UVA Football Week 11 Injury Report: Brian Stevens, James Jackson, Antonio Clary

Matt Newton | Nov 5, 2024

Virginia Athletic

An unusual calendar for the 2024 college football season resulted in most FBS teams having multiple bye weeks. For Virginia football, those open weeks were well distributed throughout the season, as the Cavaliers played four games, then had a bye, played four more games, and now have a bye again before playing the final stretch of four games. This bye in particular comes at a good time, as the Cavaliers were reeling after suffering a third-straight loss in week 9 against North Carolina and also needed the time off to get several injured players back healthy.

"Yeah, we needed it. We needed a bye week," said UVA head coach Tony Elliott, who provided status updates on several of his injured players in his weekly press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Elliott began by reporting on the offensive line, which once again has endured a slew of injuries over the course of the season. Starting with the good news, Elliott indicated that three starting offensive linemen who have dealt with various ailments - graduate center Brian Stevens, senior right guard Ty Furnish, and junior left tackle McKale Boley - have each been practicing this week ahead of Saturday's game at No. 23 Pittsburgh. Getting Stevens back is particularly significant for the Cavaliers after he missed the UNC game with a concerning illness.

"Brian [Stevens] is back healthy, back practicing," Elliott said. "That was kind of a scary deal. You know, it started as we thought it was a viral infection and next thing we know it's -- I saw a picture of his lungs and he's got a lot of fluid on his lungs, and it happened fast. I guess it's going around a lot. I guess it is more common now. But happens fast. Good to have Brian back."

Furnish missed the UNC game as well with an ankle injury he suffered the previous week against Clemson, which meant the Cavaliers were without both their starting and backup centers against the Tar Heels. McKale Boley has started each of the last four games, but has been dealing with a knee injury.

"Boley's knee is good. Been practicing during both the weeks off," Elliott said.

Additionally, backup left guard Ugonna Nnanna is back in practice after suffering a dislocated toe. Elliott reported that backup right tackle Jimmy Christ had to have ankle surgery, so he will be out indefinitely. Other than Christ, Elliott thinks the rest of the rotation offensive linemen should be available for the Pitt game.

On the other side of the ball, Elliott couldn't say for sure if Virginia would have the services of graduate safety Antonio Clary or senior linebacker James Jackson. Clary has missed the last three games with a knee injury, while Jackson has been out the last two games with a foot injury.

"James Jackson is still battling with the foot," Elliott said. "We're getting closer. He'll be a game-time decision. But the time off has been good for him. Clary is back - been competing in practice. Swelling has stayed down on the knee, so excited about the possibility of having him back."

Elliott previously reported that Kent State transfer wide receiver Trell Harris had to have surgery to remove a bone fragment from his knee. That injury has sidelined him since week 3, but he did not undergo surgery until a couple of weeks ago and the recovery time is expected to be about a month.

"Trell [Harris], he is probably about two, three weeks away. It's a four-week deal with his surgery and he had surgery about, what, a week and a half, two weeks ago," Elliott said.

Elliott was asked about the redshirt situation for Harris, who has played in three games so far this season. That means he could play one more game this season and preserve his redshirt and save a year of eligibility.

"We'll be smart. We'll be smart. He's got one game left which will be his fourth game this season," Elliott said. "We'll see kind of where we are. Definitely want to do right by the young man and make sure we don't burn a year if we don't feel like it's going to be beneficial to him or the team."

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