UVA’s Morris named to Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Watch List

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Photo by Nikolozi Khutsishvili

Virginia’s Chandler Morris has been named to the 2025 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Watch List, the Johnny Units Golden Arm Educational Foundation unveiled Tuesday. The award is presented annually to the top senior or upperclassman quarterback who is on track to graduate with their class.

Morris was one of 13 ACC quarterbacks named to this year’s preseason watch list. The ACC’s 13 selections led all conferences nationally.

Morris transferred to UVA in January after a prolific 2024 season at North Texas, where he started in all 13 games and quarterbacked the nation’s No. 3 offense in yards per game (488.7). Morris completed 62.9 percent of his passes for 3,774 yards and 31 touchdowns. His 31 TD passes were good for fourth among all players nationally. Morris led the country with four 400-yard passing performances and also set UNT single-season records for passing attempts (512), passing yards per game (314.5), total offense (4,104) and TD responsibility (35). 

For his career, Morris has completed 526 passes, including 47 touchdowns, and accumulated 6,207 yards through the air. Prior to his tenure at UNT, Morris played at TCU (2021-23) and Oklahoma (2020). 

This fall camp, Morris was also named both a Maxwell Award preseason candidate and Davey O’Brien Award watch list selection. 

Now in its 39th year, the Golden Arm Award continues to honor excellence both on and off the field. The award is presented by the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Educational Foundation in partnership with A. O. Smith Corporation, whose mission aligns with the Foundation’s commitment to advancing the game of football while promoting character, leadership, and academic achievement among young athletes. 

This year, the Foundation is proud to announce a new partnership with Leveling the Playing Field (LPF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access and equity in youth sports. LPF provides sports equipment to underserved communities, giving every child the chance to experience the life-changing benefits of athletic participation. Together, the Foundation, A. O. Smith and LPF are working to ensure that the next generation of leaders has the tools and opportunities to succeed—on the field and beyond. 

As the 2025 college football season unfolds, the watch list will be narrowed to semifinalists, finalists and one standout quarterback will take home the Golden Arm Award in December. The winner will be celebrated at our annual Golden Arm Award ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in Johnny Unitas’ hometown of Baltimore—an unforgettable night honoring leadership, legacy, and the best in college football. 

Sharing a tradition of innovation with Johnny Unitas, who invented football’s two-minute drill, A. O. Smith has been an innovator in its industry for more than a century. A. O. Smith offers its customers an additional advantage in that the company designs, builds, distributes and supports the world’s broadest and deepest line of residential and commercial water heaters, as well as commercial boilers. This single-source concept simplifies ordering, installation and service and is backed by more than 80 years of research and innovation. 

For more information on the Golden Arm Award, please visit GoldenArmFoundation.com. Fans and media are encouraged to follow the conversation throughout the college football season on the Golden Arm Award’s official social media channels: 

• X (formerly Twitter): @GoldenArmAward 
• Instagram: @GoldenArmAward 
• Facebook: Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award 
• YouTube: Golden Arm Award Channel 

Join the discussion using the hashtags #GoldenArmAward and #InnovationLeaders.

Golden Arm Award® Partners: MedStar Sports Medicine, The Babe Ruth Museum, Comcast, Dunbar Security Solutions, Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore, Wilson, Haddock Investments, Silver Star Properties, Encore, TRAY, AE2 Creative, Jostens, Leveling the Playing Field, Yates, Wolf Professional Security, and Extraordinar Luxury Transportation.  

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A. O. Smith is a leading global water technology and manufacturing company that provides innovative water heating and water treatment solutions. For more than 150 years, dedication to innovation has propelled A. O. Smith to adapt to new opportunities and transform itself multiple times over. The company designs, builds, distributes and supports the world’s broadest and deepest line of residential and commercial water heaters, as well as commercial boilers. This single-source concept simplifies ordering, installation and service and is backed by extensive research. For the most up-to-date A. O. Smith news, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn and visit www.hotwater.com. 

Cavaliers making big strides in camp as opening game approaches

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo by Jon Golden

If Tony Elliott had his way, a bright Virginia sun would be bearing down on his football team every day for the remainder of training camp.

Cooler temperatures haven’t allowed UVA’s coaches to test their players in the heat, which certainly will return in late August and into September when the Cavaliers open the season.

Still, Elliott has been pleased with the progress his team has made as the Aug. 30 season opener against Coastal Carolina approaches. The coach was particularly pleased that there were no turnovers in the Cavaliers’ second scrimmage of the season over the weekend.

