By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A month after hoisting the Commonwealth Cup in the jubilant home locker room at Scott Stadium, Virginia head football coach Tony Elliott lifted another prize in triumph late Saturday night: the trophy awarded to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl champion.
In its first bowl appearance since 2019, No. 20 UVA defeated No. 25 Missouri 13-7 at EverBank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. In doing so, the Cavaliers made history.
“Welcome to the 11-win club,” Elliott told his players. “That’s history. That’s legacy, and it’s not easy to leave a legacy.”
The 11 victories are the most ever by a UVA team. Only twice have the Wahoos reached the 10-win mark: in 1989 and then this season, their fourth under Elliott. Not bad for a group that, in the media’s preseason poll, was picked to finish 14th out of the ACC’s 17 teams.
“It’s been a special year,” Elliott said. “It's been a fun group to coach. They believed when everyone around them told them not to. A lot of folks said they weren't good enough to get to this point. But what they learned is it's always about being inside-out. It's never about what people say on the outside. It's all about what you believe.”
For the Hoos (11-3), it was a fitting ending to a season marked by close games. Virginia went to overtime four times and won three of those games, and the Gator Bowl produced more fourth-quarter drama.
With less than two minutes to play, the Hoos had the ball, and a first down would have sealed the win for them. But they ended up punting from near midfield, and Mizzou (8-5) drove to the Cavaliers’ 21-yard line in the final minute. Four straight incompletions followed, however, and Virginia took over with one second on the clock. In victory formation, quarterback Chandler Morris took the snap and kneeled down, and the celebration was on.
Morris, who joined the program in January as a graduate transfer, was the named MVP of the Gator Bowl. He completed 25 of 38 passes for 198 yards, with no interceptions. On third down, Morris was 10-for-10 passing.
“This is my favorite team I've ever been a part of,” said Morris, who also has played at Oklahoma, TCU and North Texas, “and I'm not just saying that because we won a lot of games this year. It truly was. You go in the locker room, everybody really does love each other. They're really feeling for each other.”
No matter the outcome of the Gator Bowl, this would have been remembered as a breakthrough year for Virginia, which finished the regular season atop the ACC standings. But the victory over a strong SEC opponent stamped 2025 as an unforgettable season for a program that hadn’t won a bowl game since 2018.
“It ended the right way,” said UVA safety Antonio Clary, who’s from Jacksonville. “I can't even describe the feeling that I'm feeling right now. Just being bowl champions in my hometown and my last game in college, man, you just can't ask for anything better.”
Clary, who enrolled at Virginia in 2019, was among the standouts on a defense that held Missouri to 260 yards. The Tigers were 3 of 12 on third-down conversions and 0 for 3 on fourth down. UVA held Mizzou (8-5) scoreless for the final 56 minutes and 56 seconds of the game.
In the locker room afterward, Elliott saluted the members of defensive coordinator John Rudzinski’s unit. “After that opening drive, you shut ‘em down,” Elliott said.
Missouri had the ball first and needed only five plays to march 74 yards for a touchdown. The first of UVA senior Will Bettridge’s two field goals, a 42-yarder, made it 7-3 early in the second quarter, and that was still the score at the half.
The second half belonged to the Cavaliers, who took their first lead with 4:53 left in the third quarter with an epic drive that included two fourth-down conversions. Tailback Harrison Waylee took a direct snap and bulled across the goal for a 2-yard touchdown, capping a 19-play possession that took 10 minutes and 7 seconds off the clock and ranks as the second-longest drive in program history.
Bettridge’s PAT made it 10-7, and he added three more points late in the third quarter with a 39-yard field goal that gave him a program record. In 2003, Connor Hughes made 23 field goals, a single-season record at UVA that Bettridge broke Saturday night. A senior from Miami, Bettridge finished the season with 24 field goals and now ranks second in career scoring at Virginia with 317 points.
Opt-outs and injuries left UVA short-handed at several positions. The Cavaliers were missing their leading rusher (J’Mari Taylor), their leading receiver (Trell Harris) and their top linebacker (Kam Robinson), and others who didn’t play against Mizzou included linebacker Maddox Marcellus, wide receivers Jayden Thomas and Dillon Newton-Short and defensive backs Christian Charles, Jordan Robinson and Ja’son Prevard.
All season long, though, Elliott and his staff have preached the importance of staying ready, and improbable heroes emerged Saturday night for the Cavaliers, starting with wideout Eli Wood, who joined the program as a walk-on in 2022.
Wood finished with career highs in catches (four) and receiving yards (71) and made a pivotal play on special teams. On fourth-and-8 from Missouri’s 43 early in the fourth quarter, Morris took a shotgun snap and, instead of passing or running, delivered a textbook pooch punt that landed inside the 10. As the ball approached the goal line, Wood dived to knock it back, and another UVA wideout, Cam Ross, downed it at the 2.
“Eli has been the glue for that wide receiver room,” Elliott said. “He's played every position for us. You can't get rid of him. He's going to keep finding a way to get himself on the field. Made some huge plays for us.”
With Taylor, the only Cavalier to make the All-ACC first team, not in uniform, Waylee carried a season-high 20 times for 68 yards and a touchdown. More unexpected was the contribution of true freshman Xay Davis, who began the season as Virginia’s No. 5 tailback. Against Missouri, Davis ran 12 times for 41 yards.
“I'm proud of Xay Davis, a guy that hadn't seen much action,” Elliott said, “and now you're thrown into a playoff-caliber game and getting your first real carries and significant minutes. There's other guys who stepped up too, throughout the team.
“To get to where we want to go as a program, to be able to play in games like this, win games like this, it's all about the next man up.”
Safety Devin Neal and linebacker Landon Danley, who started in Marcellus’ absence, had 10 tackles apiece to lead Virginia. Clary added seven stops and deflected a pass that cornerback Emmanuel Karnley intercepted. That takeaway set up Bettridge’s second field goal.
“In a game like this, scheme is important, field position is important, ball security is important,” Elliott said, “but at the end of the day it's going to come down to a will to win. I think that's what you saw from our guys.”