UVA Football coach Tony Elliott said Tuesday that he’s splitting the first-team reps between starting QB Anthony Colandrea and Colandrea’s backup, Tony Muskett, ahead of Virginia’s game with #12 SMU on Saturday.
“I want to see how AC is going to respond,” Elliott told reporters at his weekly press conference. “So far, the week has gone well. They both have taken reps with the first team and just been going about owning the game plan.”
Elliott indicated that “if we were to play today, obviously AC would run out there first. The week before he went up and won a road game and made some big plays in a Top 25 matchup. He’s put us in position to win a lot of football games.”
The coach made the issue for Colandrea, a sophomore who has started all 10 games in the 2024 season, “a bad really three minutes in the second quarter” of Virginia’s 35-14 loss at #6 Notre Dame last week, but it’s been more a bad three weeks.
Colandrea, in his last three outings, is 40-of-73 through the air for 368 yards, one TD and seven INTs.
Muskett was the opening week starter for Elliott in 2023, and made six starts last season, around shoulder and ankle injuries that gave Colandrea, then a true freshman, starts in the other six games.
The two battled for the QB1 spot through the summer and into the final week of training camp before Elliott settled on Colandrea as his guy.
Muskett, in three relief appearances in 2024, at the end of the blowout losses to Clemson, UNC and Notre Dame, is 23-of-34 passing for 347 yards, three TDs and no INTs.
“I think Tony has warranted more opportunity to prepare himself and to go compete for the job,” Elliott said. “So, we’re still looking at everything throughout the course of the week, but up to this point, it’s been good to see both of them go out and respond and do a good job getting the plan down.”
A reporter asked Elliott how far into the week he would feel comfortable going before naming a starter for SMU (Saturday, noon ET, ESPN2).
“I feel comfortable going all the way up until game time if need be, if it gets to that point, but like I said, if we played today, based off the body of work, I believe that AC deserves an opportunity to respond,” Elliott said.
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Chris Graham
