From his wheelchair, Perris Jones asks for a packed house on Saturday

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Posted on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023, 4:00 pm

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By Jerry Ratcliffe

If you are searching for a reason to be thankful on this special day of the year, look no further than a 30-second video sent out to Wahoo Nation by Perris Jones for the Thanksgiving weekend, which is also the Virginia vs. Virginia Tech rivalry weekend.

Jones is a sixth-year running back from Alexandria who suffered a spinal-cord injury during a violent collision with a Louisville defensive back in UVA’s 31-24 loss in Kentucky on Nov. 9. He has been there ever since.

The video scene begins with Jones sitting in a wheelchair at the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute in Louisville as the running back offers encouragement to Virginia fans for the weekend:

“What’s up Wahoo fans … Perris Jones here, sixth-year running back,” Jones said. “I just want to encourage you guys to pack Scott Stadium on Saturday at 3:30. It’s the Commonwealth Cup. Our boys need us right behind them and let’s go get a win, man.”

Jones then stands up on his own — a very good sign, it would seem — and finishes the video with, “Let’s go Hoos.”

Virginia coach Tony Elliott and running backs coach Keith Gaither got to visit Jones early last week after Elliott’s weekly press conference. UVA flew the coaches out to Louisville where they spent some quality time with the injured running back.

It was an inspiring and emotional moment for Elliott and Gaither, something Elliott was proud to share with Cavaliers fans. If your eyes leak a bit as you read what Jones said to his coaches, you’re forgiven. It’s Thanksgiving.

“It was awesome to be able to go to Louisville and see Perris,” Elliott said. “So grateful for the administration in making that happen. Man, he inspired me. Here’s a 25-year-old young man whose football career presumably is finished and he’s in a hospital, just had major surgery … and the first thing he says is he apologizes to Coach Gaither and myself for fumbling the football.

“I mean, that was his first comment and then he made a profound statement while we were in there, and we were kind of talking about the situation and what happened and he said, ‘I remember laying on the ground and once Kelli (Pugh, UVA associate athletic director for sports medicine) and everybody kind of calmed me down and stabilized me, I remember closing my eyes and saying, God I’m listening.’ For a young man to say that, it just inspired me as a 43-year old man who’s been through a lot.”

Elliott knows adversity. He was only 4 years old when he and his mother and younger sister briefly lived on the streets of Los Angeles after his parents separated. Elliott was in the car with his mom when she was killed in an accident when he was 9.

No other football coach in America has had to deal with more adversity over the past year than Elliott, who not only made the roundtrip flight last Tuesday to visit Jones, but had spent a portion of the day before memorializing Virginia’s three slain football players on the anniversary of their tragic deaths.

Yet, he used all those sources of inspiration to get his football team ready to defeat Duke, 30-27, a few days later. Now, Virginia hosts Virginia Tech on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ACC Network).

Jones is encouraging a packed house at Scott Stadium to send out the seniors with a win. While he will be watching from his hospital in Louisville, Jones will be there in spirit.