“I’ve seen growth there … we’re just more consistent with execution, and now it’s just coming down to winning one-on-one matchups,” Elliott said after Monday morning’s practice. “Now we can really focus on the fundamental aspect, whereas in the past, if you’ve got to correct a lot of different schematic things, it takes away from correcting the fundamentals.”

Elliott said this camp has gone a lot smoother with everyone on the same page, which is a big deal considering there are 54 new faces in camp.

“The guys know how to practice,” the coach said. “Overall, I feel like we’ve been able to get really good work in the stadium (for the two scrimmages), have taken care of the ball and come out relatively healthy.”

Last Saturday’s scrimmage was the hardest day of the camp thus far, with Elliott intentionally making it the longest day as well. He ran between 90 and 100 plays in the scrimmage, including special teams, pushing his team to get better.

Monday was the first time Elliott spoke with media since Saturday’s scrimmage, which was conducted in some soaring temperatures, much to the coach’s liking.

“It got hot, the sun came out and I wanted to see what this team was going to do,” Elliott said.

What the coach saw was some disruption by the pass rush, which put pressure on the quarterback. It’s taboo to put a hit on the QBs in practice, but under normal conditions there would have been some sacks recorded.

Because of the added depth through the transfer portal, Elliott believes he’ll be able to play more people than he’s had the luxury to use in the past.

“We should be able to roll with like 10 guys, five at each position, five interior and five guys on the edge that we can roll throughout the course of the game to keep guys fresh,” Elliott said. “Then we can change up looks and we can get some heavier guys on the edge and some packages. We can do a lot more things than we’ve done in the past because we have that depth.”

Continuing with the defense, there is fierce competition at the cornerback spots, with several players in the mix for playing time.

Emmanuel “Manny” Karnley, a corner transfer from Arizona, has come back from a knee issue, but has returned at full speed, while Army transfer Donavon Platt has fought off a hamstring and is back, and sophomore Kevon Gray has battled an ankle to keep pace with his competitors for work.

Elliott said those nicks have impacted the consistency in work at the corner, but that he is confident there is more than enough talent to give UVA solid play at those positions.

“All the guys were available for the scrimmage, which was good for us … you could see in the scrimmage that the effect of some guys not having as many practice reps showed up in the scrimmage, but this week is where we have to do our best jobs as coaches to help them, get them up to speed,” Elliott said. “We’re not going to have as much of the physical aspects, which I think will be good for the guys, because then we can slow the game down and get them mentally prepared.”

The coach said there’s been plenty of physical contact thus far, with the team experiencing an unusual 11 days of hitting out of 14. Elliott said Monday’s practice was a good one, as Virginia begins to taper its focus toward game week and its opening game.

Elliott clarifies Kam Robinson injury and recovery timetable

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tony Elliott revealed the details of star linebacker Kam Robinson’s injury on Monday and offered somewhat of a timetable for just how long the third-year standout from Tappahannock may be missing from Virginia’s lineup.

Elliott said that during practice No. 7 of training camp, the first day of full-pads contact, Robinson took a shot to the collarbone and reported it. The fact that Robinson told coaches about the injury is significant because he is the kind of player that plays hurt.

Recently, UVA defensive coordinator John Rudzinski discussed just how tough Robinson is, noting how he played hurt for much of last season and even played when most players would have shut themselves down.

“It was a big old knock,” Elliott said of the hit. “We said, OK, we’ve got to get this looked at and an X-Ray showed something, but not significant. But we said, let’s be careful.”

The CT scan that followed showed there was a slight fracture that was developing, so doctors decided the proper thing to do was to address the injury immediately rather than allow the injury to worsen, which would threaten Robinson’s season.

“We anticipate he’ll be down a couple of weeks,” Elliott said after Monday’s morning practice. “I think he gets the stitches out this week and then he’ll be back into conditioning.”

The coach said Robinson had a plate and some screws inserted, “so it’s fixed. Now, we’ve just got to get him back into football shape.”

Robinson missed both of Virginia’s scrimmages over the past couple of weeks.

“It could be a couple of games [into the season] before he’s ready to roll,” Elliott said.

The coach also updated other injuries on the roster, beginning with seventh-year safety Antonio Clary, who has missed the fall camp.

“We anticipated that it would be the end of August before he was really cleared to go, which means he’s got a couple of weeks to get himself into shape and ready to go,” Elliott said.

