By Jerry Ratcliffe

Scattershooting around Virginia football, fans throw shade at Des … and, will Chandler Morris suit up for Duke? …

Having been intimately involved with football practically my entire life, I know a warrior when I see one. Morris is a warrior. Nothing short of a doctor’s order is going to keep him sidelined for one of the most important games of his career.

Based on my sources, Morris will play against Duke on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ESPN2). We believe that Morris has cleared protocols. We know for a fact that he practiced Wednesday and Thursday and took first-team reps.

We started this column when Morris was listed as questionable on the Availability Report and was upgraded to probable late Friday night as we finished this article. Nevertheless, I’m certain, from my sources in Durham, that Duke has prepared for Morris most of the week, so no surprise there. Some reported it’s a “game-time” decision, but I think the decision was made days ago when Morris returned to active practice.

Virginia, which is a 4.5- to 5.5-point underdog depending on where you shop, likely can’t win this game without Morris. Backup Daniel Kaelin is going to be a terrific quarterback, but just isn’t ready to take on Duke in what could be a scoring battle.

The Blue Devils put up a lot of points, and if Virginia has to answer in a shootout, it’s going to require an experienced triggerman. UVA’s secondary, which is playing lights-out, may be able to contain Duke QB Darian Mensah (second in the nation in passing yardage at 310.4 yards per game), which would help tremendously. If not, the Wahoos are likely going to have to put points on the board after not scoring a touchdown in last week’s loss to Wake Forest.

As Virginia tight end Sage Ennis said this week: “I look at a [Duke] defense who knows what they’re doing, who’s confident in their gameplan, and at the end of the day, they’ve given up some points, but I don’t think that’s deterred them from who they are. Like Clemson was able to put up 45 and Duke still won. They’re not going to back away from what they do.”

Morris has the experience to get the job done if he’s protected. Duke’s main vulnerability appears to be its secondary (UConn, in last week’s 37-34 upset over the Blue Devils, threw for 311 yards). Duke went stretches in that game with three true freshmen in the secondary, something that Morris could take advantage of.

“I haven’t played with three true freshmen in the secondary in crunch time in games before,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said after the loss to UConn. “We have what we have. We continue to get better and we know we face a really good passing offense again this weekend.

“There’s not a lot of sample size of when the other guy [Kaelin] was in there,” Diaz said. “There will be a different skill set. But at this point of the season, the plays are the plays. People are going to run what they’re going to run. You’ve got to get your defense set up to match everything up and stop it.”

Diaz believes in man coverage, a tough ask for true freshmen, not all of the time, but often because it forces the opposing QB and receivers to make low-percentage plays.

As always, the key for Virginia is likely its ability to run the ball, something that has tailed off in recent weeks, especially with the loss of speed back Xavier Brown. Leading rusher J’Mari Taylor is chiefly a between-the-tackles runner, although he can break runs outside the box, something that Diaz has noticed.

“[Taylor] runs people over, which is what jumps off tape,” Diaz said. “Toughness always shows up on tape. It always starts with your ability to match up versus the run game. It’s hard to manipulate fronts if you can’t stop the run. Virginia has a real challenge with the back that they have.”

Good TV News for Football Fans

According to reports, Disney has come to a deal with YouTubeTV on its clash over televising football and other sporting events. Now, you have another option to catch Saturday’s UVA game at Duke if you’re not an ESPN subscriber.

The report said: “We are pleased that our networks have been restored in time for fans to enjoy the many great programming options this weekend, including college football.”

Tony Elliott’s message

The Virginia coach has done a good job of motivating his team this season, and it hasn’t hurt that a huge portion of his two-deep are veteran players who thrive on motivation.

One of the things that Elliott shared with his team this week was simple and straight to the point:

“When you go into the month of November, you’ve got to go to another level,” Elliott said. “You’ve got to find something deeper inside of you because it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, well, we know what it takes.’ But you’re going to get [every opponent’s] best and each week that bar is raising.”

Elliott stressed to his team that “every game from here on out is a championship-level game and so we’ve got to have that mindset, that level of effort, that level of intensity.”

Another Cavalier player said that Elliott challenged the team, pointing out that if they’re not preparing for every game like it was for the ACC Championship, then they’re not preparing properly.

Des: “Just be pissed at Me”

A lot of Virginia fans’ criticism of last week’s upset loss to Wake Forest was pointed at offensive coordinator Des Kitchings for the Cavaliers’ failure to reach the end zone a single time in a one-score loss.

