By Jerry Ratcliffe
Injuries continued to pile up for Virginia’s hobbled offensive line during its overtime win at Louisville on Saturday.
Tight end Dakota Twitty was injured early in the first quarter and after some time in the locker room, watched the remainder of the game on crutches from the UVA sideline.
Starting left offensive tackle McKale Boley also went down with an undisclosed injury in the first half and did not return to the game.
Quarterback Chandler Morris was hit hard on a 7-yard keeper on Virginia’s only overtime possession, colliding with three Louisville tacklers at the 2-yard line. By rule, Morris had to leave the game for one play and was replaced by backup Daniel Kaelin, who was in the game for the Cavaliers’ winning touchdown, a direct snap to tailback J’Mari Taylor.
Tony Elliott said after the game that Morris was okay.
“He’s a warrior and he’s a winner, and injury-wise, he’s gonna be OK,” Elliott said. “He took a tough hit, but he bounced up after a few minutes on the ground. That’s just who he is. He’s a warrior and he’s going to lay it on the line. He knows what it takes. That’s why everybody in that locker room and in our building has complete confidence in him and follows him wherever he wants to lead us.”
Twitty wasn’t as fortunate as his quarterback.
“I think we’ll know more (about Twitty) when we get back and get more scans, but I think it’s probably going to be a little while on his lower leg,” Elliott said.
Boley’s injury was another blow to the offensive line, which was already down to its fourth-team right tackle and had moved starting right guard Drake Metcalf to play for injured starting center Brady Wilson. In Boley’s absence, O-line coach Terry Heffernan inserted redshirt freshman Ben York to protect Morris’ blindside.
“Oh, Lord have mercy on the offensive line,” Elliott bemoaned. “Poor Coach Heffernan. He’s down, oh my gosh, I don’t know how many guys he’s down, then Boley goes down. They found a way. They just keep battling.
“[Louisville] started pressuring us a lot there in the second half, trying to get after the quarterback, but we found enough offense when it mattered the most.”
Elliott didn’t give any more information about Boley, but was thankful that Virginia will now have a bye week before nonconference opponent Washington State comes to Charlottesville on Oct. 18 (6:30 p.m. kickoff).
Washington State is 3-2 with wins over Colorado State, San Diego State and Idaho. The Cougars, who had a bye this weekend, lost 59-10 to North Texas (Chandler Morris’ former school) and 59-24 to Washington.
Washington State plays at No. 4 Ole Miss this coming Saturday.
The bye week couldn’t have been timed any better in Elliott’s opinion.
“We should get several guys back over the next two weeks by the time we kick off for Washington State, which will be huge for us, especially with the five-game run that we have with them and then the four conference games before our last open (bye) week,” Elliott said.
