UVA Football: History would be different if these four guys don’t get hurt

Seeing Chris Canty’s name in the news this week got me thinking what I think every time I see the name Chris Canty: the injury that he suffered that derailed the 2004 UVA Football season.

Canty went down with a devastating knee injury – the trifecta: ACL, MCL and PCL – in Virginia’s Week 4 win over Syracuse, which got that Al Groh-coached team to a 4-0 record.

Would have been nice to have had Canty around for the Week 6 game at FSU, which Virginia was favored in – on the road and all – in the #6 vs. #7 matchup.

Final:

#7 Florida State 36
#6 Virginia 3

The ’04 team finished 8-4.

Another fizzle.

I obviously put deep thought to this kind of stuff, don’t I?

This Chris Canty business got me thinking, what about other injuries that derailed a UVA Football season?

Hmmm …

Bruce McGonnigal (1990)

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Legend has it that Bruce McGonnigal injured his spleen from a fall while searching for his girlfriend’s dog ahead of the game between the #1-ranked ‘Hoos and Georgia Tech.

With McGonnigal out of the lineup, the would-be go-ahead TD pass from Shawn Moore to tight end Aaron Mundy was called back because a backup tight end got flagged for a procedure penalty.

I was a first-year at UVA in 1990.

I will forever hate Georgia Tech and the score 41-38.

Brennan Armstrong (2021)

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I can make the argument that Bronco Mendenhall is still our coach if Brennan Armstrong doesn’t get hurt in the fourth quarter of a 66-49 loss at BYU in Week 9.

Virginia had gone into that one with a 6-2 record, and a 4-2 ACC mark that had the Cavaliers in first place in the Coastal Division – and in the driver’s seat for a spot in the ACC Championship Game.

Armstrong missed UVA’s next game, a 28-3 loss to Notre Dame, but was back, not at 100 percent, but back, for a road game at Pitt, a 48-38 loss.

The 29-24 loss to Virginia Tech that ended with a lateral to an offensive lineman in the red zone concluded the season-ending four-game losing streak, and set us on the course for the shock resignation by Mendenhall days after the season finale.

Chandler Morris (2025)

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The injured left shoulder in Week 1 in a blowout win over Coastal Carolina changed the course of the rest of the season.

We never did get to see a 100 percent healthy Chandler Morris, even as he led Virginia to a school-record 11 wins.

The injury in the second quarter of the 16-9 loss to Wake Forest in November – on a cheap shot by two Wake defenders – kept us out of the CFP.

I know, that one might be a stretch, but I think it’s hard for the committee to keep an 11-2 UVA team out of the field even with the loss in Charlotte.