Elliott’s revamped Wahoos roll to 48-7 win in opener

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tony Elliott used to drive an old jalopy, held together by duct tape, often coughed and sputtered at the worst times, didn’t have another gear and wasn’t reliable for the long haul.

No longer.

The Virginia coach unveiled his shiny, new dream machine on Saturday night, loaded with all the extras, supercharged and worth every penny. Surrounded with a plethora of playmakers, the Cavaliers shook off some early adversity, kicked it into another gear and left shocked Coastal Carolina in the dust in a convincing 48-7 season-opening win at Scott Stadium.

UVA’s offseason transfer portal haul, fueled by the upped ante of NIL green, was money well spent. All six of the Cavaliers touchdowns were scored by transfers: two by tailback J’Mari Taylor (NC Central), two by receiver/kick returner Cam Ross (JMU), one by receiver Jahmal Edrine (Purdue) and another by tailback Harrison Waylee (Wyoming), as the announced crowd of 46,143 Wahoo fans were glued to their game program rosters.

New quarterback Chandler Morris (North Texas) delivered a solid debut for Virginia, throwing for 264 yards, rushing for 50 more, no turnovers, in slightly more than a half of playing time. Morris suffered a shoulder injury (see related story on this site) on UVA’s opening possession of the third quarter on a 28-yard run just short of the goal line and was replaced by redshirt freshman Daniel Kaelin (Nebraska).

After the dust had settled, Virginia put up 454 yards of total offense, played a hair-chested stretch of defense by limiting the Chanticleers to a mere 254, including 163 from Coastal’s new “Air Raid” passing game, ripped from the playbook of the late, great Mike Leach, in addition to special teams domination.

It was a complete mission of complimentary football, with special teams blocking a Coastal punt and a UVA record-tying 100-yard kickoff return.

“We did see a little bit of adversity, and I thought the guys responded the right way,” Elliott said.

The adversity began when Elliott gambled on fourth-and-two at his own 47 and couldn’t convert, giving Coastal good field position on its second possession of the game. Aided by two UVA penalties, the Chanticleers drove to the Cavaliers’ 13 for a third-and-three.

A high snap sailed over Coastal QB MJ Morris’ head, and Virginia linebacker James Jackson recovered at the 20. Two possessions later, the Cavaliers drew first blood on the scoreboard with a 52-yard drive and a 1-yard plunge by Taylor. The highlight was the first of Ross’ personal highlight reel on the night, a 46-yard catch-and-run to the Coastal 1.

On the Chanticleers’ first possession of the second quarter, Caleb Hardy blocked Coastal’s punt, with Virginia taking over at the visitors’ 36. Back-to-back passes of 13 yards (Ross) and 8 yards (Dakota Twitty) moved the ball to the 2, and from there, Waylee took a direct snap and bulldozed into the end zone for a 14-0 lead.

UVA took total control with a 21-point second quarter on a pair of TD passes from Morris to Ross (29 yards) and Edrine (2 yards), the latter set up by a 48-yard strike to Trell Harris, pushing the Cavaliers to a dominating 28-0 halftime lead.

Morris expanded it to 35-0 on his last drive of the game, as the Chanticleers tried to prevent getting blown out of the stadium.

Once Coastal got on the board late in the third quarter, Ross turned in the flashiest play of the night, a 100-yard kickoff return for a 42-7 lead.

The return equalled the longest in program history (tying with four others) and was the first by Virginia since Joe Reed took it to the house against Duke in 2019, and the first 100-yard return since Reed also raced one back against William & Mary, also in 2019.

It was quite a debut in a Cavaliers uniform for Ross, who stacked up 224 all-purpose yards (124 receiving, 100 kickoff return).

Ross, who drew raves in training camp from the UVA coaching staff, said his return didn’t really go as planned.

“That’s not even the direction the kick return is supposed to go,” Ross said with a grin after the game. “But [coverage] parted. I give all the credit to those 10 guys (blocking). All I’ve got to do is catch the ball and run and follow them. With a hole like that, I have the easy job. I caught the ball, I ran straight and it was all I had to do, is just run straight and make one cut.”

The special teams were just part of a complete domination of the game from wire-to-wire, as pointed out by the opposition.

“We got beat in all three phases today,” said Coastal coach Tim Beck. “We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and make sure that we’re doing the best things for our guys.”

Virginia returns to action next Saturday with a designated nonconference game at NC State, which claimed its opener earlier in the week with a 24-17 win over East Carolina.

Scoring Summary

Coastal Carolina 0-0-7-0 — 7
Virginia 7-21-14-6 — 48

First Quarter
UVA (0:01) — Taylor 1-yd run (Bettridge kick). UVA 7, CCU 0.

Second Quarter
UVA (11:22) — Waylee 1-yd run (Bettridge kick). UVA 14, CCU 0.
UVA (3:27) — Ross 29-yd pass from Morris (Bettridge kick). UVA 21, CCU 0.
UVA (0:18) — Edrine 2-yd pass from Morris (Bettridge kick). UVA 28, CCU 0.

Third Quarter
UVA (0:01) — Taylor 2-yd run (Bettridge kick). UVA 35, CCU 0.
CCU (4:26) — Simpkins 8-yd run (Afrookhteh kick). UVA 35, CCU 7.
UVA (4:12) — Ross 100-yd kickoff return (Bettridge kick). UVA 42, CCU 7.

Fourth Quarter
UVA (11:13) — Bettridge 32-yd field goal. UVA 45, CCU 7.
UVA (7:03) — Bettridge 41-yd field goal. UVA 48, CCU 7.

