Virginia Coasts Past Chanticleers in 48-7 Season-Opening Victory

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Virginia’s football team opened the season in commanding fashion Saturday, rolling to a 48-7 victory over Coastal Carolina before an appreciative crowd at Scott Stadium.

On a picturesque late-summer evening, the Cavaliers supplied a wide variety of highlights. Chandler Morris passed for two touchdowns, James Jackson and Kevon Gray each recovered a fumble, Caleb Hardy blocked a punt, Ethan Minter intercepted a pass, Cam Ross returned a kickoff 100 yards for a TD, Trell Harris had a spectacular one-handed 48-yard reception, Will Bettridge kicked two field goals, and Daniel Sparks averaged 64.7 yards on eight punts.

Virginia totaled 454 yards on offense and held Coastal to 254 yards. The Chanticleers (0-1) rushed for only 91 yards.

“I thought we played complementary football,” head coach Tony Elliott said after the first of the Wahoos’ seven games at Scott Stadium this fall.

This is Elliott’s fourth season at UVA, where his roster includes 54 newcomers. One of the highlights of Elliott’s third season was Virginia’s 43-24 win over Coastal in Conway, S.C. Until Saturday, that was the most points the Cavaliers had scored in a game under Elliott, but they surpassed that total early in the fourth quarter.

Bettridge’s 32-yard field goal made it 45-7 with 11:13 to play, and he connected from 41 yards to close the scoring at the 7:03 mark.

Virginia’s offense sputtered for much of the first quarter. Once the Cavaliers settled into a rhythm, however, they moved the ball almost at will. They led 28-0 after a first half in which Morris passed for 239 yards, and they pushed their lead to 35 points before the Chanticleers finally scored later in the third quarter.

Moments after Coastal’s only touchdown, Ross became the first Cavalier since 2019 to return a kickoff for a touchdown. A graduate transfer from JMU, Ross also impressed as a wide receiver, catching seven passes for 124 yards and one TD.

An injury to Morris early in the third quarter marred the Cavaliers’ win. He took a hit to his non-throwing shoulder at the end of a 28-yard run to the Coastal 2 and had to leave the game. A graduate transfer from North Texas, Morris didn’t return, and redshirt freshman Daniel Kaelin took over at quarterback.

Elliott said it appeared that Morris had hurt his AC joint. Morris finished 19-for-27 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns, and he wasn’t intercepted. He also rushed for 50 yards.

“We’ll get it re-evaluated in the morning,” Elliott said of Morris’ injury, “but we just wanted to be very cautious there.”

While he was lying on the ground, Morris acknowledged that he should have slid to avoid getting hit, Elliott said, “but that’s the competitor that he is. He also said, ‘Coach, I saw the end zone. I wanted to score.’ So that’s the kind of player that he is, but we’re encouraged and very hopeful for next week.”

The Hoos’ defense dominated for most of the game. Landon Danley, starting at linebacker in place of the injured Kam Robinson, led Virginia with seven tackles, and end Fisher Camac, a transfer from UNLV, had five stops.

Four tailbacks had at least seven carries apiece for Virginia, and they combined for 123 yards rushing. J’Mari Taylor, a transfer from North Carolina Central, rushed for two touchdowns, and Harrison Waylee, a transfer from Wyoming, ran for one score.

Wideout Jahmal Edrine, a transfer from Purdue, scored Virginia’s other touchdown on a 2-yard pass from Morris late in the second quarter.

UP NEXT: The Cavaliers (1-1) head to Raleigh, N.C., where they’ll meet NC State (1-0) next Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium. The noon game, which won’t count in the ACC standings, will air on ESPN2.

The Wolfpack opened the season Thursday night with a 24-17 win over East Carolina in Raleigh.

UVA has dropped three in a row to NC State, which leads the series 37-22-1. In the most recent meeting between these teams, the Wolfpack won 24-21 at Scott Stadium in 2023.

