After his first spring game two years ago, Tony Elliott felt too many players just had one foot in the pool, a stark contrast to where Virginia is now as Elliott feels this team has dove in the deep end.
“I think they’re hungry for success,” Elliott said. “I think they enjoy being around each other, you see a lot more camaraderie in the locker room.”
Elliott wrapped up his third spring with the Cavaliers on Saturday with the white team holding on for a 17-10 win over the blue. Despite having the majority of next fall’s roster on Grounds this spring, the numbers were slim at Scott Stadium with 26 players in total out with injury, including four of last season’s starters on the offensive line.
Still the players available took the opportunity to impress in front of fans. One of the spring’s biggest risers in Virginia receiver JR Wilson made up for an early drop with 3 catches for 79 yards and a touchdown for the white team, while blue team receiver Suderian Harrison was productive throughout with 4 catches for 49 yards and a 90-yard punt return touchdown.
“Being that we had two losing seasons it kind of sits down with you and I just feel like this team we want to turn this program around,” Wilson said. “It’s not about talent, it’s about how can you work as a unit cohesively.”
The main attraction was the quarterback battle with returning starter Tony Muskett leading the white team against the young Anthony Colandrea and the blue team. Muskett impressed throwing for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns, while showing no ill effects from offseason shoulder surgery. It was a more subdued performance for Colandrea, who went 15-16 for 102 yards, but it was also noticeable the majority of a veteran starting defensive line was on the white team and the starting secondary was on the blue team.
“Even compared to last year there’s a lot more buy in,” Muskett said about the Virginia team. “I don’t think there’s a single guy on the team that doesn’t care about our success.”
With a full lineup of players confined to the sidelines, the spring game was a tough gauge of where this Virginia team is heading into Elliott’s third season. The Cavaliers have gone 6-16 through his first two seasons, but Elliott saw the return of veterans like defensive linemen Kam Butler, Chico Bennett Jr., and Jahmeer Carter among others as a sign of an improving culture.
“I feel like we’ve got the majority of guys bought into what we’re trying to establish,” Elliott said.
“I think that was evident with as many of the older guys having an opportunity, especially in this climate right now, they easily could have looked elsewhere and say ‘you know what I’m going to make the focus on me’, but they chose to come back and I think that was the first step.”
Bennett was one of the more impressive defenders on the field for the Cavaliers, posting 7 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks, although Elliott admits he might have had two more had he blown the whistle. Coming off All-ACC honors in 2022, Bennett played most of last season banged up finishing without a sack.
Now returning for his sixth season of college football, Bennett says the 3-9 season showed how close the Virginia program is with six losses coming by a touchdown or less.
“I think we know what it takes, obviously we’ve been so close in terms of how close the games have been, no team has just blown us out of the water, other than Tennessee,” Bennett said. “I think it’s shown that we can compete, just a matter of how we finish.”
While belief inside the program is growing and a host of football alumni in attendance on Saturday was encouraging, not even the one open half of Scott Stadium was full for the spring game with fans seemingly in wait and see mode as the Virginia program searches for its first winning season since 2019.
The coaching staff remains convinced they are heading on the right track though with a solid winter in the transfer portal, the makings of their best recruiting class yet in 2025, and the growth they have seen in the 15 practices this spring.
“I believe we’ve done a great job as far as recruiting, great job of retaining and ultimately as far as the development side,” Virginia defensive coordinator John Rudzinski, who coached the white team, said. “Which us as coaches put a premium on.”
Signs of UVA’s development were on display in players like Wilson, after stagnating a year ago, and also running back Noah Vaughn, who led all players with 11 carries for 50 yards.
“This program, we’re setting the foundation for it. I think we can go far places, I feel like culture is changing in the locker room,” Vaughn said. “Being a losing team, there’s just people that aren’t okay with that and I feel like that’s a good thing.”
The Cavaliers escaped the spring with only one long term blow injury wise after transfer offensive lineman Drake Metcalf suffered an Achilles injury, which typically takes six to nine months for recovery. The spring football transfer portal opened a few days before the culmination of practice for Virginia. Elliott said the team will look for depth at cornerback, long snapper, defensive tackle, and now on the interior of the offensive line as well as tackle.
But currently Virginia has few scholarship spots open on the roster with Elliott saying he has not heard any early “rumblings” of current
players looking to jump into the portal.
“At the end of the day teams win and we want to accumulate as much talent as we possible can,” Elliott said. “But talent doesn’t win alone, you got to be a team.”
Virginia heads into the ‘construction’ phase of the offseason now with more than four months until the opener against Richmond, which will begin to show how far the program has come in three years.
“When you have a full unit bought in, wanting success and wanting victory you’re going to start to see major strides,” Muskett said. “That’s what we’re hoping for in the fall is major strides and a lot more major wins.”
I think a lot of UVA fans did not realize how tough a job that Coach Elliot had his first year. As an example our entire offensive line left the program. One to the NFL and the other four to other teams and those four started at other programs!
Anyway the program has worked hard to become competitive and last years win at UNC and the home win at Duke were huge wins. We outgained Miami only to lose in overtime. Played Louisville really tough on the road. I saw major improvement!
I truly believe this is a team that can win 6-7 games this year and get a bowl game. The staff has worked really hard to keep key players.
Can’t wait for the season to start!
The beating we got from a weak VT team at home last year is all I need to know about this coaching staff. It’s going to be another 3 or 4 win season. I hope I’m wrong but two 3 win seasons in a row and that embarrassment against our in state rival last season tells me I’m right.