There’s an old saying about how if you have two quarterbacks, you don’t really have one. So, what happens if you’re UVA Football coach Tony Elliott, and you might have three?
“We’ll make a determination once we find out what’s going on there,” Elliott told reporters on Monday, at his second presser of the 2026 spring season, addressing the possibility that last year’s starting QB, Chandler Morris, could again be a part of the mix, pending the result of a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction that would allow Morris to play in the fall.
ICYMI
- Bad news for UVA Football: Chandler Morris petition for seventh year denied
- UVA Football: Chandler Morris files suit against NCAA seeking seventh year
The 2025 season was Morris’s sixth at the college level, dating back to his true freshman year at Oklahoma in 2020, the COVID redshirt year – and he took snaps in each of those six seasons, though he only went over the four-game maximum for redshirt purposes in three of those six.
At issue is Morris’s 2022 season at TCU, which he began as the starting QB, was injured in Week 1, then got mop-up action late in the season that, per his suit, was part of a treatment plan to help him with anxiety and depression that were exacerbated by the knee injury that put him on the sidelines.
The request for the injunction is the subject of an April 2 hearing in Charlottesville Circuit Court.
The NCAA, of course, is on the other side, after denying Morris’s original request for a waiver, and an appeal filed on his behalf by the University of Virginia.
Of note here: ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips offered a statement for the NCAA’s 530-page brief detailing its position on the request in which Phillips said he does not believe Morris should be granted the injunction.
“These longstanding rule are grounded in the principle that athletics are an integral part of the academic experience,” Phillips said. “They align the time permitted for intercollegiate athletics with the pursuit of an undergraduate education and preserve opportunities for future student-athletes to participate in college sports.”
That’s not awkward at all; nor it is awkward that Elliott, after getting the bad news from the NCAA in January, did what he had to do, and signed two QBs out of the transfer portal – Beau Pribula, late of Missouri, and a fifth-year senior; and Eli Holstein, late of Pitt, and a redshirt junior.
Both have started at the Power 4 level and put up good numbers, and I can’t imagine either would have necessarily committed to Virginia, enrolled and spent the past couple of months immersing themselves here if Morris was returning as the incumbent.
“I think those guys knew that this was a possibility coming in the door,” Elliott told reporters at his Monday presser. “But really, the focus has been on the guys that are here right now. And I think Chandler respects that, him and his dad understand that all parties got to kind of got investment in all different areas, so to speak.”
Chandler Morris and his father, Chad Morris, who is back at Clemson on the staff of Dabo Swinney as the offensive coordinator, said in an interview with The Athletic that Chandler’s goal is to return to UVA.
“This has to do with Chandler and the success he’s had at Virginia, the love he has there for Coach Elliott and that staff. It’s all about Chandler at UVA,” said Chad Morris, who was Elliott’s boss on the offensive staff at Clemson, before Morris left in 2014 to take the head coaching job at SMU, which allowed Elliott to move up the ladder to take over as the OC and play-caller.
Chandler Morris, like everybody else in this story, acknowledges the awkwardness in the whole situation.
“They had to go out and get somebody to protect the program,” Morris said. “I hope it all works out, and then I’ll put my head down and go compete. I’ve really found a home at UVA. I would love to be able to run it back with those guys and go play another year with my brothers.”
One item, among many, that I found interesting: buried in the suit filed on behalf of Morris is a tidbit telling us how much he was paid in NIL and revenue-sharing money for the 2025 season – $1.52 million.
The suit estimates his NIL value for a 2026 season, should he be granted his request for an injunction, “between $2 million and $4.5 million.”
To that end, Morris is enrolled at UVA for the spring semester, and he told The Athletic that he is prepared to be a part of spring practice, assuming things go his way in court.
Man, I wouldn’t want to be Tony Elliott right now.
“We’ll see how that goes with him next week,” Elliott said on Monday. “Just kinda, I’m trying not to, it’s a difficult situation, and so, I’m just trying to be present where my feet are. And then when the situation arises, then we’ll know which direction to go once we get there.”
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Chris Graham
