The turnaround time was rapid.

“It’s probably the most NFL-like thing I’ve ever been through as a college coach,” fifth-year Virginia football coach Bronco Mendenhall told reporters during a Zoom press conference on Monday morning.

A week ago, D’Angelo Amos and Adeeb Atariwa were members of the James Madison football program and preparing for the start of training camp with the Dukes.

By Sunday evening, they had been added to the roster at Virginia.

“Our personnel department is relentless in watching and seeing who’s available,” Mendenhall said. “But that had already been established in relation to what we absolutely had to have and what the specifications were. So when someone came into the [transfer] portal or a league had canceled, if someone came into the portal and happened to match those specifications, it allowed us to operate so quickly.”

Mendenhall said Virginia has resources available that have improved its recruiting and player personnel efforts since his arrival in Charlottesville after an 11-year run in the same job at BYU.

It’s why the Cavaliers were able to secure commitments from and sign safety/punt returner Amos, defensive tackle Atariwa and former Towson running back Shane Simpson just days after the ex-FCS and Colonial Athletic Association standouts had announced they were leaving the schools where they started their careers.

Amos entered the transfer portal this past Wednesday, and he told the Daily-News Record on Thursday that Virginia was one of the first schools to reach out to him. Atariwa decided to depart JMU on Friday.

It took Amos four days and Atariwa two days to officially join the Cavaliers.

Simpson announced on Twitter on July 30, he’d be leaving the Towson program. Four days later, he officially joined Mendenhall’s squad.

All three – Amos, Atariwa and Simpson – are immediately eligible.

“I’d seen our team through the eight-hour period, 20-hour period and now starting camp,” Mendenhall said, “and it’s just become clear where players are in terms of their health, their well-being and how they’ve managed the virus and where their recoveries are from any injuries.

“That gave me a clearer perspective on the team. It gave me clearer perspective on depth and what positions might be at risk, and what we need to do about it. And that just happened to coincide with leagues dropping and players wanting an opportunity to play.”

JMU opted on Friday to scrap its plans to play this fall as an FCS independent, and the CAA had decided last month that it wouldn’t hold competition this fall. JMU and CAA will explore playing in the spring, but for Amos and Atariwa, who have NFL aspirations, they wanted to join a program with a greater chance of playing now.

As of Monday, neither the Atlantic Coast Conference nor Virginia had decided against playing this fall.

The Cavaliers opened their training camp on Monday.

“All amazing young men, academically motivated and really good players with unique stories that also fit a need that I’ve seen now within our program,” Mendenhall said of Amos, Atariwa and Simpson. “And should we play, depth is going to be at a premium – having as deep of a roster as you can have with as good of players as you can – with some of the unknowns that might manifest. It seemed to be a win for everyone involved and that was the motive behind it.”

Amos and Simpson were FCS All-Americans.

Simpson rushed for 1,925 yards and 13 touchdowns during his time with the Tigers. Amos tallied 135 career tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, two interceptions, 11 pass breakups, four blocked kicks, three fumble recoveries and one forced fumble for JMU. Both were special teams stars, too. Simpson had two kick-return touchdowns at Towson and Amos returned five punts for scores with the Dukes.

Atariwa had appeared in 39 games and started 23 contests during his time in Harrisonburg.