UVA Football: The Chandler Morris legal situation played out as well as it could have

This may be an unpopular take, but the way the court case involving Chandler Morris was handled today is clearly the best thing for the UVA Football program.

Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Claude V. Worrell II denied a request from Morris to issue a preliminary injunction against the NCAA, which ruled earlier this year against a waiver request submitted by the QB for a seventh year of eligibility, citing issues with his availability in his 2022 season at TCU.

Worrell, in his ruling, found that Morris’s case would likely not succeed if it were given a full evidentiary hearing – which is the standard for the issuance of an injunction.

A full hearing would likely play out over the course of several months, even just in terms of getting on the schedule, meaning we’d be talking about a case getting to court, at best, in the fall, more likely, after the 2026 season.

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ICYMI

• UVA Football: Chandler Morris files suit against NCAA seeking seventh year
• UVA Football: This Chandler Morris situation sure is getting awkward

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The risk for the UVA Football program would have been, if Morris had walked out of court today with an injunction, he could theoretically be a full participant in spring practice as soon as tomorrow, which, on its face, is fine, but.

Coach Tony Elliott and GM Tyler Jones rushed to find other options at QB after the waiver request was denied in January, and came up with two pretty good ones – in the form of Beau Pribula, the starter last season at Missouri, and Eli Holstein, a two-year starter at Pitt.

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ICYMI

• Update: UVA Football gets commitment from QB target Beau Pribula
• UVA Football: ‘Hoos add another P4 starter to the QB room off the portal

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Both enrolled for the spring semester and have been getting reps in spring practice.

A Morris return would have obviously complicated things on the depth chart at QB, and you wouldn’t have been surprised to see either Pribula or Holstein, or both, decide to transfer out, if the starter who led Virginia to 11 wins in 2025 were back for another run.

Here’s where things could have gotten ugly: if an NCAA appeal of an injunction were to be heard between now and the fall, and a ruling go against Morris – along the lines of the situation with Alabama basketball player Charles Bediako, who played five games after getting a temporary restraining order against the NCAA in January, before a second judge ruled against Bediako’s request for a preliminary injunction.

You could go from having three QBs to having zero in a flash.

Elliott, Jones and the UVA Football program across the board were between a rock and a hard place with this one – wanting to show support for a teammate, on the one hand, and having to look out for the best interests of the bigger entity on the other.