Wide receiver Trell Harris (fourth year/hamstring) should be ready to play in the season-opener on Aug. 30 against Coastal Carolina, and the same goes for third-year defensive lineman Hunter Osborne (ankle), a transfer from Alabama.

“Hunter is out of the boot and running on dry land,” Elliott said.

Defensive end Mekhi Buchanan (third year) had a more severe high ankle sprain than Osborne, but the coach said he anticipates that he will return to practice later this week.

“All those guys will be kind of integrating back into practice, and by the time we flip to next week, they should be full-go. Right now, we’re really nursing more of the soft-tissue ankles that are typical of camp, and so Kam would be the only one that’s out an extended amount of time.”

UVA QB Morris: Quick trigger, great touch, grinder and a bit bull-headed; All you need to know

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

When Virginia began its national search for a starting quarterback, the coaching staff wanted to bring in two players, one younger and one older.

The Cavaliers first secured the younger candidate, former Nebraska redshirt freshman Daniel Kaelin, who had four years of eligibility remaining. Then UVA went shopping for a veteran, someone who could walk in and start.

Tony Elliott and his staff looked at several possibilities, but there was something about Chandler Morris that clicked. Morris, whose father was a former colleague with Elliott on the Clemson staff, had everything UVA was looking for: a big arm, a high football IQ and experience. After having an outstanding season at North Texas in 2024, Morris had lots of suitors, including Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, Central Florida, Memphis and West Virginia.

Morris felt comfortable with Elliott, having memories of the old Clemson days when the two coaching families were close. As a youngster, he spent plenty of time around Elliott.

Virginia certainly wanted the Texas gunslinger, who had led the Mean Green to a No. 3 finish nationally in total offense and was ranked No. 23 in the country in scoring, as opposed to UVA, which was ranked No. 105 in the latter category.

Once the Cavaliers were successful in convincing Morris to sign with the Orange & Blue, the offensive coaches — Elliott, offensive coordinator Des Kitchings and quarterbacks coach Taylor Lamb — agreed on one major objective.

“The plan for Chandler coming in was, we’ve got to let him be himself,” said Lamb. “We can’t put him in a box and say, ‘That’s how we do things.’ Instead, we asked ourselves, what is this guy good at? What’s he comfortable with?”

Certainly, Morris had an eye-popping resume, from his high school days in Texas to playing at Oklahoma, then TCU, then North Texas before landing at Virginia. He wants to play in the NFL, and the Cavaliers coaches have some NFL terminology in their offensive system and some other NFL facets, including taking snaps under center.

There has been a healthy give-and-take from Morris and the staff on fashioning the playbook to his strengths, eliminating things he didn’t like.

“He’s been in three or four different offenses in his time and he’s got his dad’s offense in mind too, because he’s had that since he was a young child,” said Lamb. “He’s a coach’s kid that knows ball, knows how a locker room works.”

Lamb knows a little about that himself, considering he was raised in a football family. His father, Bobby Lamb, coached at Furman from 1986 to 2010 (the last eight years as head coach), and as also head coach at Mercer, and is in his second year as head coach at the new program at Anderson (S.C.) University. Taylor Lamb started 49 games at quarterback for Appalachian State, where he passed for nearly 10,000 yards and 90 touchdowns.

No wonder Lamb and Morris hit it off from the start. Lamb said that having a quarterback with so much experience is a coach’s best friend.

“He can handle a ton mentally,” Lamb said. “Just from a lot of experience playing football, but also being a coach’s kid, he can decipher a defense and say, ‘Hey, we’re not in a good call … we’re in a bad look here,’ and get us out of it. And that can be the difference in a 5-yard run and a 1-yard run. It’s moving the chains. Just little things of that nature can really help.”

Consider the experiences Morris has had beyond being the son of Chad Morris. He began his college career at Oklahoma, and actually scored the Sooners’ first touchdown in the 2020 Big 12 Championship Game as a true freshman. He played in five games that season as backup to Spencer Rattler.

When Caleb Williams showed up in Norman the following season, Morris asked Lincoln Riley for a scholarship release. Williams, of course, went on to follow Riley to Southern Cal where he won the Heisman Trophy and was last year’s No. 1 NFL Draft choice by the Chicago Bears.

Morris ended up at TCU, where he played three seasons, including the national championship runner-up team, starting the season but sidelined by a knee injury. He went on to play 15 games for the Horned Frogs, posting 2,394 yards passing and 16 touchdowns while rushing for 356 yards and four scores. His best year was in 2023, with 1,532 yards, 12 TDs, 5 interceptions over seven games, completing 66 percent of his attempts.

