It would seem that the clock would be ticking on Saturday’s scheduled Virginia-Coastal Carolina football game, not that any football game is all that important right now.
But it is Tuesday night now, and just out of courtesy to the folks at Coastal, a decision is going to have to be made soon.
“It will be a discussion with Coach and the team. Obviously they’re going through a lot, and we want to make sure they’re involved as well. We’ll use our best judgment, but it will be soon. We’ll make a decision soon,” UVA Athletics Director Carla Williams said.
The obvious focus for the Virginia program has been on processing grief since the Sunday night mass shooting that took the lives of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, and left Mike Hollins with wounds that have now required two surgeries.
The last thing on anybody’s mind is the minutiae of a game week – devising and installing a game plan, practicing, basic conditioning.
“At this point with the sequence of events and the timing, I just have been focusing on loving these players, consoling the families, trying to make sure that there’s no ripple effect with the guys on the team,” UVA coach Tony Elliott said.
It doesn’t seem feasible, honestly, that the staff and student-athletes could pull it together enough to be able to play a game on Saturday, and that’s not casting aspersions on anybody involved.
Football isn’t an easy sport to prepare for and play when everything is going well.
The kids and the adults in that locker room just lost three of their teammates to an act of senseless violence; they have three funerals to attend.
“This is something that nobody is prepared to deal with until you’re inside of it,” Elliott said. “For me, the focus is not past today. I’m just trying to figure out a way to get everybody back together this evening so that we can see them again and spend some time, and then in due time, we’ll collaborate on the path going forward in terms of on-the-field play.”
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Chris Graham
