Waylee Makes Most of Opportunity in Runaway Win

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. —  The University of Virginia football team has an abundance of talented tailbacks, and it can be challenging for the coaching staff to find playing time for all of them.

Harrison Waylee, a graduate transfer from the University of Wyoming, has a résumé as impressive as any in the running backs room, but he didn’t carry the ball last weekend in UVA’s 35-31 loss to NC State at Carter-Finley Stadium.

That was partly because another Virginia tailback, J’Mari Taylor, rushed for 150 yards and three touchdowns. Even so, head coach Tony Elliott apologized to Waylee.

“We should have got him in the game,” Elliott said. “But he handled it well … He didn’t complain. He didn’t say anything. He just showed back up to work. He is who he is. That’s what I like about him. He’s got such an even keeled temperament. He’s never too high, never too low, shows up every single day, asks good questions. He handled it like a pro.”

Waylee got another opportunity Saturday against William & Mary, and he responded by rushing for 151 yards, the 14^th time he’s hit the 100-yard mark in a college career that began at Northern Illinois.

No. 21 also ran for three touchdowns, tying his career high, in Virginia’s 55-16 romp at Scott Stadium. The first two covered 2 and 8 yards, respectively; the third put Waylee into the UVA record book.

Until Saturday, the longest rush in program history was Mikell Simpson’s 96-yard TD run against Texas Tech in the Gator Bowl on Jan. 1, 2008. Waylee surpassed that with a 97-yard run in the third quarter Saturday.

“I love how the football gods work,” said Elliott, who added that because Waylee “was humble and handled it the right way, I believe he was rewarded the right way.”

Waylee, who’s from Johnston, Iowa, said that when he was informed about the school record, “I was just like, ‘What are you talking about?’ But it was pretty cool about that. And what was working today is just that the O-line was just moving [defenders]. So I’ve got to give all the credit to them.”

On his record-setting touchdown run, Waylee said, he didn’t turn around to see if any Tribe defenders were gaining on him, but he glanced at the huge videoboard toward which he was headed.

“Just a little bit,” Waylee said, laughing. “I’m considered the slowest guy in the running back room, so I was like, ‘I just gotta show these guys that I can actually run.’ ”

For the Cavaliers (2-1), tailbacks scored five of their seven touchdowns against the Tribe (1-2). In addition to Waylee’s three, Xavier Brown and Taylor had one each. Another tailback, Noah Vaughn, carried eight times for a career-high 101 yards before leaving the game with an apparent high-ankle sprain.

“It’s just a competitive group,” Elliott said. “And what they’re doing is they’re embracing the competition, and it’s making each one of them better. And so they’re not pressing, but when they go out there, they’re just ready and they’re prepared.”

Waylee said: “Our room is really good. J’Mari, X, Noah, me, and even the guys after us, too. We’re all really good. So anybody can go out there and do what happened today.”

PAYING TRIBUTE: It was UVA Strong Day, and Elliott wanted to see his team perform to a standard that would honor the memories of Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry: the three Cavalier players slain in a November 2022 shooting on Grounds.

Members of their families served as honorary captains Saturday, as did Mike Holllins and Marlee Morgan, who were wounded in the shooting. Hollins recovered and played tailback for the Hoos in 2023.

“What we wanted to do today was just bring glory to those guys’ legacy,” said Elliott, who’s in his fourth year at Virginia.

From the start, UVA overwhelmed William & Mary, which competes in the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision and has lost seven straight games in this series. Wideout Kam Courtney scored Virginia’s first touchdown, racing 23 yards on a reverse to cap the game’s opening possession, and the Tribe never recovered. The Cavaliers had 457 yards of offense and led 42-7 at the half.

Until Saturday, the 691 yards of total offense Virginia gained at Scott Stadium against Davidson in 1968 ranked as the most in school history. The Hoos finished with 700 against the Tribe.

Moreover, the 55 points were the most UVA has scored since a 55-15 rout of Abilene Christian at Scott Stadium in November 2020. Davis, a wide receiver, and Perry, a linebacker, each scored a TD in that game.

“It’s been a very challenging week for a lot of folks within the program,” Elliott said, “especially the folks that were here back in November of ‘22. Everybody wanted to have a day like today in remembrance of Lavel, Devin and D’Sean.”

Davis, Chandler and Perry wore jersey numbers 1, 15 and 41, respectively, as Cavaliers. Linebacker James Jackson, who’s in his fifth year in the program, is wearing No. 1 this season in memory of Davis.