In 2024, Morris moved on to North Texas and put up spectacular numbers in 12 games: 322 completions, 512 attempts, 3,774 yards, 31 TDs, 12 interceptions, 63 percent completions. He ranked No. 4 in the nation in TD passes behind only Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward and Cade Klubnick, in addition to finishing No. 5 nationally in passing yards per game (314.5).

Lamb has been delighted with every aspect of Morris’ game.

“Chandler has a quick trigger, like super quick trigger,” Lamb said. “He can spread it from hash to sideline, sideline to hash. He can make all the throws from that nature. He can get the ball out quick, has quick hands.

“For a shorter guy (Morris is 6-feet, 190 pounds), he’s really good in the pocket. That’s tough on short guys, because they’re trying to find their throwing lanes. But he’s really good in the pocket and he’s exceptional out of the pocket, making plays.”

In fact, as the summer workouts and training camp progressed, Lamb was surprised at how much touch Morris has with the ball. He can rip it and he can layer throws. He understands how much and what kind of touch he needs to apply to his passes.

Lamb was also pleasantly surprised that Morris is faster afoot than he realized.

“We saw him on tape a couple of times taking off, but we didn’t realize how quick he was until we saw it in person. We saw that this past spring. He can really stick his foot in the ground and go north and south,” Lamb said.

“He’ll tell you the first couple of workouts, he looked like an old man out there,” Lamb laughed.

Morris is 24 years old, the same age as NFL Washington Commanders’ second-year quarterback Jayden Daniels.

With that age and experience, Morris naturally gained the respect of his teammates and has exhibited leadership in instilling confidence in a team with 54 new faces that it can come together and put together Virginia’s best season since the 2019 Coastal Division championship squad that played in the Orange Bowl.

Nowhere is that confidence and respect more important than in the huddle.

“We talk about the huddle a ton,” Lamb said. “The huddle is precious, the place where a quarterback can lead the most. No clowns in the huddle. And Chandler takes command of the huddle. He has that vocal ability and people listen to him.”

At previous stops, Morris didn’t have much huddle experience, but has adapted to it this year. He’s earned the respect of the other guys in the huddle, which isn’t easy for a one-year guy to do.

Morris is intentional, a solid communicator, a player who wants to get things right.

“He’s bull-headish,” Lamb said with a smile. “But that’s kind of the lead-from-the-front that you need from a quarterback — a guy who can take over a room.”

Morris is a grinder, a little undersized with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, driving him to excel at everything he does. Make no mistake about it, though, he’s a football guy.

If anyone doubts his ambition, then check out what Morris said back during spring practice this year when he was asked why he chose Virginia.

“I didn’t come all the way to Virginia as a Texas boy to win five, six games,” Morris said. “I want to win the conference championship. That’s my goal, coming all this way.”

One of Coastal QB candidates out for the season

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: Coastal Carolina Athletics

One of the key competitors for Coastal Carolina’s starting quarterback job is out for the season.

Emmett Brown, one of four candidates battling for the Chanticleers’ quarterback position, suffered a season-ending, lower-body injury according to Coastal head coach Tim Beck. Beck said that in respect to Brown’s wishes, he would not disclose details about the injury.

“This is a really tough blow for him personally,” Beck said. “He’s worked really hard. He was definitely a big competitor in our quarterback competition.”

Coastal opens the season on Aug. 30 at Virginia.

Brown is a 5-foot-10, 187-pound quarterback who led San Jose State last season, throwing for 1,621 yards and 16 touchdowns (5 interceptions), completing 57.6 percent of his passes (125 of 217).

Brown is one of three transfers, along with returning Coastal backup Todd Hudson, who was fighting for the Chants’ starting job. Hudson is the only one of the four who had previously taken snaps for Coastal.

Ross is a rock star in UVA camp; QB Morris helping tweak Wahoos’ offense

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: James Madison University Athletics

Talk to any UVA offensive coach and they’ll gush about JMU transfer Cam Ross.

Not only has he stood out as a punt and kickoff return man on special teams, but also at wide receiver. At 5-foot-10, 186 pounds, Number 6 in your program may soon be No. 1 in your heart if you’re a Virginia fan.

Special teams and running backs coach Keith Gaither commented last week that Ross is the most impressive offensive player on the team.

On Wednesday, offensive coordinator Des Kitchings agreed.

