The Virginia offense was sputtering early, with a missed field goal on its first possession, a failed fourth-down conversion near midfield, then a quick four-and-out.
A short Coastal Carolina punt set up the ‘Hoos at the UVA 48.
On a third-and-5 from the Coastal 47, Chandler Morris, to that point just 2-of-6 through the air, for 17 yards, threw the ball into traffic, in the direction of slot receiver Cam Ross.
I’m thinking, as the ball was in the air, another missed opportunity.
Ross was able to make a play on the ball, which was a little behind him, hauling the pass in at the 33, and then made more out of what looked to be nothing, taking the short hitch all the way to the Chanticleers’ 1.
J’Mari Taylor scored on the next play, and the rout was on.
Ross finished his UVA debut with seven catches on nine targets – on 41 snaps, 25 pass snaps – for 124 yards, and he also scored on special teams, taking a third quarter kickoff back 100 yards the house.
Who he reminds me of: Malik Washington, a speedy slot receiver who had 111 catches for Virginia in 2023, and is now in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins.
Somebody who knows a lot more about football than me said the same thing after UVA’s 48-7 win last night.
“He reminds me a lot of Malik, and I’ve said that before,” said head coach Tony Elliott, who stressed that Ross “has a long way to go, because Malik did some, some, some exceptional things here, but he’s kind of cut from the same cloth, just his ability as a football player and also as a return guy.”
Ross has been playing for a while – his college career started way, way back in 2019 at UConn, where he had 60 catches as a true freshman.
UConn didn’t play football in 2020, and then his 2021 and 2022 seasons were cut short with injuries.
Back on the field in 2023, Ross had 44 catches for the Huskies, before transferring to JMU ahead of the 2024 season, which saw him haul in 36 balls and score on a kick-return.
The 2025 school year is Ross’s seventh; he got his bachelor’s in finance from UConn in 2022, so he’s been a grad student for a minute.
For a guy who had two seasons cut short by injuries, and is somehow still in college in his mid-20s, he sure looks like a guy who has NFL talent.
“We’ve been seeing Cam Ross, you know, chill all camp. This is basically normal,” said Taylor, a grad student himself, who scored two TDs on the ground in his UVA debut.
Elliott said the different dimension that Ross brings to the Virginia offense was obvious early on.
“A couple of days into practice, you saw that one, he’s a football player, like, he’s got really, really good football instincts, he’s got a great skill set as a receiver, and you felt like, based off of what you saw in film from JMU last year, and then the validation of his quickness, that he would be able to make some plays for you,” Elliott said.
Ross, talking with reporters after the game last night, quoted his coach, who likes to say, when it comes to playing football, that “you have to have a narrative.”
“I don’t mind having that narrative in my head, honestly, like, I’ve always been overlooked, so, you know, I love having that chip on my shoulder,” Ross said. “I mean, it wasn’t, you know, I’ve never had malice in my heart. You know, to me, it was just about earning my stripes. Like, you come into the environment, you gotta earn your role regardless. So, I mean, for me, it was just earning the trust of my teammates, my coaches, just trying to find a role in this team, and I think from January to now, I’ve just been trying to continue to do that.”
At least now, seven years in, he’s getting a little bit of cheese, through NIL, to go along with the free tuition and room and board.
Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine getting out there every day and putting the work in.
And this Cam Ross kid – if we can still call a guy in his mid-20s a kid – knows the value of a hard day’s work.
“Coach Mims (wide receiver coach Adam Mims) challenged us to catch 500 balls a day, and, you know, me and a few other other receivers, we really, like, stuck to that, we really dedicated ourselves to do that. And, I mean, I think that definitely helped,” Ross said.
It’s just one game, but Cam Ross looks like the guy that can make this UVA offense special this year.
It’s been a long road to get to being a featured guy in the ACC.
“Just super excited for him,” Elliott said. “He’s a guy that just came in and worked, and maybe some of the other guys might have been more talked about in terms of their transition coming in the door, but he’s just, he’s just a workman.”
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Chris Graham
