Gator Bowl Notes: Is anybody paying attention, or are our eyes already on next year?

The UVA Football program has never had an 11-win season. You’d think that would get our attention.

Instead, and I can’t fault anybody for this, seems our focus as a fan base is on next year.

Namely:

• Will we get Chandler Morris back for another run?
• What are the priorities outside of QB?
• What about Tony Elliott and the staff?

---

ICYMI

• Gator Bowl preview: What to expect from undermanned Missouri on Saturday

---

I’m heading down on Friday, which means I’ll miss all of the media availabilities – odd schedule, around Christmas: there’s a welcome event tonight, Tuesday, a practice on Wednesday, a quiet day on Thursday, Friday, a press conference at a local TV station.

That’s all for the local Jacksonville media anyway.

At this late stage, the tickets that were going to be sold to the home bases have been sold; the media avails are about drumming up local ticket sales and reminding the folks back home to watch on Saturday night.

I assume the two fan bases will tune in, and because the two teams are ranked, there will be a fair number of general-interest fans.

Last year’s Gator Bowl, which was played on Jan. 2, Ole Miss vs. Duke, drew 5 million viewers on ESPN.

The 2023 game, pitting Clemson vs. Kentucky, got 3.4 million.

This is big for UVA Football, which played to 3.9 million TV viewers in the ACC Championship Game back on Dec. 6, and 4.4 million for the Friday primetime game with FSU on Sept. 26.

Only one other game this season drew more than a million – the regular-season finale with Virginia Tech on Nov. 29, which hit 1.4 million.

My guess is we’ll get on Saturday night in the range of what we did for FSU on a Friday night in the early fall.

I’ll be in the press box, so I won’t get the audio from the ESPN broadcast crew – Bob Wischusen and Louis Riddick in the booth, Kris Budden on the sideline – but I’m willing to bet that a lot of the chatter will be about next year, with both programs.

For Virginia, we know the storylines; for Mizzou, it will be about the starting QB, Beau Pribula, hitting the transfer portal, the new offensive coordinator, Chip Lindsey, who (barely) escaped the mess at Michigan.

I know for me, the part of me that’s a fan, in addition to being an observer and quasi-analyst, I won’t be on the pins and needles that had me hyperventilating late in the fourth quarter and into OT in Charlotte at the ACCCG.

I want to see my side – the ol’ alma mater – get to 11 (Rob Reiner, RIP), but as important, just be competitive, and let’s see if we can get out of this one with nobody getting hurt.

In the meantime, since I’m going to be there, the forecast has the high down there on Friday at 78, on Saturday at 77.

At kickoff, at 7:30 p.m. ET, it’s going to be 67.

Whereas in Waynesboro at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night: 43.

Speaking of forecasts, I was the one who had Virginia winning eight games and playing south of the Mason-Dixon in December.

This weekend is my reward.