me,” Gibson said. “A lot of family is going to be there. It’s going to be fun.”