Morris stands out in UVA spring game

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Late in the first half of Virginia’s spring football game Saturday, it appeared that defensive coordinator John Rudzinski just might get his wish.

“I was hoping for a 0-0 tie today,” Rudzinski chuckled in reference to dominant defensive play.

Veteran punter Daniel Sparks, handling place-kicking duties in the game, ruined Coach Rud’s perfect day by kicking a 26-yard field goal to end the first half, with offenses finally hitting their strides in the second half as the White squad downed the Blue, 17-9.

While the White team prevailed, scoring two touchdowns in the second half behind two strikes from senior Gavin Frakes (10 yards to Kam Courtney, 6 yards to Owen Gardner), it was North Texas transfer quarterback Chandler Morris who displayed the most impressive arm in the contest.

Morris, who previously played at North Texas, TCU and Oklahoma, completed 12 of 15 passes for 155 yards (no interceptions) in only one half of football. During a short stretch in the second quarter, Morris connected on three straight passes for 23, 17 and 22 yards.

“We got to see both teams move the ball up and down in the first half,” Tony Elliott said of the two offenses that bogged down in the red zone. “I would have loved to have seen about 10 more points on each side in the first half, finish some drives with touchdowns and field goals, but we saw some explosive plays.”

Somewhat short on experienced personnel due to a plethora of players sitting out with injuries or recuperating from offseason surgeries, Elliott elected to hold a spring game anyway because he wanted players to see the impact of a penalty in a game as opposed to practice, and to further evaluate a number of new players from the transfer portal and early enrollees from high school.

One of those was Morris, who has thrown for 6,207 yards and 47 touchdowns in his career (3,774 last season at North Texas).

“We saw him move in the pocket, extended some plays with his legs,” Elliott said. “He also sat in there on third-and-long and rip one up the seam.”

Frakes, who played the second half in place of Morris, completed 7 of 10 passes for 72 yards. Nebraska redshirt freshman transfer Daniel Kaelin played the first half for the Blue team and was 6 of 12 passing for 67 yards. His backup, Grady Brosterhous, was 6 of 16 for 93 yards and a score (Davis Lane) in the second half.

Gardner, a seventh-year running back (that is not a typo) from Hillsdale College, led the White team in rushing with 34 yards on 11 carries, while Xavier Brown rushed 9 times for 14 yards. J’Mari Taylor, a fifth-year transfer from NC Central, paced the Blues with 52 yards rushing on 9 attempts.

Josiah Abdullah, an early enrollee from Columbus, Ga., led the Blue in receiving with 47 yards on 5 catches, while Lane had 4 receptions for 35 yards, including a 25-yard TD.

For the White, Jahmal Edrine, a transfer from Purdue, had 5 catches for 44 yards, while Hayden Rollison, a junior tight end from Richmond, had 4 catches for 39 yards. Senior tight end Dakota Twitty, who came on at the end of last season, put up 51 yards on 3 catches.

Abdullah seemed comfortable for a player who could still be in high school, one of a few players each season that fit in immediately with college ball, Elliott said. Offensive coordinator Des Kitchings said he sees some of the same attributes in Abdullah that former UVA receiver Malik Washington displayed.

Elliott has been pleased with his quarterbacks this spring, clearly with the focus on the two new transfers, Chandler and Kaelin.

“I think everybody got to see how well Danny moves, right?” Elliott said of Kaelin, who ran out of trouble a few times. “Danny extended some plays with his legs, made big throws.

“I like both quarterbacks. They’re a little bit different, but what you saw is what they can do within the system, everything that we need them to do and more. Both of them were really good outside the pocket and they have potential in the pocket. In the end, I want [the competition] to be decided by those two guys. We’re going to need both of them.”

Defensively, Myles Brown led the Blue with 11 tackles, while Stevie Bracey had 8, Armstrong Jones and Jewett Hayes with 7 each. For the White, Rob Keys had 8 tackles, Devin Neal 6, Billy Koudelka 5 (including a whopping four sacks), Corey Costner 4 tackles.

Koudelka, a 6-foot-8 sophomore defensive end from VES in Lynchburg, had a career sack day.

“Obviously a lot to learn,” Elliott said of Koudelka. “Everybody sees the splash plays, but also where he’s grown is the ability to set the edge on the run game where we need him to be an every-down player.”

Quarterbacks were not allowed to be tackled, so Elliott told Koudelka the next step come fall camp is to take the QBs to the ground.

Saturday’s game concluded Virginia’s spring drills.