Hoos See Gator Bowl as ‘Tremendous Opportunity’

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The TaxSlayer Gator Bowl matches two football programs looking to make history in Jacksonville, Fla.

Virginia fielded its first varsity team in 1888. Since then, the Wahoos have had two 10-win seasons. The first was in 1989, when they finished 10-3. The Hoos are 10-3 again this year, so a season-ending win would give them a program-record 11^th victory.

“I want that 11^th,” UVA head coach Tony Elliott said Saturday night in Charlotte, N.C., after his team’s overtime loss to Duke in the ACC championship game. “I think everybody in that locker room wants that 11th.”

In the 81^st annual Gator Bowl, UVA will meet Missouri on Dec. 27 at EverBank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. The game will air at 7:30 p.m. on ABC.

Like Virginia, Missouri (8-4) has ample motivation, head coach Eli Drinkwitz said on a Zoom media availability with Elliott on Tuesday morning. With a victory in Jacksonville, the Tigers would finish with at least nine wins for the third straight season, a program record, and they’d finish nationally ranked for the third consecutive season, another first.

In the latest Associated Press rankings, Virginia is No. 20 and Mizzou is No. 25.

This will be the fifth year in a row Missouri plays in a bowl game. For Cavaliers, it will be their first appearance since 2019, when they lost to Florida in the Orange Bowl. Picked to finish 14th in the 17-team ACC this season, they ended the regular season in sole possession of first place.

“We’re so grateful to have this opportunity,” said Elliott, who’s in his fourth season at UVA. “This program has been working hard over the last several years to get to the postseason. And we’re so excited to be in Jacksonville. It holds a special place in my heart. My first bowl game as a college player was the Gator Bowl.”

That was on Jan. 1, 2001, when Elliott was a wide receiver at Clemson. Virginia Tech defeated Clemson 41-20 that day.

“Now, hopefully we have a different outcome, because they got after us pretty good in that game,” Elliott said, laughing. “But it’s been a long time coming for this program.”

In 2020, the Cavaliers were bowl-eligible but, after playing under strict COVID-19 protocols during the regular season, chose not to pursue an invitation. In 2021, COVID-19 issues on the team forced UVA to withdraw from the Fenway Bowl.

The Hoos finished 3-7 in 2022, 3-9 in 2023 and 5-7 last season.

“I’m not used to sitting home for Christmas, and the last three years I’ve been home at Christmas,” Elliott said. “And so, man, we’re excited to be in this building preparing for a bowl game.”

Drinkwitz, who’s in his sixth season at Mizzou, spent three years as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at NC State, where his colleagues included Des Kitchings, UVA’s offensive coordinator.

“Big fan of Eli,” said Elliott, a former Clemson assistant coach. “He’s done a fantastic job at Missouri and really has kind of taken that program to a whole other level. So it’ll be a great opportunity, test and barometer for our football team, just kind of taking this step forward to see how we compare versus a team that’s at the top of the SEC.”

A win in the ACC championship game would have sent the Hoos to the College Football Playoff. Virginia defeated Duke 34-17 during regular season, but the rematch unfolded much differently.

“It was a locker room that was shocked and stunned and believed that they were going to find a way to win,” said Elliott, the ACC Coach of the Year. “But it’s a great learning opportunity for us, and I think adversity is a companion of a champion and an enemy to the weak and we have to learn how to grow and get back. But we have a tremendous opportunity. We’re playing an outstanding football team. We’re in a great venue, and we have an opportunity still to do something that hasn’t been done within this program ever. So while we came up a little bit short in the last game, we still have a ton to play for, and that’s really what we’re going to focus on, getting our guys back ready to go.”

UVA didn’t get back to Charlottesville until around 6 a.m. Sunday. His players have been lifting on their own this week, Elliott said. The team will practice Thursday and Friday and then start preparing for the bowl game next week.

The Cavaliers had an extra week of practice ahead of the ACC championship game, and now they’ll get additional practices for the Gator Bowl. That should benefit the team’s younger players in particular.

“Now you’re talking about potentially 15-plus practices, which is the equivalent to a spring ball,” Elliott said.

Asked Tuesday about his team’s health for the Gator Bowl, Elliott said he’s uncertain about the status of wide receiver Trell Harris, who was injured in the ACC championship game. The snow that fell in Central Virginia this week has complicated matters, Elliott said, but Harris planned to “get imaging today, so we’ll know better kind of the extent of his injury. But as of right now, all the [other] guys are indicating that any of the post-season cleanup surgeries will be done after the bowl.”

Heading into the season, one of the Cavaliers’ goals, Elliott said, was to advance to a bowl game. “And all I’m focused on and trying to get this team to focus on is going and chasing that 11th win, which has never been done in school history,” he said. “But more importantly, let’s honor the seniors the right way.”

The only player in the program who’s been a bowl game as a Cavalier is safety Antonio Clary, who was a true freshman in 2019.

Clary is one of about two 20 players on the 2025 roster who were at UVA in November 2022 when a mass shooting took the lives of three players: Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry.

“We’re going to try and send our senior class out [with a win],” Elliott said, “because this senior class has been through a lot. The guys that have been around here for four years, they’ve been through a lot. And all I’m focused on and trying to get this team to focus on is going and chasing that 11th win, which has never been done in school history. But more importantly, let’s honor the seniors the right way.”

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