“Cam has just been a workman,” Kitchings said. “He’s been available to us every day. He has speed, has quickness. He does a really good job of catching the football and he’s smart. Having that speed piece and the experience, that’s big. Plus, he’s played a lot of football.”

Ross started nine games and appeared in 13 contests for a good JMU team last season, his first in Harrisonburg after transferring in from UConn, where he played 28 games and started 16 over four seasons. During that stint with the Huskies, Ross accounted for 1,356 receiving yards and six touchdowns.

Last season at JMU, he made 37 catches for 443 yards and scored three TDs. He had seven receptions for 107 yards and a score against North Carolina.

Ross also was JMU’s primary kickoff return guy, averaging 28.2 yards per return, including a 94-yard return.

“He’s played a lot of football and he’s had some production,” Kitchings said. “That helps us not only offensively, but in the special teams game. If we can get a touchdown special teams-wise, it counts as offensive points. I think he is a guy that can bring that to us from a special teams standpoint and then give us the ability to push the ball down the field and try to attack defenses vertically.”

Only a few days ago, Gaither praised Ross throughout an interview:

“I think he’s probably the most valuable player up to this point on the offense,” Gaither said. “In the spring, we didn’t know what we had. He was still learning and we watched him train through the summer, changed his body. He’s been diligent and intentional about every rep he took. He’s probably one of our best players, and to have one of your best players playing at a high level every snap, it’s a huge asset for us.”

This will be Ross’ seventh year of football, so not only does he have experience, he has maturity that will rub off on many of UVA’s younger players.

While Virginia is grooming new quarterback Chandler Morris into the Cavaliers’ trigger man, UVA’s coaches are also picking up some ideas from the well-traveled Chandler, who has played at Oklahoma, TCU and North Texas.

The 24-year-old quarterback has opened up a constant line of communication with Kitchings and Virginia’s other offensive coaches, who are tweaking the playbook to make Morris comfortable with the play calls.

“The thing I enjoy about Chandler and (backup) Danny [Kaelin] is their ability to communicate, to communicate what they are seeing, what could be an adjustment, what they’re comfortable with,” Kitchings said. “Sometimes guys feel like they can’t communicate those things to the coach or they don’t know how to verbalize it. But both of them are very good at doing that.”

The give-and-take has strengthened the relationship between the quarterbacks and the coaches.

“I tell them, you’re an extension of me out on the field, so the closer we are and the more similar we can kind of think together, the better off we’re going to be offensively and as a team,” Kitchings said.

Tony Elliott said last week that the staff wants the QBs — particularly Morris, who is the starter — to be comfortable with the playbook. The coaches have tossed out things that Morris doesn’t like and put emphasis on the plays he is comfortable executing, plays that work to his strength.

During that process, Virginia’s coaches are also picking up little adjustments, ideas to make the offense more efficient.

“Chandler has a lot more experience than Danny (a redshirt freshman with four years of eligibility), so Chandler is able to articulate more,” Kitchings said. “He can say, ‘Coach, this is what I dislike, this is what I like. I’ve done this 1,000 times, and so at Oklahoma, we actually tweaked it and did it this way because we realized this was a little better.

“Or, at TCU, we did this play here that I really liked.’ So, if it fits us, fits our personnel, fits what we’re trying to do, then let’s find the best way to make it work in our offense. He’s playing the game, right? If he’s out there trying to execute something that he’s not comfortable with, it’s not good for us at all. So trying to make him as comfortable as he can be in the short window, we want him to be at his best.”

Special Teams looking up with addition of Cam Ross

By Jerry Ratcliffe

While Virginia’s special teams improved last season from a disastrous 2023 performance, coordinator Keith Gaither and staff have taken a deep dive to correct mistakes from a year ago, particularly on the return units.

“There’s been some long hours, just taking a look at our scheme,” Gaither said Monday night. “I think the scheme is pretty good, and when we execute, I think we’re pretty good. There’s been about four or five plays where there were bad decisions made by the returners, where they should have stayed in the back of the end zone for a touchback or they muffed the ball, they didn’t communicate.”

Those four or five plays sank Virginia’s return units to near the bottom of the ACC in those categories, or otherwise the Cavaliers would have been middle of the pack.

Gaither said he and other UVA special teams coaches took ownership of some of the snafus, particularly ones made in a close home loss to Louisville that the Cavaliers probably would have otherwise won and qualified for a bowl game.

“If we hadn’t had some bonehead decisions — and we take ownership as coaches — we didn’t coach it good enough, so it’s all on me,” Gaither said. “But we’ll do a better job on that end.

