Copyright Augusta Free Press
Backup tailback Xavier Brown is out for the season with an ACL injury, UVA Football coach Tony Elliott confirmed for reporters on Tuesday. That news had unfortunately been expected, since Brown, a redshirt junior, went down with a non-contact injury on a special-teams play in the second half of the 22-20 win over Washington State on Oct. 18. Brown rushed for 241 yards and a TD and also had a TD catch this season. The tailback room still has leading rusher J’Mari Taylor (581 yards, nine TDs), Harrison Waylee (265 yards, five TDs) and Noah Vaughn (177 yards) to handle the load in the ground game. Quarterback Chandler Morris is obviously struggling with the injured left shoulder that has been an issue for him health-wise since the opener, when he was forced out of the game after taking a big hit on a long scramble in the 48-7 win over Coastal Carolina. Elliott was asked if he has noticed any change in the way Morris, a sixth-year senior, has been playing. “I haven’t really noticed it,” Elliott said. “Like, I mean, you see at Louisville, and he’s running the ball, puts his body on the line. North Carolina puts his body on the line. So really, you know, we’re not going to say that that’s the reason that things may not be what they are.” I’m not sure Coach is being level with us. The offense has struggled the past three weeks, averaging 265.7 yards per game over the past three, after averaging 539.6 yards per game the first five. Morris, in the past three games, has completed 59.3 percent of his passes – his completion rate in his first five: 71.6 percent – and is averaging 176.0 yards per game (first five: 255.8), with two TDs and one INT (first five: 10 TDs, four INTs), while gaining 65 yards on the ground (first five: 169) and eating eight sacks (first five: three). Slot receiver Cam Ross (concussion protocol) “should be back this week,” Elliott said, but you may remember, the coach was saying the same thing this time last week. Which was something that Elliott explained. “It was a kind of thing something that lingered from the game that we thought we were going to be able to push through, and then it resurfaced later in the week. And so, the best thing was to give him a little time to rest and anticipate he’ll be back. He was out there yesterday getting some work in,” Elliott said. Ross, a seventh-year senior, is third on the team in catches (28) and receiving yards (329). We assumed that the O line was going to be fine going into the North Carolina game with the return of starting center Brady Wilson, the highest-graded guy on the unit before he went down with a high ankle sprain in the Week 4 win over Stanford. And then the line went out and laid an egg in the 17-16 OT win over UNC, allowing six sacks, and not doing much to help the run game, which had a season-low 59 net rushing yards. “Well, I think offensively, there’s rhythm, right? I thought Brady did some really good things. There was also some times you can see where, OK, he might not have played in three or four games. I think the rhythm will reestablish itself,” Elliott said. “I don’t know if it’s easy as just plug-and-play, especially offensively. But man, the guys battled, they found a way, right. And we know the things we gotta clean up, and I’m excited about the way they’ve returned to practice yesterday, right. I think that they understand that the offense, that was once being praised, that’s now kind of being questioned a little bit, is the same offense that’s sitting in this room. It’s the same, it’s the same guys. “And as I tell them, it’s not far from the penthouse to the outhouse,” Elliott said. “And then when I said that saying, someone reminded me that sometimes the penthouse and the outhouse are on the same floor, right. So, it’s really, it’s really not that far.” Let me interject here. I grew up, um, in a humble environment; my first home, where we lived until I was 3, didn’t have indoor plumbing. I’m familiar with using an outhouse. The outhouse is not on the same floor as any penthouse. The chicken coop wasn’t far away, but there was no penthouse in sight. Back to Elliott, to wrap things up: “I was excited about the way that they practiced yesterday,” Elliott said. “I’m very intentional on trying to correct the things and focus on what we can control. We got a good bunch that’s going to challenge us, and we’re going to need to be able to run the football to establish all the other things that come off of it. I’m excited to see these guys respond.”
