Virginia Football: Xavier Brown Out for Season With Collarbone Injury

Matt Newton | 2 Hours Ago

Aaron Snyde

Virginia didn't just lose a game on Saturday against SMU. The Cavaliers also lost a few key players due to injury and at least one of them will not be able to play in next week's season finale on the road at Virginia Tech.

In his postgame press conference, UVA head coach Tony Elliott confirmed that junior running back Xavier Brown will be down for the rest of the season with what appears to be a broken collarbone suffered in the SMU loss. Additionally, graduate running back Kobe Pace, graduate cornerback Kempton Shine, and senior offensive lineman Noah Josey are all considered "day-to-day" with injuries they sustained in the game against SMU on Saturday.

"X [Xavier Brown] is out for the season. It looks like it's a broken collarbone," Elliott said after the game on Saturday. "And then Kobe will probably be day-to-day with his knee, but he wasn't in condition to finish the game. Kempton will be day-to-day with his foot; we're hoping that it's just a bruise from getting stepped on and nothing more than that. And then Noah Josey will be day-to-day with the shoulder."

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All four of those players have appeared in every game this season, as Pace, Shine, and Josey have started every game. With Brown and Pace suffering injuries, sophomore Noah Vaughn led the Cavaliers on the ground with 10 carries for 44 yards.

"Prayers towards them and everything, but I mean, it's a battlefield out there. People are gonna go down," Vaughn said after the game. "You gotta realize that it's a next man up mentality and the standard's not gonna change just cause the depth chart went down. I feel like, as that happens, you gotta realize that that standard's not gonna drop. We gotta raise the standard when stuff like that happens and I feel like we can do that."

With Brown out and Pace questionable, Virginia could be down its two leading rushers for the Virginia Tech game. Pace has 499 yards and three rushing touchdowns, while Brown has 488 yards and one rushing score this season. UVA's next best rusher is Vaughn at 104 rushing yards this season.

Virginia (5-6, 3-4 ACC) is set to take on Virginia Tech (5-6, 3-4 ACC) in the Commonwealth Clash next Saturday night. Kickoff from Lane Stadium is set for 8pm and the game will be televised on the ACC Network. This will be the first time the Cavaliers are playing in front of fans at Lane Stadium since 2018 and they will try to beat the Hokies in Blacksburg for the first time since 1998.

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