By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — They won three games in their abbreviated 2022 season and three games in 2023. With two regular-season games to play this fall, the Virginia Cavaliers have five victories, but they’re hungry for more.
“Five wins is better than what we’ve done the two previous seasons, but I don’t think anybody on this team or on the staff is satisfied with where we’re at,” defensive end Kam Butler said Tuesday after practice.
UVA’s home finale is Saturday. At noon, in a game to air on ESPN2, Virginia (5-5 overall, 3-3 ACC) meets No. 13 SMU (9-1, 6-0) at Scott Stadium. A win would make the Wahoos bowl-eligible for the first time under head coach Tony Elliott, who took over for Bronco Mendenhall in December 2021.
“That would be one of those five, 10, 15 years down-the-road type of deals where they’ll look back and say, ‘Man, I was really a part of that,’ ” Elliott said Tuesday during his weekly press conference at the Hardie Center. “When all of the glory of football fades and you’re an old man and you’re reminiscing, you’ll see the value that you had. And then what will happen is you’ll hear it from your teammates, because your teammates will express to you just how grateful they were to you for what you established.
“Then they’ll also be able to have a front-row seat to see all of maybe the things they aspired to do, but somebody else is doing them, but they wouldn’t be doing it without their investments. So those individuals will be standing on the shoulders of what I consider giants. Those guys will be giants within the program because they laid the foundation.”
The Hoos haven’t played in a bowl game since 2019, when they lost 36-28 to Florida in the Orange Bowl. They were eligible in 2020, a season played amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but declined to pursue an invitation.
In 2021, Virginia was scheduled to meet SMU in the inaugural Fenway Bowl in Boston. That game was canceled, however, because of COVID-19 issues in UVA’s program.
The Cavaliers were already in Boston when the game was called off. “I remember guys in the hotel just ready to go and then getting that message,” wide receiver Malachi Fields, a true freshman that season, said Tuesday.
Forty players—fourth-years, graduate students and Bryce Purnell, who’s graduating early— will be recognized in a Senior Day ceremony before the game Saturday. Fields will be part of…