For the Cavaliers to have played so well Saturday makes the victory “super memorable,” Jackson said. “That’s what we wanted to do, and it’s hard to play to that level when you’re playing a team that you feel like you should beat. You’ve got to come in and live up to expectations, and that’s what we’re trying to do to honor Lavel, Devin, and D’Sean on their day. So it felt good.”

THE MORE, THE MERRIER: Virginia rested most of its starters in the second half. By game’s end, about 100 Cavaliers had seen action, including many who rarely play.

“Definitely one of the coolest things that can happen in a game is you’re performing so well that other guys get the opportunity to play,” Jackson said. “And as a defense and as an offense, it was great to see those guys out there. It’s a lot of fun because it might be somebody who is on the scout team during the week, and then they get to go in the game. They might tear you up all week on the scout team, and that’s normal for them.

“In the stands, the public doesn’t get to see that. They only see what happens on game day. They don’t see what goes into preparation, how hard guys practice to get the offense and defense ready. So I have so much appreciation for those guys, and when they get in, I feel like nobody cheers harder than our teammates when we see guys like that get in.”

Elliott said he was thrilled to be able to substitute so liberally, “because it’s an opportunity for those guys to be rewarded for the hard work that they put in, and we’re gonna need them in competitive-type games down the stretch in ACC play. We’re gonna need those guys at some point in time. And so it’s so great to reward them, but then also [for them to] gain valuable experience. And they’re gonna get coached just as hard as the starters when we get on the film on Monday as a group. But just super happy to be able to have a game where you can play the bulk of your roster.”

SHOW OF APPRECIATION: In the locker room afterward, Elliott presented the game ball to Charles McDaniel and his wife, Tricia, and thanked them for their support.

McDaniel, who was part of George Welsh’s first recruiting class at UVA, ranks among the greatest linebackers in program history. He recently pledged $1 million to the Virginia Athletics Foundation’s Football Enhancement Fund. That represents the largest non-capital commitment ever made by a former Virginia football player.

Charles McDaniel, who’s the president and chief executive officer of the Hilldrup Companies, graduated from the University in 1986. His wife, the former Tricia Horger, is also a UVA graduate. Their two children—daughter Jordan and son Charlie—graduated from the University, too.

UP NEXT: The first-ever football game between UVA and Stanford is set for next Saturday night at Scott Stadium. At 7:30 p.m., the Cavaliers will host the Cardinal in a game to air on ACC Network.

This will be the ACC opener for Virginia, whose game against NC State on Sept. 6 didn’t count in the conference standings.

Stanford took an 0-2 record into its ACC opener Saturday night against visiting Boston College.

Drake Metcalf, who graduated from Stanford in June 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, starts at offensive guard for UVA. His offensive line coach for his final two seasons at Stanford was Terry Heffernan, who’s in his third year in that position at Virginia.

SOUND BITES: This was the first of three consecutive home games for the Cavaliers. Among the postgame comments:

* Elliott on seeing players hoist offensive coordinator Des Kitchings up on their shoulders in the locker room after the game: “It was just awesome to see that moment, because that tells me that those guys believe.”

* Elliott on his team’s maturity leading up to the game: “I told the senior leadership point blank, ‘Look, we’re gonna find out a lot about our football team this week. How mature are we? Are we going to be able to show up and play to a standard, or are we going to show up and play to an opponent?’ And I felt like they came out ready to go in all three phases, trying to establish a standard. And that’s what we’re chasing every single week.”

* Elliott: “There’s plenty of mistakes we’ve got to correct. So we’re going to go back to work and get those things corrected. We’re going to have a little fun on Monday like we normally do. The fun’s in the winning. So when we win, we get a little extra highlight tape. But after that, it’s right back to work. It’s Mindset Monday. And that’s what I’ve learned in my experience, that it doesn’t matter who you’re playing. doesn’t matter where you’re playing, doesn’t matter what uniform combination you’re wearing, doesn’t matter the circumstances, you prepare to a standard.”

* Courtney, who was still in high school in 2022, on hearing from senior Davis Lane Jr. this week about Davis, Chandler and Perry: “He was just saying how much this game meant to him and to everybody that was there. So we kind of took that a little more personally: ‘OK, we’re playing for these three.’ ”

* Jackson on UVA’s response after losing to NC State: “It was definitely a tough week, but we wanted to come in and we wanted to bounce back from that and dominate. And as a team, I feel like offensively, defensively and on special teams, we wanted to play complementary football and dominate on all three units. So I felt like we did that.”

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