By Jerry Ratcliffe
Tony Elliott sees a huge benefit for the development of his Virginia football team with the extended practice time in preparation for postseason play.
The Cavaliers gained an extra week of practice for last week’s ACC Championship and will get 15 days of practice for their Tax Slayer Gator Bowl spot on Dec. 27 (7:30 p.m.) in Jacksonville, Fla.
Virginia, 10-3, will take on 8-4 Missouri from the SEC in the bowl game. The Tigers opened as a 7-point favorite, and that has moved to 6.5 depending on where you shop.
UVA hasn’t been to a bowl since 2019 and didn’t qualify the first three years of Elliott’s era in Charlottesville, so this is a new beginning for the Wahoos.
“Oh, man, I mean, I’m not used to sitting home for Christmas,” Elliott said in a Gator Bowl press event this week. “In the past three years, I’ve been home at Christmas.”
Elliott, of course, was a big part of Clemson’s success during the Tigers’ dominance of the ACC for a decade and a regular participant in the College Football Playoffs.
“We’re excited to be preparing for a bowl game,” Elliott said. “This senior group, with the exception of Antonio Clary, has never been to a bowl game. So we’re just grateful for the opportunity. That was the focus at the beginning of the year.”
The Virginia coach said he loves the pageantry of college football and bowl games and noted that his first bowl was the Gator Bowl against Virginia Tech and Michael Vick.
Elliott pointed out that he and some of his staff have some relationships with Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz and his staff. While Elliott was offensive coordinator at Clemson he coached against Drinkwitz for three seasons (2016-18), while Drinkwitz was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at NC State. Virginia’s offensive coordinator Des Kitchings was on that same Wolfpack staff with Drinkwitz, Kitchings serving as associate head coach and running backs coach.
Missouri opened the season at 5-0 before getting to the meat of its conference schedule. The Tigers lost 27-24 to No. 11 Alabama, lost 17-10 to No. 13 Vanderbilt, 38-17 to No. 7 Texas A&M and 17-6 to No. 8 Oklahoma.
Both Elliott and Drinkwitz said their teams have something to play for. Elliott wants his Cavaliers to become the first 11-win team in program history. Drinkwitz thinks it would be special if his team can become the first Missouri team to post three consecutive seasons of nine wins or more.
The Cavaliers should enter the bowl game in fairly decent health. Elliott said the one question mark for his team is wide receiver Trell Harris.
“We’re still waiting on imaging on Trell, he’d be the biggest one from the game,” the coach said.
With snow shutting down everything in Charlottesville, the imaging had to wait.
“We’ll know better kind of the extent of his injury, but as of right now, all the guys are indicating that any of the postseason cleanup surgeries will be done after the bowl,” Elliott said.
Virginia will return to practice on Thursday and Friday before having its annual team banquet.
“Then we’ll really get into our Missouri bowl prep starting next week. Then we’ll take a little bit of a break, the 19th through the 21st, just give the guys an opportunity to go home for Christmas, and then report to Jacksonville on the 23rd.”
