The Virginia Cavaliers closed out a historic 2025 football season by upsetting the Missouri Tigers in Jacksonville, 13-7, on Saturday night.
After Missouri went up 7-0 following a dominant opening-drive behind All-American running back Ahmad Hardy, the Cavaliers defense did not surrender another point.
The Wahoo offense sputtered for much of the first half, struggling to get into the red zone and out of no-man’s-land between the 40-yard lines. Head coach Tony Elliott bounced back and forth between being
aggressive and going for fourth downs and sending Will Bettridge out for field goals. Bettridge made one 42-yarder early in the second half before missing a 44-yard attempt in the final minutes of the half.
That meant that the Tigers took a 7-3 lead into the break.
Virginia proceeded to take control of the game on the first drive of the second half. Receiving the ball first, the ‘Hoos plodded their way down the field across 19 plays, 75 yards, and a whopping 10:07 of game time. Chandler Morris cashed in on the money downs, making tough completions to Eli Wood and Cam Ross while running backs Harrison Waylee and Xay Davis ran for hard yards after contact.
UVA’s patented direct snap, this time to Waylee with J’Mari Taylor sitting out of the bowl game, produced the team’s lone touchdown of the game as the Wyoming transfer ran the ball in from the two-yard line.
A 39-yard field goal from Bettridge on the ensuing Virginia drive gave the Cavaliers some breathing room, but not enough to put the game on ice.
The two squads traded scoreless drives throughout the fourth quarter. A particular, surprising highlight came from Morris not running nor throwing the ball. On fourth-and-seven on the Missouri 43-yard line, Elliott sent the offense out on the field for what looked like an appropriately aggressive decision.
Instead of gunning for the first down, Morris took the snap and pooch-punted the ball, dropping it inside the five-yard line where Wood made a diving save to bat the ball away from the endzone and Ross promptly downed it at the one-yard line.
Each offense sputtered until the ultimate drive of the game when Missouri gave the ‘Hoos a right scare. Starting their last drive with 1:33 on the clock and 82 yards to drive, the Tigers went 61 yards in their first seven plays, putting themselves right outside the red zone and in striking distance of winning the game in the final seconds.
The UVA defense held, though, forcing fourth-and-10 after quarterback Matt Zollers hit his head while falling to the ground. That forced walk-on quarterback Brett Brown into the game for a final heave to the endzone.
In terrifying fashion, Brown put the ball into his receivers hands in the back left corner of the endzone, nearly ending the Cavaliers’ dreams of an 11-win season and scoring a touchdown that would make national news. But veteran safety Devin Neal ripped the ball out of the Missouri receiver’s hands and iced the Gator Bowl victory and the best season in program history for the Cavaliers.
Editor’s note: Our apologies for the delay on the publishing of this story, folks. The backend of our site has been down for the last few days.
