I was wrong in my prognostication on the status for this weekend of Virginia starting QB Chandler Morris, who I thought would be listed on Thursday’s availability report as “probable” as he deals with a head injury suffered in the second quarter of last week’s loss to Wake Forest.
Turns out, Morris is listed as “questionable,” which is better, certainly, than “out,” but still leaves his status for Saturday’s game at Duke very much up in the air.
Last we’d heard from UVA Football coach Tony Elliott on the matter, if Morris, a sixth-year senior, wasn’t able to participate in practice, he was not likely to be the guy behind center when the ‘Hoos (8-2, 5-1 ACC) face Duke (5-4, 4-1 ACC).
“Man, I think there’s so much in a game plan. that you need to practice, right, and be able to take some of those reps,” Elliott told reporters at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “His position is about timing, so we would need him to get into practice. Is he a veteran guy that’s played enough football that you could say, OK, he could play? Yes. But will his precision and his timing be there if he doesn’t practice? So, we’re hopeful that by tomorrow, we’ll have him back in practice, rock and roll.”
If Morris, who has passed for 2,088 yards and 12 TDs, and gained 214 yards and run for four TDs on the ground, this season, isn’t able to go, the next-man-up would be redshirt freshman Daniel Kaelin, who subbed in for Morris when the QB1 was knocked out of the 16-9 loss to Wake Forest last weekend in the second quarter after taking a pair of cheap shots from Wake defenders on a sliding six-yard run.
Kaelin led the ‘Hoos to two field goals, but also lost two fumbles that led to Wake field goals, and his effort on a potential game-tying two-minute drive – Kaelin was 6-of-7 for 51 yards on the drive – came up short when his fourth-down pass from the Wake 5 fell incomplete with 13 seconds to go.
“I thought he had probably two plays that he wanted back, but other than that, he did his job,” Elliott said.
Our job now is to wait for the final pregame availability report, which is required to be posted by 1:30 p.m. on Saturday – two hours before the scheduled 3:30 p.m. kickoff.
For the record, “questionable” is defined as “uncertain to play; less than 50 percent chance.”
I’m still thinking Morris plays, but I’m also a bit Pollyanna-ish about these sorts of things.
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Chris Graham
