Hoos Aiming to Build on Opener

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The University of Virginia football roster includes 34 players who already have earned bachelor’s degrees, as well as 19 others who are on track to graduate in December or May.

Experience clearly is not an issue for the Cavaliers this year. And that, center Brady Wilson said Tuesday, should help them successfully navigate the peaks and valleys of the season.

The team’s veterans know, said Wilson, a graduate transfer from UAB, that “no matter what happens—a win, a loss—it doesn’t matter. Our guys are very experienced, and no matter what happens, they’re able to have that mindset: OK, next game. And that’s what we’re in right now. It doesn’t matter what we did last game, we’re focusing on NC State now.”

Virginia opened the season, its fourth under head coach Tony Elliott, with a 48-7 rout of Coastal Carolina at Scott Stadium. Now comes the first of the Wahoos’ five road games. At noon Saturday, UVA meets NC State (1-0) at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C.

ESPN2 is televising the game, which will not count toward their ACC records.

In 2024, Virginia won four of its first five games but faded as the season went on, finishing 5-7. That was partly a result of the tough schedule the Hoos faced during the second half of the season, but they also could have dealt with success better.

“It’s very hard,” Elliott said Tuesday during his weekly press conference at the Hardie Center. “Probably the hardest part is handling success, and that was the message that I had with the team [after the Coastal game]. Obviously, they got off to a good start and got the result that they wanted. Now they got to make sure that they flush it and start back over and reinvest in the process.

“And this is a different [UVA] team. So the things that I learned [last year] were more relative to that team. This team is going to have to kind of figure out their identity. But that was a message to the group, that we got the result that we wanted. Now let’s recommit to the process, go back to work. And I told them, ‘Congratulations. You get to do it all over again.’ That’s the real challenge.”

Asked if it’s difficult for a team to turn its attention to the next game after a big win, safety Christian Charles said, “It could be difficult. But I don’t see it being difficult for our team at all. I feel like Coach Elliott has talked about this a lot, and I’m happy that he did, because it’s very important. We went 1-0 for that week, but now after having Saturday night and Sunday to kind of digest it, then Monday morning, the moment you come in, it’s back to just the grind to become 1-0 again this week.”

Charles is a graduate transfer from Tennessee. Defensive end Daniel Rickert came to UVA this spring after graduating from Tennessee Tech.

The Cavaliers enjoyed the one-sided win over Coastal, Rickert said, but “that’s what we expected to do week one, and we did it, and now it’s like, ‘Let’s move on and do it again this week.’ ”

GOOD TO GO: UVA quarterback Chandler Morris left the Coastal game early in the third quarter after taking a blow to his non-throwing shoulder at the end of a 28-yard run. He didn’t return Saturday but was a full participant in practice Monday.

“My expectation is that he has a great week of prep and he’s ready to go and brings his best game [in Raleigh],” Elliott said.

Morris, a graduate transfer from North Texas, completed 19 of 27 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns against Coastal, and he also rushed for a game-high 50 yards. He didn’t throw an interception.

“I thought he did a good job of settling in,” Elliott said, “and once he got settled, he was able to distribute the ball, manage the system, put together some scoring drives. I’d love to see him go down feet first right there [at the end of the run], but what you love about him is he’s such a competitor. He was that close to the goal line, and even down on the field when I got to him, he had a little bit of a sense of humor. He said, ‘That wasn’t very smart,’ but he’s like, ‘Coach, I was so close and all I saw was the goal line.’ ”

Virginia led 28-0 when Morris left the game, and the coaching staff already was planning to insert Danny Kaelin at quarterback after the series, Elliott said, “because he’s earned it. And then too, it’s an opportunity in a competitive situation to get some reps.”

Kaelin, a redshirt freshman, transferred from Nebraska to UVA in January. Should a situation arise when Morris isn’t available, Elliott said, “I have no reservations putting Danny in there to go win a football game.”

NEXT MAN UP: In his first start as a Cavalier, junior linebacker Landon Danley recorded a team-high seven tackles, one of them for loss, and had a quarterback hurry.

Danley, who’s from Irmo, S.C., moved up to the first team during training camp after Kam Robinson suffered a collarbone injury.

“He looked like he wasn’t overwhelmed, that he was in tune with all the responsibility that comes with the position that he plays in,” Elliott said of Danley. “Flew around, made some plays for us, so just excited about the next step that he’s taking and seizing the opportunity that he has in front of him right now.”

Elliott said he’s hopeful Robinson will be back for Virginia’s ACC opener, Sept. 20 against Stanford at Scott Stadium.

Danley, who stands 6-foot-3, was built more like a safety when he arrived at UVA. He’s now up to 222 pounds, and the extra weight has “helped me with the physical aspect and the trenches dealing with the O-linemen,” Danley said.

ROUNDING INTO SHAPE: A graduate transfer from James Madison, where he started 33 games, Tyshawn Wyatt is one of Virginia’s most versatile offensive linemen. He missed all of last season at JMU while recovering from a knee injury he suffered in 2023, and he’s had some setbacks since enrolling at UVA. But Elliott is encouraged by what he’s seen from Wyatt.

“He’s just gaining more and more confidence in his in his knee,” Elliott said, “to the point where he can play out there at tackle for us, and he could always go inside to guard. He’s a guy that we’re gonna need down the stretch to just continue to improve, so every day is is a step in the right direction for him, and 18 months is a long time to be without football. And so you see each day he’s kind of getting back to having the confidence that he needs to go out and be the player that he was.”

VOICE OF WISDOM: An executive consultant for UVA Athletics, Scott Pioli spent most of last month in Charlottesville observing and advising the football program, and Elliott was happy to have him around.

Pioli has extensive experience in college and pro football. He was named NFL Executive of the Year five times and was honored as NFL Executive of the Decade for 2000 to 2010. He helped the Patriots win three Super Bowls.

In the spring of 2024, Pioli began working with UVA. He participated in a GM summit held by UVA Athletics last summer, along with current general managers from the NBA and WNBA. Representatives of football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and other UVA sports programs attended the event.

Tyler Jones and Justin Speros are general manager and assistant general manager for UVA football, respectively, and Pioli’s insights were valuable for “the folks that work on that side of things,” Elliott said. “It was awesome just to have somebody with that experience that’s been around some of the best coaches in college football, just to bounce ideas off of, to get critiqued, to say, ‘Am I headed in the right direction? Culturally, how does it feel to you? Are things matching up? What are you seeing on the practice field? Personnel-wise, you’ve evaluated a ton of personnel. Do we have the right body types and fits?’

“He then also brought some validity to what we’re doing for our players to be able to have somebody with his experience and to be able to ask questions about what the next level is like and then also get confirmation that the things that we’re doing from a preparation standpoint are actually what needs to be done to prepare them to transition to the next level. So it was awesome having him around.”

To receive Jeff White’s articles by email, click the appropriate box in this link to subscribe.