Jordan Ellis Hits Two Milestones in Belk Bowl Win
Posted on Sunday, Dec. 30, 2018, 11:08 am
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By Jerry Ratcliffe
CHARLOTTE – During Friday’s Belk Bowl press conference, Virginia quarterback Bryce Perkins said one of his wishes was for both Jordan Ellis and Olamide Zaccheaus to reach 1,000 yards on the season.
Thanks to a 22-for-31 passing performance by Perkins, Zaccheaus hit the plateau in the game with a 12-catch, 100-yard performance, resulting in three touchdowns and the bowl’s MVP honors in the Cavaliers’ shocking 28-0 whipping of favored South Carolina.
Perkins couldn’t do much to help Ellis, who finished the game with 106 yards rushing on 26 carries (4.1 average per attempt) and a TD. Those numbers pushed him over 1,000 for the season as he became the first UVa running back to compile 1,000 yards rushing since Kevin Parks in 2013.
While Ellis reached the number midway through the fourth quarter, there was no announcement in the stadium, although UVa’s coaches told Ellis he had accomplished the feat. Being the humble dude he is, Ellis didn’t share the news with his teammates.
The coaches though, deliberately kept Ellis in the game for two reasons. One, they wanted him to eat up the clock by grinding out yardage.
Two?
“[The coaches] wanted me to break 100 and they kept me in there until I broke 100, then they took me out,” Ellis said.
Still, well after the game was over and Virginia’s players emerged from their locker room at Bank of America Stadium for interviews, Perkins didn’t have a clue.
“Did [Ellis] get it?” Perkins asked media.
Informed Ellis hit the 1,000-yard number, Perkins was elated.
“Oh yes,” Perkins said, clapping his hands. “I had no idea. I’m slacking. I’m so happy for him and O (Zaccheaus) for each reaching 1,000. One of the keys coming into this game was feeding [Ellis]. He had so many clutch runs, moving the chains, getting it to second [down] and medium [yards to go for a first].”
Getting to 1,000 was a big deal for Ellis, who became only the 15th back in UVa history to hit the mark.
“That was one of my goals coming into the season,” the senior said. “I have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line. We had a way more improved run game this year and that helped pave the way to eight wins.”
Coach Bronco Mendenhall believed that running success on first and second downs was one of the keys to the game, and Ellis was a big part of that behind an offensive line that controlled the line of scrimmage against a South Carolina defense that came in pounding its collective chests all week, proclaiming how they wanted to roll over a team from the ACC.
“When we’re able to run the ball and get four or five yards on first down and stay ahead of the sticks, we had third-and-two, third-and-three the whole game,” Ellis said. “That makes it easier for the offense and for the play calling. We stayed out of a lot of third-and-longs. That’s good offensive football.”
While the Gamecocks may have been favored in the game, Virginia’s offense wasn’t intimidated at all by its SEC opponent.
“We felt we’d be able to run the ball on them and could match up with our receivers on their corners,” Ellis said of UVa’s scouting reports. “We established the run and that opened up the passing game. Bryce was able to do what he does and that opened up the offense. When we’re running the ball, we’re able to control the clock and control the game.”
The Cavaliers advantage in time of possession was staggering. They owned the football for 42 minutes, 35 seconds of the 60-minute contest.
Going out a winner, with Virginia’s first 8-win season since 2011 and its first bowl win since 2005, was important to Ellis and his fellow seniors, too.
“It means a lot to go out on top,” Ellis said about him and the seniors. “Me, O (Zaccheaus), Chris (Peace), Tim (Harris), we’ve been through a lot. We’ve been 2-10 and on the bottom. To get a win like this against an SEC team, it means the world to us, and something I’ll never forget the rest of my life.”
For critics that say bowl games don’t matter any longer, that only the College Football Playoffs mean anything, let them talk to Ellis and the Cavaliers.
“I feel like bowl games matter, especially for teams like us on the rise,” Ellis said. “After the two overtime losses (to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech to end the season), it was good to get back and get into the win column. We worked hard all year and were that close to getting nine or 10 wins, but eight is something special for this program at this point and just the start for Coach Mendenhall and what he’s going to do at UVa.”
Ellis believes Saturday’s shutout over South Carolina is just the beginning.
Ellis said it will take a couple of days to set in, but believes UVa’s program is on the move.
“I feel we’ve narrowed that gap as a program and the best is yet to come for Virginia football,” he said. “I want to thank the coaches for pushing us, even when we got here to the bowl site, the pushed us to focus on the task at hand.
“Coach Mendenhall told us that the team that was hungriest and had more to prove would win the game,” Ellis continued. “We wanted to prove the ACC was just as good as the SEC and that’s what we proved.”
Perhaps not overall, but certainly between the Gamecocks and Cavaliers. And it wasn’t even close.