Player Stats

Rushing

CCU — Dominic Knicely 7-27; Ja’Vin Simpkins 8-26; Jalen John 4-20; MJ Morris 6-15; Jevon Edwards 1-6; Breyahn Townsend 2-3; Robby Washington 1-1; Team 1-(minus-7). TOTAL — 30-91.

UVA — Chandler Morris 5-50; Noah Vaughn 10-45; J’Mari Taylor 10-32; Xavier Brown 8-28; Harrison Waylee 7-18; Davis Lane Jr. 1-2; Daniel Kaelin 1-2; Team 1-(minus-13). TOTAL — 43-164.

Receiving

CCU — Brooks Johnson 2-36; Robby Washington 3-33; Cameron Wright 4-32; Malick Meiga 2-28; Bryson Graves 1-10; Eli Aragon 1-8; Malcolm Gillie 1-6; Colton Hinton 2-6; Jameson Tucker 1-2; Karmello English 1-2; Jevon Edwards 1-1; Dominic Knicely 1-(minus-1). TOTAL — 20-163.

UVA — Cam Ross 7-124; Trell Harris 3-93; Jahmal Edrine 3-24; Dakota Twitty 2-15; Dillon Newton-Short 1-13; Andre Greene Jr. 1-7; TyLyric Coleman 1-6; Xavier Brown 1-4; J’Mari Taylor 3-4. TOTAL — 22-290.

Passing

CCU — MJ Morris 20-36-163-0-1; Tad Hudson 0-1-0-0-0. TOTAL — 20-37-163-0-1.

UVA — Chandler Morris 19-27-264-2-0; Daniel Kaelin 3-9-26-0-0. TOTAL — 22-36-290-2-0.

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• With the win, Virginia improved to 2-0 all-time against Coastal Carolina. The first meeting was played in Conway, S.C., in 2024, while Saturday marked the teams’ first matchup at Scott Stadium.
• UVA improved to 87-40-9 (.673) all-time in season openers.
• The Cavaliers improved to 3-1 in both season openers and home openers under head coach Tony Elliott. Elliott is also 3-0 when opening the season at Scott Stadium.
• Virginia shut out Coastal Carolina in the first half, which marked the first time UVA held an opponent scoreless before halftime since Oct. 16, 2021 (vs. Duke).
• Virginia’s 41-point margin of victory is its largest in a game since defeating Duke 48-0 on Oct. 16, 2021.
• The Cavaliers’ 48 points are the most in a game under Elliott, surpassing UVA’s previous best of 43 points in last year’s win at Coastal Carolina. It’s also the most points in a game since 2021 (49 at No. 25 BYU, Oct. 30).
• UVA’s 21 points in the second quarter tied for eighth most all-time.
• The Cavaliers scored the first five touchdowns of the game, their longest stretch without surrendering a touchdown since Oct. 16, 2021, against Duke (48-0).
• Coastal Carolina was 1-for-14 on third down in the contest.

Player Notes

• Chandler Morris started in his fourth consecutive season opener (2 at TCU, 1 at North Texas, 1 at UVA).
• Morris entered Saturday’s contest as one of 15 FBS quarterbacks expected to open the season as his team’s starting QB for the fourth consecutive year.
• Morris threw for 264 yards and two touchdowns on 17-of-24 passing. It marked the 14th time in his career he’s thrown for more that 250 yards in a game.
• In his Cavalier debut, Cam Ross accounted for 224 all-purpose yards (124 receiving, 100 KOR), which included a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
• Ross’ kickoff return TD matched that of the longest in school history and is the first kickoff return for a touchdown by a Cavalier since Joe Reed did so against Duke in 2019. The 100-yard return is one of five in program history with the last by Reed against William & Mary in 2019.
• Ross collected his fourth 100-yard receiving performance of his career. His four career 100-yard receiving performances lead all players on UVA’s 2025 roster.
• J’Mari Taylor’s rushed for a pair of touchdowns in the contest, his 24th and 25th running scores of his career. Dating back to his time at NC Central, he has now rushed for a touchdown in 12-straight games. He now has six multi-rushing-touchdown games in his career.
• Taylor is the first UVA running back to record multiple rushing TDs in a game since Mike Hollins had two against Miami on Oct. 28, 2023.
• Trell Harris hauled in a career-long 48-yard reception with a one-handed grab late in the second quarter that setup the Hoos’ third TD of the period.
• Caleb Hardy blocked a punt in the second quarter; it marked the first time UVA has blocked a punt since 2019 (Noah Taylor, at Pitt).
• With 12 points, placekicker Will Bettridge (2-3 FG, 6-6 PAT) moved to No. 11 on UVA’s all-time scoring list. He now has 208 points in 32 career games.
• Linebacker James Jackson nabbed his first career fumble recovery while CCU was in the red zone in the first quarter.
• Drake Metcalf started at right guard for UVA, his first start since the 2023 season while playing at UCF. Metcalf missed the entire 2024 season due to an Achillies injury.
• Harrison Waylee’s 1-yard plunge to put UVA up 14-0 early in the second quarter was his 17th of his career and first as a Cavalier.
• Jahmal Edrine hauled in his first TD reception since Nov. 11, 2024 (vs. Northwestern), when he was at Purdue. The TD reception was also the ninth of his career.
• Wide receiver Eli Wood and linebacker Landon Danley made their first career starts. Danley led all UVA tacklers with seven.