Cavaliers' Veterans Speak with Strong Voices

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

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tony Elliott says he’s learned during his time in football—first as a player and, since 2006, as a coach—that the best teams are “led by the locker room.” That’s among the reasons Virginia’s third-year head coach is optimistic about his team’s prospects this fall.

UVA’s roster is well-stocked with upperclassmen who share Elliott’s values and embrace his philosophy. Three of those veterans joined Elliott at ACC Football Kickoff—quarterback Tony Muskett and defensive ends Chico Bennett Jr. and Kam Butler—at the annual media day for a league that now has 17 teams with the addition of Stanford, Cal and SMU.

“I think we all know that they’re outstanding young men as well as outstanding football players,” Elliott said, “and it’s just awesome on this stage for people to see what’s really taking place at the University of Virginia, the holistic development.”

Butler is heading into his seventh year of college; Bennett, his sixth; Muskett, his fifth.

Informed that he and Butler are the team’s ‘old men,’ Bennett smiled. “I wouldn’t say old. I would say seasoned.”

Such was the ease with which the UVA players handled questions Tuesday. Some of those queries were light-hearted, like the ones about their favorite holiday foods. Others were serious, such as when Bennett was asked about the legacies of Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry, the UVA football players slain in a November 2022 shooting on Grounds.

“We have to honor their memory the right way,” Bennett said.

Elliott said he was proud of the way players his represented their school and their football program in Charlotte.

“I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of their interviews,” he said, “but my sense is that the people that they’ve talked to can see the confidence that they have and the responsibility that they feel to lead. So it’s been fun to watch these guys really embrace their voice. That’s been something that I’ve been adamant about since day one. I understand that myself and the staff, we have to set the direction, but the players are really the carriers of the culture.”

Muskett and Bennett were among the Cavaliers’ representatives in Charlotte last summer, too, so they knew how to prepare for the marathon that awaited them Tuesday. Before their day was done, they would have appeared on ACC Network Live and SiriusXM, fielded questions at a press conference, sat for interviews with reporters, and been filmed and/or photographed by ESPN College GameDay, The CW, CBS and various ACC linear and digital platforms.

“Make sure to hydrate,” Bennett said. “It’s a long day. It’s a lot of talking. But the main thing is just make sure you hydrate and keep the same energy that you have in the morning, because when you get to the very end, you don’t want to look like you’re tired of everybody.”

Muskett said: “You don’t want to be all excited and amped up at first, and then when that last interview comes, you’re out of gas. So maintain your energy. Make sure to bring a water bottle around with you, stay hydrated and then also just enjoy it, enjoy the relationships and people you get to meet and just have a fun day.”

For Butler, it was a new experience, but his teammates had no doubt he’d handle it.

“Kam’s got a good knack for being in front of the camera,” Muskett said. “He’ll be a natural at it. I’m not really worried about Kam.”

The Cavaliers did not have the season they envisioned in 2023, when they finished 3-9, and neither did any of the three players.

“It was frustrating,” said Bennett, who could have been speaking for Butler and Muskett as well.

Butler suffered a season-ending injury in the first half of Virginia’s fourth game. Even so, his 3.5 sacks were by most by a Cavalier last year.

“He was getting ready to put together a big season,” Elliott said.

Being on the sideline, Butler said, reminded him “me how much I love playing football and being around football. I was missing practice.”

Coming back for another season “was a no-brainer,” said Butler, who began his college career at Miami University in Ohio. “That injury just left a really bad taste in my mouth. I was off to a pretty good season. I can’t wait to just get back to where I was before I got injured.”

Bennett hurt his knee in practice last August. After missing the season opener, he pushed through the pain and ended up playing in 11 games. But he never regained the form he showed in 2022, when he led the Cavaliers with seven sacks.

After transferring to UVA from Georgia Tech, Bennett suffered a torn ACL in the spring of 2021 and missed that season, so he’s faced more than his share of obstacles as a college football player.

Still, Bennett said, he’s better for the experience. “Not everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows. I think once you understand that, once you understand how to handle adversity, you’ll be able to take on anything.

“It’s life. Life is going to throw stuff at you, and It’s all about how you respond to it and whether or not you’re going to step up to the plate or you’re going to back down. But I can say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my college experience. I would do it again if I had to.”

