Chandler Morris was a no-go for practice on Monday and again on Tuesday as he works through the concussion protocol, but Virginia coach Tony Elliott said Tuesday that he’s “hopeful” that the starting QB will be active for practice on Wednesday.
If Morris, a sixth-year senior, isn’t able to get back on the field by Wednesday or, at the latest, on Thursday, he’s not likely to be the guy behind center on Saturday when the ‘Hoos (8-2, 5-1 ACC) face Duke (5-4, 4-1 ACC).
ICYMI
“Man, I think there’s so much in a game plan. that you need to practice, right, and be able to take some of those reps,” Elliott told reporters at his weekly press conference. “His position is about timing, so we would need him to get into practice. Is he a veteran guy that’s played enough football that you could say, OK, he could play? Yes. But will his precision and his timing be there if he doesn’t practice? So, we’re hopeful that by tomorrow, we’ll have him back in practice, rock and roll.”
If Morris, who has passed for 2,088 yards and 12 TDs, and gained 214 yards and run for four TDs on the ground, this season, isn’t able to go, the next-man-up, then, would be redshirt freshman Daniel Kaelin, who subbed in for Morris when the QB1 was knocked out of the 16-9 loss to Wake Forest last weekend in the second quarter after taking a pair of cheap shots from Wake defenders on a sliding six-yard run.
Kaelin led the ‘Hoos to two field goals, but also lost two fumbles that led to Wake field goals, and his effort on a potential game-tying two-minute drive – Kaelin was 6-of-7 for 51 yards on the drive – came up short when his fourth-down pass from the Wake 5 fell incomplete with 13 seconds to go.
ICYMI
“I thought he had probably two plays that he wanted back, but other than that, he did his job,” Elliott said, explaining away the failure on the final play as the staff putting him in a “tough spot.”
“It was really kind of a deal where we were trying to disguise a little bit, but there was a pass option on it. Looking back, you probably say, don’t put the young quarterback in that situation, just shift it back in and go to the actual play call, so that really wasn’t on him,” Elliott said, protecting his young QB at the expense of his offensive coordinator and play-caller, Des Kitchings.
The people who email me regularly about their intense loathing for Des Kitchings will love reading about Tony Elliott slyly throwing his OC under the bus there.
Back to Elliott and his observations on Daniel Kaelin, yeah, the coach seems to be on board with the young guy if he has to call his name again this week.
“I thought he handled it as good as he could. I know he wants about two plays back. But other than that, you look at it, we had the ball inside the red zone with three minutes left in the game, and then also with 36 seconds inside the 10-yard line, we had a shot to go win it, so he did what he needed to do to get us in those positions, right, considering the circumstances. Now we all got to do better to support him,” Elliott said.
Another sly dig there for Kitchings and the play-calling.
For those wondering about where we go from here in terms of our starting QB, which is, you know, everybody – the next update, of sorts, on the QB situation that we’ll get will be with the Thursday availability report required by the ACC.
I would expect to see Chandler Morris listed on the Thursday report, either as “probable” – defined as “likely to play; greater than 50 percent chance” – or “questionable” – “uncertain to play; less than 50 percent chance.”
If I had to put myself on the line on this, I’d go with him being listed as “probable,” which would mean Morris would almost certainly be the QB1 for Saturday.
This is assuming, on my part, that Morris will be a go for practice on Wednesday.
“Questionable” may result in us getting a “game-time decision” listing at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, for the final pregame report before the 3:30 p.m. kickoff.
I’ll update the situation after the Thursday availability report.
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Chris Graham
