The UVA Football program is facing a quick turnaround from playing the ACC Championship Game last week to preparing for the season finale on Dec. 27 at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, where the ‘Hoos will face Missouri, an SEC team that finished the regular season with an 8-4 record.
Yes, three weeks will have passed between the ACC title game and the bowl game, but it’s a busy three weeks – with final exams starting on Thursday, bowl-game prep beginning next week, and then coach Tony Elliott is giving his guys three days off before Christmas to spend time with their families, ahead of reporting to Jacksonville on Dec. 23.
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It’s a good problem to have – having to manage everything with exams and the holidays – considering.
“I mean, I’m not used to sitting home for Christmas,” said Elliott, who was an assistant at Clemson during the good years down in Death Valley, when the Tigers were regularly in the College Football Playoff mix this time of year.
“The last three years, I’ve been home at Christmas, and so, man, we’re excited to be in this building preparing for a for a bowl game,” said Elliott, whose first three teams finished 3-7, 3-9 and 5-7, ahead of this year’s breakthrough 10-3 season, with a chance to get to 11, which has never been done before in program history.
Elliott and Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz talked with the media on Tuesday at a virtual press conference arranged by the Gator Bowl.
One of the key questions involved opt-outs; it doesn’t seem that either coach thinks that will be an issue.
“I feel for the most part that we’re going to be as close to full strength as we can,” said Drinkwitz, a former NC State assistant, who back in November signed a six-year contract extension, tethering him to Mizzou through the end of the 2031 season, that will pay him $10.75 million per year.
Elliott, the 2025 ACC Coach of the Year, who seems to be in line for an extension – the six-year deal that he signed back in December 2021 runs out at the end of the 2027 season; he’s set to be paid $3.9 million in 2026 and $4.05 million in 2027 – said his program is “in a different place” with respect to opt-outs than others that go to bowls every year.
“We’re very grateful to have a bowl, and not to say that in the next coming weeks, I might not have guys have to make that decision, and it’s unfortunate, but our focus is, man, we’re going to try and send our senior class out, because this senior class has been through a lot, the guys that have been around here for four years, they’ve been through a lot, and all I’m focused on and trying to get this team to focus on is, you know, going and chasing that 11th win, which has never been done in school history, but more importantly, let’s, let’s honor the seniors the right way,” Elliott said.
Vegas has installed Missouri as a seven-point favorite, which, yeah, seems fair. The Tigers started 5-0, then lost four of its next six – three of the Ls to teams that went on to get CFP berths, Alabama (27-24, Oct. 11), Texas A&M (38-17, Nov. 8) and Oklahoma (17-6, Nov. 22).
The linchpin for Mizzou is 5’10”, 206-pound sophomore tailback Ahmad Hardy, who is second in the nation in rushing yards (1,560), and tied for fourth nationally in rushing TDs (16).
“For us, this is a great opportunity. You’re getting a chance to play against a team that’s chasing their third straight nine-win season. They were 11 wins two years ago, 10 wins last year,” Elliott said. “It’s a great opportunity for us to not only just gain the exposure, but to really kind of test where our program is, right. You’re talking about two football teams that are potentially playoff teams, right, a couple plays away from either one of us being in the College Football Playoff, and they got best running back in the country.”
Video: Chris Graham talks Gator Bowl
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