Bennett smiled. “I don’t want to. But certainly I’m grateful for it.”

Muskett, who transferred from Monmouth to UVA in January 2023, hurt his non-throwing shoulder early in the fourth quarter of last year’s opener. He returned to play in five more games before a high-ankle sprain ended his season, after which he had surgery on his shoulder.

All three are healthy again, and they’re determined to help the Hoos finish with a winning record for the first time since 2019. Experienced players abound on both sides of the ball, as well as on special teams.

“Expectations are definitely high,” Muskett said.

Since their 2023 season finale, the Cavaliers have added 14 transfers: quarterback Gavin Frakes (New Mexico State); offensive linemen Drake Metcalf (Central Florida) and Ethan Sipe (Dartmouth); tight ends Sage Ennis (Clemson) and Tyler Neville (Harvard); wide receivers Chris Tyree (Notre Dame), Andre Greene Jr. (North Carolina) and Trell Harris (Kent State); linebacker Dorian Jones (Cincinnati); defensive backs Corey Thomas Jr. (Akron), Kendren Smith (Penn), Jam Jackson (Robert Morris) and Kempton Shine (Eastern Michigan); and long-snapper Payton Bunch (Coastal Carolina).

“I think we have a complete roster, a deep roster,” Muskett said.

The program also has a sparkling new home: the Molly and Robert Hardie Football Operations Center, which opened in early June. That marked the start of a new era for a program that had been based in the McCue Center since the early 1990s.

“The new facility has been huge for us in terms of fostering team camaraderie and unity,” Muskett told SiriusXM hosts Roddy Jones and Chris Childers.

The challenge now for the Cavaliers is to break through in tight games. Of UVA’s losses last season, five were by seven points or fewer. “Obviously, we’re tired of being close,” Bennett said. “Now it’s time [for] that next phase: just winning.”

Elliott applauded the effort his players showed last season. “They learned how to compete,” he said. “The next step is to learn how to win.”

When Muskett wasn’t available, true freshman Anthony Colandrea filled in capably at quarterback last season, and their battle for the starting job will resume when training camp starts next week.

Muskett and Colandrea are close friends, and “I love both of them,” Elliott said. “It’s their job to put together a body of work that earns them the right to go out there first.”

That challenge, Muskett said, is “awesome. I think in today’s day and age, people shy away from competition, but I think competition breeds greatness. I think it makes us both better.”

Rarely have college teams successfully alternated quarterbacks, and Muskett isn’t a fan of that approach. “I think it’s tough [to pull off],” he said. “I definitely think having one guy is beneficial.”

The Cavaliers’ defense is coming off a disappointing season, in part because injuries sidelined many of their top players. The defense recorded only 11 sacks last year and has something to prove this fall.

“We all agree, we’ve got to play with more edge,” Butler said, “because you put on the tape from the year before and we’re playing with edge, we’re causing turnovers, we’re getting sacks, we’re stopping people, we’re getting [tackles for loss]. This past season there was less of that, and the coaches say the one thing they’ve noticed on tape was we didn’t play with as much edge as we did the year prior. So we’re really honing in on just playing super, super, super hard and executing at a high level.”

UVA opens the season Aug. 31 against Richmond at Scott Stadium. That’s the first of six home games for the Hoos, who also host Maryland, Boston College, Louisville, North Carolina and SMU.

When he took the job at Virginia in December 2021, Elliott had no way of knowing what the future would hold for the program, and it’s been a trying process.

“I think that when you look over the last two-and-a-half years, and I say this very humbly, I don’t know if there’s a college football program that has been challenged more than the University of Virginia,” Elliott said. “I think that has helped us to define what our character is and lay that foundation that I believe is going to allow us to build for the future.

“Did I want it to happen necessarily the way that it’s happened? No. But I understand everything happens for a reason. We were chosen for what we’ve been through at UVA. I believe that’s allowed us to really lay the foundation the way it needed to be laid for the future.”

Now, Elliott said, “I want these guys to experience the fruit of their labor and go out and win some football games. They’ve been working extremely hard. They’ve had some adversity that they’ve had to overcome that they didn’t choose. They’ve persevered, they’ve chosen to stick with it. Let’s go win some football games and see if we can earn ourselves the right to be in the postseason.”

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