Virginia Team Notes 

• With the win, Virginia improved to 2-0 all-time against Coastal Carolina. The first meeting was played in Conway, S.C., in 2024, while Saturday marked the teams’ first matchup at Scott Stadium.
• UVA improved to 87-40-9 (.673) all-time in season openers.
• The Cavaliers improved to 3-1 in both season openers and home openers under head coach Tony Elliott. Elliott is also 3-0 when opening the season at Scott Stadium.
• Virginia shut out Coastal Carolina in the first half, which marked the first time UVA held an opponent scoreless before halftime since Oct. 16, 2021 (vs. Duke).
• Virginia’s 41-point margin of victory is its largest in a game since defeating Duke 48-0 on Oct. 16, 2021.
• The Cavaliers’ 48 points are the most in a game under Elliott, surpassing UVA’s previous best of 43 points in last year’s win at Coastal Carolina. It’s also the most points in a game since 2021 (49 at No. 25 BYU, Oct. 30).
• UVA’s 21 points in the second quarter tied for eighth most all-time.
• The Cavaliers scored the first five touchdowns of the game, their longest stretch without surrendering a touchdown since Oct. 16, 2021, against Duke (48-0).
• Coastal Carolina was 1-for-14 on third down in the contest.

Virginia Individual Player Notes

• Chandler Morris started in his fourth consecutive season opener (2 at TCU, 1 at North Texas, 1 at UVA).
• Morris entered Saturday’s contest as one of 15 FBS quarterbacks expected to open the season as his team’s starting QB for the fourth consecutive year.
• Morris threw for 264 yards and two touchdowns on 17-of-24 passing. It marked the 14th time in his career he’s thrown for more that 250 yards in a game.
• In his Cavalier debut, Cam Ross accounted for 224 all-purpose yards (124 receiving, 100 KOR), which included a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
• Ross’ kickoff return TD matched that of the longest in school history and is the first kickoff return for a touchdown by a Cavalier since Joe Reed did so against Duke in 2019. The 100-yard return is one of five in program history with the last by Reed against William & Mary in 2019.
• Ross collected his fourth 100-yard receiving performance of his career. His four career 100-yard receiving performances lead all players on UVA’s 2025 roster.
• J’Mari Taylor rushed for a pair of touchdowns in the contest, his 24th and 25th running scores of his career. Dating back to his time at NC Central, he has now rushed for a touchdown in 12-straight games. He now has six multi-rushing-touchdown games in his career.
• Taylor is the first UVA running back to record multiple rushing TDs in a game since Mike Hollins had two against Miami on Oct. 28, 2023.
• Trell Harris hauled in a career-long 48-yard reception with a one-handed grab late in the second quarter that setup the Hoos’ third TD of the period.
• Caleb Hardy blocked a punt in the second quarter; it marked the first time UVA has blocked a punt since 2019 (Noah Taylor, at Pitt).
• With 12 points, placekicker Will Bettridge (2-3 FG, 6-6 PAT) moved to No. 11 on UVA’s all-time scoring list. He now has 208 points in 32 career games.
• Linebacker James Jackson nabbed his first career fumble recovery while CCU was in the red zone in the first quarter.
• Drake Metcalf started at right guard for UVA, his first start since the 2023 season while playing at UCF. Metcalf missed the entire 2024 season due to an Achilles injury.
• Harrison Waylee’s 1-yard plunge to put UVA up 14-0 early in the second quarter was his 17th of his career and first as a Cavalier.
• Jahmal Edrine hauled in his first TD reception since Nov. 11, 2024 (vs. Northwestern), when he was at Purdue. The TD reception was also the ninth of his career.
• Wide receiver Eli Wood and linebacker Landon Danley made their first career starts. Danley led all UVA tacklers with seven.

Offensive Starters: QB #4 Chandler Morris, RB #3 J’Mari Taylor, WR #7 Jahmal Edrine, WR #6 Cam Ross, WR #82 Eli Wood, TE #0 Sage Ennis, LT #52 McKale Boley, LG #77 Noah Josey, C #76 Brady Wilson, RG #60 Drake Metcalf, RT #50 Wallace Unamba. 

Defensive Starters: DE #14 Fisher Camac, NT #91 Jahmeer Carter, DT #91 Jason Hammond, DE #17 Mitchell Melton, LB #1 James Jackson, LB #32 Landon Danley, CB #9 Jordan Robinson, CB #19 Emmanuel Karnley, NB #10 Ja’Son Prevard, S #30 Ethan Minter, S #27 Devin Neal. 

Game Captains: #41 Will Bettridge, #77 Noah Josey, #82 Eli Wood, #90 Jahmeer Carter