“There’s been a heavy emphasis on those return units, particularly kickoff return, punt return. The philosophy could be changed on punt return with the emergence of some kids we got. We could be a more aggressive team, maybe on [punt] block, which sets up the returns a little bit more versus sitting back, allowing people to just go cover.”

After that 4-point loss to Louisville, Tony Elliott summed up Virginia’s problems, something that would continue to haunt the Cavaliers in close games throughout the season.

“ACC games are one-possession games that go down to the fourth quarter and are going to be determined by four-to-six plays,” Elliott said that night.

Jonas Sanker, who rarely made a mistake, did so late in that game when he decided to return a kickoff from 5 yards deep in his own end zone and was dropped at the 14. A few plays later, punter Daniel Sparks, attempting a moving, rugby-style punt, booted the ball squarely into the back of one of his personal protectors and Louisville recovered at the Virginia 14. One play later, the Cardinals scored to take a 17-7 lead and went on to win 24-20.

Wednesday night, Gaither felt encouraged by what he had seen in training camp with both his starting punter and place-kicker returning, the addition of some dynamic return men, particularly Cam Ross from JMU, and an influx of talented athletes that should boost the quality of all special teams play.

“There’s a lot of studying going on,” Gaither said. “I think we’ve got the personnel to be better in those units. It’s not on the players. It’s on us [the coaches].”

The first 10 days of camp, the focus has been on field goals, field goal block and the coverage unit, punt and kickoff coverage.

Virginia was actually No. 2 in the nation in the kickoff coverage department last season and there are plenty of players back on that unit this fall.

The Cavaliers introduced punt return and kickoff return to Monday’s practice and Ross, who led JMU in return yardage last season, made an immediate impression.

“In punt return, I’ll start off with Cam Ross, then Suderian Harrison, Kam Courtney and Jayden Thomas (transfer from Notre Dame), so you’ve got four reliable guys,” Gaither said. “If you asked me today, it would be Cam Ross. Suderian did a great job [in Saturday’s team scrimmage], when he brought one back 50 yards for a touchdown.”

Ross also figures in big with the kickoff return unit, along with J’Mari Taylor, who Gaither believes is one of the best running backs in the ACC this season. There are several other possibilities at kickoff return.

Ross could be a difference-maker with his return skills.

“It’s a sense of relief when you have someone who’s done it at a high level,” Gaither said of the JMU transfer. “He knows how to set up his blocks, he knows how to set up returns. He’s fast, he’s got courage, he’ll run through the smoke.

“One thing about Cam, I think he’s probably the most valuable player up to this point on the offense. In the spring, we didn’t know what we had. He was still learning and then we watched him train through the summer, changed his body. He’s been diligent and intentional about every rep he took. He’s probably one of our best players, and to have one of your best players playing at a high level every snap, it’s a huge asset for us.”

In terms of field goals, Will Bettridge returns to fill that role after a solid season in 2024 when he made 18 of 21 attempts (85.7 percent) and scored 78 points.

Bettridge worked hard during the offseason to strengthen his legs, and Gaither saw evidence of that on Monday when he kicked a 51-yard field goal with room to spare. That made up for a disappointing performance in Saturday’s scrimmage, some hampered by bad snaps, leading to two blocked kicks.

“I think Will has the capability of being one of the top kickers in the ACC,” Gaither said. “The competition (in camp) is heating up though. We’ve got some kids pushing him.”

Gaither said that there’s a strong possibility that Bettridge will be able to handle kickoff duties to take a little pressure off of Sparks, who performed that task a year ago.

Speaking of Sparks, Gaither said he’s one of the best athletes on the team with surprising speed, which could be an advantage on fake punts.

“He’s as talented as any punter in the country,” Gaither said. “He can be a weapon. I’m talking about field position. He can flip the field.”

Sparks averaged 44.6 yards per punt last season and had several boomers, although none that matched his 70-yard punt against Boston College in 2023.

Training Camp Notebook: QBs shaping playbook; Twitty a hidden gem?

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

Virginia’s offense is beginning to come around as the Cavaliers finish up the early portions of August training camp, and quarterback Chandler Morris, along with backup Danny Kaelin are probably 60 percent of the playbook into Tony Elliott’s and Des Kitchings’ system.

The coaches will continue to expand the playbook as training camp progresses, particularly after Saturday’s first scrimmage, which was held at Scott Stadium with lots of Virginia football alumni on hand to watch the Cavaliers.