Why has the UVA offense bogged down so much in the Red Zone ever since the Cavaliers’ bye week? Certainly some of that had to do with the injury to Morris last week, but it goes beyond that.

We’ve heard Elliott comment, along with some of the players, that “there’s a lot of film out there,” meaning that opponents have had Virginia so well-scouted that they’ve taken away some of the things that the Cavaliers do best.

Even Ennis commented on that this week.

“As you get to this point of the season, a lot more teams have had a chance to scout you, right?” Ennis said. “And you know there’s always the couple of plays that you really heavily rely on because they’ve worked the whole season. As some might say, your bread and butter. And so people start to scout that.”

This is a harsh reality of any sports team during every season. People want to take away what you do well with counter strategy.

Kitchings has talked about it before, but I asked him again this week, what does he do to counter measure what opponents are trying to take away. It got interesting.

“You come off a game like that (Wake), and you ask why weren’t we as effective offensively? Why didn’t we score the points? Something schematically? Was it a play call? Was it execution? Or do we need to adjust something that we’ve been doing?”

Kitchings said the staff has fundamental beliefs and a core of reps of plays. So, I asked, when teams scout and try to take things away, how much does he and the offensive staff tweak things or adjust accordingly?

“It’s how can we present that differently to the defense? This time of year, man, we’ve just got to execute better and harder. Put the guys in a better position in situational football, whether the angles are correct in the run game, do we get the right numbers, get our hats right. And then it’s about going to execute them.”

So, eye candy? Presenting things that look like something else?

“Yeah, some of it is eye candy, but we can’t fool ourselves either,” Kitchings said.

Virginia’s OC took particular heat for a play he called near the goal line that blew up. It was a split formation for a screen pass that didn’t work and kept the Cavaliers out of the end zone.

“Not to take total blame for that, but we practiced that for five weeks in a row,” Kitchings said. “When the opportunity presents itself to call it. The whole premise of that was, when we spread out right it’s disguising another formation. If (the opponent) doesn’t match the numbers, then the quarterback has the autonomy to throw it out there. We had three O-linemen and J’Mari (to the left) and [Wake] had only three defenders. So, the math said that’s in our favor.

“Unfortunately, it just wasn’t executed right with the block and the [defensive] guy tackles. So that happens, right? So if anybody wants to get pissed off, get pissed off at me. That’s football.”

Hootie’s Golden Nuggets

• Arafan Diane, who took one of his official visits to Virginia, will announce his college choice on his birthday, Nov. 19, between UVA, Kentucky, Houston, Indiana and Arkansas. Diane has been rated as the top center prospect in the nation.
• Virginia linebacker Kam Robinson is the first player in the last 20 years to record a blocked punt, a pick six and a fumble recovery in the same season. Wow, throw in the safety he had against Washington State and you might have to go back 50 years.
• With 14 blocks in three games, Virginia’s Johann Grunloh is tied for the second-most by any ACC player (through their first three games) … a mark that has stood up since 1998.
• RJ Moore, a guard from Ambassador Christian School in North Carolina, is making an unofficial visit to UVA for Saturday’s game with Marshall. Moore is a prospect from the recruiting class of 2027.
• According to @64Analytics, the top baseball transfer in the ACC is Virginia’s AJ Gracia. Meanwhile, “Perfect Game,” has rated Virginia’s overall recruiting class No. 8 in the nation.
• Didn’t take long for former Virginia sharpshooter Isaac McKneely to make an impact at Louisville. He has already taken more transition 3-pointers (8) in only three games at Louisville than he did all of last season at Virginia (6). I was never quite convinced that UVA was using him properly.
• Virginia’s basketball team is ranked No. 2 in the nation in blocked shots with 29.
• If you haven’t listened to our podcast (numerous platforms including JerryRatcliffe.com), or watched (our YouTube channel) “The Hootie & JJ Show” for our hour-long sit down with Dave Odom, Ryan’s dad, and a former UVA assistant coach to Terry Holland (and also head coach at Wake Forest and South Carolina), then you’re missing out. Odom is a bridge from those days to the present. Jeff Jones and I thoroughly enjoyed our in-depth chat with Dave from his home in Winston-Salem. Dave Odom is a great storyteller and he doesn’t disappoint in this podcast as he details how he came to UVA, talks about the coaching “think tank” in U-Hall’s cramped offices, tells some stories on son, Ryan, and also an incredible recruiting trip to New York by him and Jim Larrañaga. It’s a “must-listen” for Wahoo fans.