By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE — The UVa football team’s training-camp schedule has been revised. The Cavaliers originally were supposed to practice Friday morning, but they’ll now take the field that night.

Many of tight end Colter Phillips’ teammates and coaches will be in the D.C. area Friday morning for the funeral of his father. Bill Phillips was among those killed last week in a plane crash in Alaska.

“Right now, I think we got about two busloads that are going to go up there and show our respects and show how we feel about the family,” Virginia head coach Mike London said before practice Tuesday afternoon.

London said he hasn’t talked to Colter Phillips, but they’ve been trading voice-mail messages.

“Colter’s doing well,” London said. The family is “adjusting as well as you can in this particular circumstance. But he says he misses the team. He told his mom that guys were signing up to come up and visit with him and be around them, and it kind of lifted his mom’s heart.

“This is his family that’s away right now. So we’re going to go join the other family that’s up there … Our guys, we’re excited about going up there and being a supportive part of his family.”

Phillips, a redshirt sophomore from Darnestown, Md., has three brothers. The youngest, Willy, survived the plane crash that killed their father.

“I told the players today, ‘Take advantage of relationships with your family members,’ ” London said. “It’s one of those things that a lot of times you reflect on in your own personal lives.”

That the trip north forced him to change his team’s practice schedule is the least of London’s concerns.

“Football will be football when we get back,” he said. “We’re going to go take care of a family member now.”

Colter Phillips and his brothers Andrew and Paul, who also play college football, are expected to appear on the “First Take” show on ESPN2 around 11 a.m. Wednesday. Andrew attends Stanford, and Paul is at Indiana.

Jeff White

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