“In the spring, we roughly, probably go at about 60 percent [of the playbook] of what we’ll actually put in during fall camp, but this year it was more of just ‘this is what we do’ through spring practice,” Elliott said this week. “And then after spring practice, it was more of Kitch (Kitchings) and [Morris] spending more time together, like, ‘OK, what are the things that you like?’ And then going out and adding some of those components to what we do.”

Elliott said that this coming week, the offensive staff will add some more things that Morris and Kaelin like, things that fit their games as UVA continues to build its playbook for the season.

“We were about probably 60 percent and then we get to 100 percent, a good portion of it will be what those guys are comfortable with and maybe some new additions that are not exactly the same, but similar to what we’ve done. But it’s tailor-made for those guys.”

Lots of Wide Receivers

Several receivers have caught Ellliott’s eye early in training camp, and one player who has really stood out is Cam Ross, who transferred in from JMU during the offseason.

Ross is a 5-foot-10, 186-pound wideout from Newark, Del., who is starting his seventh year (no, that’s not a typo) of college football.

Last season at JMU, Ross played in 13 games and started 9, hauling in 37 receptions for 443 yards and 3 touchdowns. He had 7 catches for 107 yards and a score against North Carolina. Ross was also the Dukes’ primary kickoff returner and averaged 28.2 yards per return, including a 94-yarder.

He also played four seasons at UConn before playing at JMU. With the Huskies, Ross played in 28 games, started 16 and posted more than 1,300 receiving yards to go along with 6 touchdowns.

“So every day, Cam Ross shows me a little bit more,” Elliott said. “I’ve been really pleased with his play speed, his ability to absorb the playbook, the ability to be moved around from position to position and not slow down. He’s been fun to watch.”

Jayden Thomas, a fifth-year from Paulding County, Ga., has transformed his body and is 6-2 with a strong 220-pound frame, and continues to get better according to Elliott.

“Of the young guys, Isaiah Robinson, for a guy that was one of the last ones to get here, I mean he has really shown up,” the coach said. “He was coming off hip surgery in the offseason, but, man, he jumped right in there and has done a really good job.”

Robinson is a 6-2, 185-pound first-year from Trinity Episcopal School in Chester.

Another player who was injured in camp last year, TyLyric Coleman (third year from Dan River High in Danville), is picking up from where he left off.

“I wouldn’t say we forgot about him, but we just hadn’t seen him in a while,” Elliott said of Coleman. “I think he brings some length (6-2, 194) and some explosiveness to the group that can help us.”

Twitty a hidden gem?

Elliott believes that fourth-year tight end Dakota Twitty, formerly a wide receiver (and still has wide receiver capabilities) has a very high ceiling and if he develops, could be playing football for a long time.

Twitty (6-5, 245), from the Charlotte suburbs, got off to a rough start in his career due to nagging injuries, but is really a big key in how Virginia’s offense works this season.

“We feel like Dakota can be a dynamic player for us,” Elliott said. “He can play all over within our scheme.”

That means Twitty can not only line up at tight end, but can play any of the three receiver spots in the offense, which is a huge advantage.

“We’ve got a lot of flexibility,” Elliott explained. “We can put him at any of the four receiver positions and he can go execute.”

One of the issues holding Twitty back is his ability to block as a tight end. Having been a wide receiver, he was trained to block smaller defenders on the perimeter. Now, as a tight end, he may be required to block defenders who are 15 to 20 pounds bigger than him, no easy task.

“There’s some growth that has to happen there,” Elliott said. “But we’ve been pleased with the steps that he’s making. He’s one of the guys that I’ve probably challenged the most so far in camp because I think he has a really high upside. He’s not close to his ceiling yet and we’re going to need him to really be the glue that holds everything together.”

Elliott explained that in today’s football, tight end truly is that glue position, so an offense can go from a 10 personnel with four wides to a two-back set, or have the flexibility to release backs into the “rock combinations” and have a heavy protector in blitz situations.

“We believe that he’s one of the top players on the team athletically and if he continues to progress and pushes himself to take that next step, I think the guy can play football for a long time,” Elliott said. “That’s just how talented he is, but it’s going to be the maturation in the blocking aspect of it for the run game and from the protection standpoint.”

Who is No. 69?

Most fans never pay much attention to a team’s long snapper unless there’s a problem.

So, in that case, grad student Bryce Robinson (No. 69) could go the entire season without getting noticed, except for the people who hand out the nation’s best long snapper award, of which Robinson is on the watch list.

