A fitting finale
Virginia's Gator Bowl victory typified a record-breaking season of hard-earned success
Associated Press photo
Had it come in any other fashion, it wouldn’t have seemed right.
Capping the most successful season in school history with a 13-7 Gator Bowl victory over Missouri simply couldn’t have come easily for Virginia Saturday night. It needed to include a high degree of difficulty, with hurdles both external and self-inflicted — as well as a dose of good fortune.
Let’s be clear: the Cavaliers earned their school-record 11th win with grit, physicality and clutch performances from unexpected sources. The margin could have (perhaps should have) been greater, but the Tigers just as easily could have been celebrating at game’s end.
Sound familiar? That’s what made it apropos for a program that played four overtime games (including three in a row) in 2025 and won another contest with a fourth-quarter safety. These Cavaliers rarely did anything the easy way — which may have made their success all the more satisfying.
“It’s been a special year,” coach Tony Elliott told reporters after the game. “It's been a fun group to coach. They believed when everyone around them told them not to. A lot of folks said they weren't good enough to get to this point. But what they learned is it's always about being inside-out. It's never about what people say on the outside. It's all about what you believe.”
The golden age of Virginia football came under George Welsh. His Cavaliers posted 13 straight winning seasons between 1987 and 1999, shared two Atlantic Coast Conference titles and even spent three giddy weeks ranked No. 1 in the country in 1990. But they managed only one 10-win season (in 1989).
Sustained success has been elusive since Welsh retired in 2000. You’d be hard-pressed to find many observers who believe this edition of the Cavaliers is superior to the ones that featured Shawn and Herman Moore, Terry Kirby, Chris Slade and Thomas Jones, but Elliott’s veteran team rose to the occasion more often than not.
It didn’t hurt their cause that the 2025 Cavaliers didn’t have to face conference heavyweights Miami, Georgia Tech or SMU en route to winning the ACC regular-season title. Similarly, Missouri entered Saturday night’s Gator Bowl without starting quarterback Beau Pribula, who is entering the NCAA transfer portal.
That left overwhelmed freshman Matt Zollers to take over. And Zollers had to sit out the game’s final play with a suspected concussion after driving the Tigers into the red zone, forcing walk-on Brett Brown to throw a pass that nearly resulted in a game-tying touchdown.
To be fair, Virginia also played without its best offensive player (running back D’Mari Taylor, who opted out to prepare for the NFL draft), its best receiver (injured Trell Harris) and its top defender (injured linebacker Kam Robinson).
In their absence, graduate receiver Eli Wood, a former walk-on, made several big third-down catches on a 19-play, 10-minute touchdown drive and also produced a huge special-teams play; Harrison Waylee and freshman Xay Davis combined for 109 rushing yards and a touchdown; and Emmanuel Karnley came up with a big interception, part of a defense that shut out the Tigers for the game’s final 56 minutes.
That helped overcome a couple of missed tackles on Missouri’s opening scoring drive, a muffed punt by Cam Ross, and a questionable decision by Elliott to go for it on fourth and 4 at the Missouri 39 with 4:28 remaining, rather than pinning the Tigers’ feeble offense deep in its own territory with a punt.
Elliott’s choice paled in comparison, though, to that of Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, who inexplicably took school rushing record-holder Ahmad Hardy out of the game near the end and asked Zollers to try to pick up a late fourth down. (He failed, and Cavalier Nation will be eternally grateful.)
Regardless, the Cavaliers persevered, as they did often in a special season that saw them win their first outright ACC regular-season title after being picked to finish 14th in the 16-team league. They took Elliott off the coaching hot seat after three straight losing seasons and set themselves up for potential sustained success.
It won’t be easy, even though quarterback Chandler Morris has petitioned the NCAA for a seventh season of eligibility and the school’s boosters have signaled they’re willing to put their wallets where there hopes are in a costly new era of college athletics.
Even if Morris returns, Elliott will have to replace most of his starting lineup and a large chunk of his roster. And Virginia Tech’s hiring of James Franklin ups the ante in state high school recruiting and the portal.
But for the first time in nearly a decade, Virginia enters an off-season with momentum and optimism. It was hard-earned, even for a program for which almost nothing comes easily.