We had eight bowl games on Saturday. We had football games being played at historic baseball stadiums in New York and Boston. Snoop Dogg put his namesake on a bowl. North Texas and San Diego State forgot to play defense. Lane Kiffin made his sideline yoga…err, sideline debut with LSU. We also had Pop-Tarts. Did you hear about the Pop-Tarts? Everyone heard and tweeted about the Pop-Tarts. Enough with the Pop-Tarts. They should not be served with ice cream. We also had the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville. And it was a historic night.
How could that be? The final score was 13-7. What kind of history is that? Well, for the first time in its 136-year history, the University of Virginia won 11 games. They were the tougher team on Saturday night and wore down the Missouri Tigers of the big, bad SEC in the second half. Here’s how.
Later Gator Bowl: UVA Makes History Against MIZ
Chandler Morris Was Hot Like Hansel
We wrote earlier this week about the impact that the Transfer Portal had on Virginia. For the first time since taking over as head coach, Tony Elliot was able to leverage NIL and the Transfer Portal to put out a respectable football team in Charlottesville. The team responded by winning 10 games for only the second time in program history and even played for an ACC Championship. Something Miami still has not done yet… One of Elliott’s biggest pickups was securing quarterback Chandler Morris from North Texas. Morris has moved around a lot in his college career, having cups of coffee at both Oklahoma and TCU before earning the starting job at North Texas. It is his work at Virginia, though, that has earned him high praise, and it all came together for him on Saturday night in Jacksonville.
Morris was crisp and efficient. He finished the game 25 of 38 for 198 yards and two touchdowns. Morris did his best work on third downs tonight. He was 10/10 on the night and helped Virginia stack up 42 plays to Missouri’s 25 plays in the second half. It was Missouri’s inability to get Virginia off the field on third down that hurt its chances to win the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. UVA was a cool 13-for-23 and 2-for-4 on fourth downs to keep drives going. It was a 3rd quarter drive that helped put UVA out in front for good.
A 19 Play Death March Drive Seals the Deal
Virginia entered halftime down 7-3. They looked ok on offense, but nothing was really popping off the charts. The Cavaliers got the ball to start the second half and almost kept it for the entire third quarter. UVA went seventy-five yards in 19 plays and took a little over ten minutes off the clock to take their first lead of the game at 10-3. On the drive, UVA converted a handful of third and fourth downs to wear down the Missouri defense and place the game firmly in their hands.
- 3 and 12 from the UVA 23: Mizzou had a chance to get off the field early, but Morris found his receiver for 13 yards and moved the sticks on an early third and long.
- 4th and 2 from the UVA 44: UVA looked to seize momentum at midfield and faced fourth and short. Elliot once again put the game in Morris’s hands, and he found an open receiver for a six-yard gain and moved the chains into Mizzou territory.
- 4th and 3 from Miz 43: UVA would complete their second fourth-down conversion on the drive when Morris once again found an open receiver for five yards to move the chains.
- 3rd and 2 from Miz 30: Missouri had a chance to preserve the lead and force a field goal. This time Xay Davis rushed three yards for another Virginia first down.
- 3rd and 2 at the Miz 4: Another rush, this time it was Harrison Waylee that would get the tough yard to set up UVA with a first and goal inside Mizzou’s three. UVA would camp the drive on the next play with the go-ahead and winning score from Way.
Five opportunities for Mizzou to get off the field. Virginia showed the grit and the way to move the chains and win the game. But Mizzou would have a last chance.
Miz Last Drive Headache
Missouri’s first drive was a thing of beauty. They marched (rushed) 74 yards in seven plays and seemed ready to run Virginia over. It just wasn’t meant to be. If Mizzou was going to do anything, they had to do it on the ground. True Freshman Matt Zollers came into the game’s final drive with just 45 total yards passing. Not great, Bob. But Zollers saved his best for last.
Mizzou took over at their own 25 and had no timeouts and about a minute and a half on the clock to try to score and go for the win. It looked bleak, but nobody told Zollers. Zollers went on to complete four of his next five passes for 56 yards and got Mizzou all the way down to the UVA 21 with twenty seconds left. UVA looked like they might have to put their history on ice, but the Cavalier defense stepped up.
UVA brought the heat rather than staying back in coverage and forced three straight incompletions. The one on third down proved critical. Zollers was tackled to the ground after throwing the ball away and hit his head off of the ground. The replay showed Zoller grabbing his head after the hit. Officials can remove a player for their safety, and that is what they did. Both Zollers and Eliah Drinkawitz were irate, but with no timeouts, there was nothing they could do but send in their backup, Brett Brown. Brown heaved a fourth-down pass to the endzone that his receiver had in the hands. If he held on, the game was over. Mizzou would win. UVA’s Devin Neal, another transfer, knocked the ball away and out of his hands. And the rest is history.
Main Image: Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union