He is in his fifth year of football, having played at Kennesaw State last season (started 12 games), then previously played three seasons at Valdosta State and started 22 consecutive games as long snapper in 2022 and 2023.

Elliott felt like it was a priority to bring in a quality long snapper and found Robinson in January.

“He has really transformed his body,” Elliott said. “In all fairness to him, he was coming maybe from a situation where he did not quite have as many of the resources from a strength-and-conditioning program and from a nutrition standpoint.”

Elliott reported that Robinson’s snap times are “really, really good,” and that he gets down the field (he made some tackles after snapping at Kennesaw, and even forced a fumbled return). “Gets down the field better than you would think for a guy as big as he is (6-7, 265). You can see a chemistry developing between him and Sparky (punter Daniel Sparks).”

Elliott rants at end of practice about lack of discipline

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

A small pool of media figures stand outside the gates waiting for Virginia’s football practice to end, then head upstairs in the Hardie Football Center to the team meeting room for interviews.

On a couple of recent occasions, media was held up a little longer than usual because an intense Tony Elliott was delivering a strong message to his team, followed by wind sprints by the players. Elliott’s voice carried over the covered fences that surround the practice fields as he expressed his discontent with the effort, reminding players of past mistakes that cost Virginia close games.

Elliott has had enough, and wasn’t shy about getting in his team’s collective faces.

The coach was asked about those outbursts after a recent practice and Elliott didn’t mind sharing his thoughts about the yelling, something pretty common among coaches.

“There’s expectations of how we conduct ourselves and what the standards are … we talk about a high level of accountability and one of the things that I have to do, and hold myself accountable, is to make sure I don’t look the other way,” Elliott said. “So when there’s things that need to be addressed, now we’re going to address them. I think they’ve gotten to a place to where they can hear the message and maybe not the tone sometimes, because I’m a highly competitive guy, too. And man, when it’s go time, it’s go time.”

With 54 new players on the roster, 31 coming via the transfer portal, Elliott believes there are guys that need to quickly understand his expectations: humility, effort, accountability, respect and toughness. He expects respect on the practice field, in the football center. He expects his players to be humble, but at the same time give great effort and display toughness.

It’s not personal. He cares about the players. He just wants their best.

“I know what changed my life, is male figures being honest with me,” Elliott said of his upbringing. “Sometimes I didn’t always like [hearing the truth] and sometimes they said it, maybe in a way that I didn’t like it, but I’m glad they did.”

Some of Elliott’s rants were about a lack of late-game discipline, making unforced errors, dumb penalties, sloppy execution, which proved disastrous.

Virginia was heavily criticized in an over-the-summer critique of the program by anonymous rival coaches in an article by Athlon.

One of the comments must have struck a nerve from an unnamed ACC coach who said of UVA: “They’re sloppy on both sides of the ball.”

Another said: “This is a team you never really worry about playing. They lack discipline and they have no real identity.”

Elliott acknowledged this week that his team needs to learn from past mistakes and to quit beating itself.

“We’ve lost too many football games around here by self-inflicted wounds late in the game, losing our discipline,” Elliott told media. “So that’s probably what you hear (in the post-practice rants). Hey, we’re going to be a disciplined football team. We can’t beat ourselves. We can’t lose to Virginia.”

He pointed to the NC State game in 2023 and to the Louisville game last season, when some special-teams snafus cost UVA the game. Against State two years ago, it was stupid penalties that robbed the Cavaliers of a win.

The Louisville game last year was particularly disappointing, because a win would have made Virginia eligible for a bowl.

“We’re in a backed-up situation because of some penalties, right? We’ve got a chance to win, right? Man, I don’t want to lose football games because we’re an undisciplined football team, and so that’s my job, to acknowledge it, recognize it and correct it.”

DB Morris will miss season with torn ACL

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

A day after Virginia coach Tony Elliott announced the Cavaliers had lost projected starting right offensive tackle Makilan Thomas for multiple months due to a fractured foot, UVA got more bad news on Thursday.

Fifth-year defensive back Ja’Maric Morris, who had impressed coaches with his work at corner in the first week of training camp, announced on social media that he tore his ACL in workouts and will be lost for the season.

Elliott noted Wednesday that Morris was injured while participating in a one-on-one drill and came down the wrong way on his knee. Coaches were waiting on results from an MRI, but Morris broke the news to the Virginia fan base on Thursday.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound grad student, who previously played at Georgia State and Central Florida, played in all 12 games for Georgia State in 2024 and was second on the team with two interceptions.