UVA Football Week 14 Injury Report: Kobe Pace, Kempton Shine, Trell Harris

Matt Newton | 2 Hours Ago

Aaron Snyder

Ahead of this weekend's trip to Blacksburg for the Commonwealth Clash, Virginia head coach Tony Elliott held his weekly press conference on Tuesday afternoon and provided status updates on several injured Cavaliers and their expected availability for the regular season finale at Virginia Tech.

Beginning with UVA's heavily-depleted running back unit, Elliott confirmed his previous report that junior running back Xavier Brown will be out for the rest of the season with the collarbone/shoulder injury he suffered in Saturday's loss to SMU. Kobe Pace also went down with a knee injury against SMU and Elliott says he won't know Pace's status for the Virginia Tech game until later this week. Sophomores Noah Vaughn and Donte Hawthorne are the next guys up at running back on this week's Virginia depth chart if Pace is unable to play. Elliott also said they will "consider" putting Chris Tyree at running back given his experience in running the ball at Notre Dame, but he noted that UVA still needs Tyree at wideout.

"We know for sure that X [Xavier Brown] is gonna be down with the shoulder. Kobe [Pace] will be more, end of the week type of decision, see how much he heals up before we know for sure," Elliott said of the injuries to Virginia's running backs. "We gotta rep the young backs. We gotta find a way to generate some run game. We will consider Chris [Tyree], but that's a tough ask in one week for a guy that's been playing receiver all year just to make the switch. But all hands on deck, we'll do whatever it takes."

Elliott had some good news to share on the offensive side of the ball, as junior wide receiver Trell Harris is expected to be cleared in time to play in the Virginia Tech game. That would be the first game Harris has played in since week 3 against Maryland, as he has missed the last two months and had surgery to remove a minor bone fragment in his knee. Harris had 13 receptions for 201 yards and two touchdowns in the first three games of the season before going down with the knee injury.

"We anticipate Trell will be cleared and ready to roll by gametime," Elliott said.

Elliott added that starting left guard Noah Josey is expected to play against Virginia Tech after suffering a shoulder injury against SMU. Josey has started every game on UVA's offensive line for the last two seasons.

Moving over to the defensive side of the ball, starting left cornerback Kempton Shine is still dealing with a knee injury, but Elliott says he is "hopeful" that Shine will be able to play against Virginia Tech.

Sophomore linebacker Kam Robinson has been dealing with a shoulder injury for nearly the entire season and he will likely need to have that shoulder operated on at the end of the season. Elliott says Robinson was on a limited snap count for the SMU game, but the team's medical staff were able to confirm that it's safe for Robinson to continue to play without worsening the injury, so Elliott expects Robinson to be "turned loose" for the Virginia Tech game.

"Kam's been playing with a banged up shoulder that's gotta be fixed after the season. Because of the amount of snaps that he's played with that, and then also some of the dislocations that have taken place throughout the course of the season, we wanted to take a look at it just to make sure that it wasn't any worse than when we started the season," Elliott said of Robinson. "And so last week he was held out until we got confirmation from the doctors with the imaging that it was safe for him to continue to play the remainder of the season. And then he got the thumbs up later in the week, but the other guys had gotten the majority of the reps and so we said, hey we'll 'situational' him and get him into the flow of the game. But this week he'll be turned loose and ready to roll."

Elliott did not have an update on James Jackson, but it seems the senior linebacker will not be available for the Virginia Tech game as he is not listed on this week's depth chart. Jackson reinjured his foot at Notre Dame and missed the SMU game. Dorian Jones made his first start in a Virginia uniform at the WILL linebacker position vs. SMU and seems to be in line to start again this Saturday.

Graduate defensive end Ben Smiley III is considered "day-to-day" with a concussion. He missed the SMU game and has been doing some non-contact activities during practice, but Elliott says Smiley still has to clear concussion protocol.

Virginia (5-6, 3-4 ACC) is set to visit Virginia Tech (5-6, 3-4 ACC) on Saturday at 8pm on the ACC Network.

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