Virginia Football Injury Report: Updates on Tyree, Boley, Wilson, Jackson, Brown

Matt Newton | Aug 13, 2024

Virginia senior linebacker James Jackson should be returning to practice soon, according to UVA head coach Tony Elliott. / Virginia Athletics

UVA head coach Tony Elliott had to give a lengthy injury report after Monday's Virginia football fall camp practice. But fortunately for the Cavaliers, a good portion of the news Elliott was providing was good news, or at least as good as they could've hoped for.

Virginia played its first scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday at Scott Stadium and, though the Wahoos were missing several key pieces on both sides of the ball due to a variety of injuries, Elliott was happy to report that the team made it out of the scrimmage healthy and have since seen many of those injured players return to practice this week.

Headlining that group of returners is Notre Dame transfer wide receiver Chris Tyree, who was seen wearing a boot and missed most of practice last week. Tyree was back as a full participant in practice on Monday.

As has been an unfortunate trend over the last few seasons, Virginia's offensive line has been hit hard with the injury bug with two starters suffering injuries during fall camp in addition to UCF transfer Drake Metcalf, who is expected to miss most, if not all of this season with an Achilles injury suffered back in the spring. With that said, Elliott indicated that the injuries to expected starting left tackle McKale Boley and starting center Brian Stevens should not keep either player off the field for long.

"We're a little bit thin on the offensive line right now with [McKale] Boley being down. Boley will be a couple more weeks. And [Brian] Stevens is day-to-day," Elliott said. "So, we didn't have some of our top guys, but it was really good for the young guys to get in there cause heck, we learned last year, depth, it's gotta be ready."

While a return to the field is expected any day now for Stevens, who was recently named to the preseason watch list for the Rimington Trophy, presented annually to the top center in college football, Boley could miss another week or two, but Elliott was confident that he would be ready by the time the season begins on August 31st against Richmond.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for junior wide receiver JR Wilson, who will likely miss the start of the season with a knee injury. Although Wilson was still on crutches as he watched Monday's practice from the sideline, Elliott said that the news on Wilson's injury was actually much better than it could have been.

"JR's gonna be a couple weeks. We got good news, so it wasn't as serious as it could've been," Elliott said. "He did have to get a quick procedure, a scope. So he'll be a couple weeks."

Another Cavalier likely to miss the start of the season is junior running back Xavier Brown, who is out with a shoulder injury. Brown, who is expected to contend for the secondary running back spot behind Kobe Pace, missed most of the 2023 season with an elbow injury and now finds himself sidelined again with another upper-body injury. Yet again, though, Tony Elliott indicated that Brown should only be out "a couple of weeks", meaning a return by the beginning of the season can't be ruled out yet.

Virginia Football Fall Camp Notebook: Takeaways From Week 2

Senior defensive lineman Bryce Carter, who was expected to compete for a lot of snaps this season, is currently out with a knee injury which Elliott described as the "longest-term" of UVA's latest injuries. Of course, multiple Cavaliers have already been ruled out for the season, including sophomore defensive end Mekhi Buchanan and junior linebacker Stevie Bracey.

Elliott said he's hoping to get a few other players back from injury in the next week, including senior linebacker James Jackson, who is still coming back from offseason surgery. Jackson was not a full participant in Monday's practice, but was seen working out on the sidelines with a good amount of mobility.

"We got some guys back, too, that were out for the scrimmage," Elliott said. "Throughout the course of the week, we'll get a lot more guys. You know, just some soft tissue, hamstrings, that we'll get back this week."

So, while there were some new significant injuries revealed, like those to Brian Stevens and Xavier Brown, the overall news on the injury front was promising enough that the Cavaliers can maintain hope that they'll have a relatively healthy roster by the time the kick off the 2024 UVA football season.

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