UVA football players to wear legacy patches

Virginia kicks off against Tennessee Saturday, September 2, and there’s plenty of high school football Friday night.
Published: Sep. 1, 2023 at 12:57 PM EDT
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Virginia kicks off against Tennessee Saturday, September 2, and there’s plenty of high school football Friday night.

It has been about 300 days since the UVA Football Team last played a game in a 2022 season shortened by tragedy.

The Cavaliers take the field this weekend in Nashville to face 12th ranked Tennessee at a sold-out Nissan Stadium. The game will be televised by ABC.

One way UVA is honoring Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry, and Devin Chandler is with legacy patches that will be worn on the jerseys of the players currently wearing their numbers.

  • Freshman receiver Sudarian Harrison went to high school with Davis, and will be wearing his number 1 along with defensive end Paul Akere.
  • Kicker Will Betridge, who played in high school with Perry, is wearing number 41.
  • Defensive end Chico Bennett is wearing Chandler’s number 15.

“One thing that I wanted from us as a program is to make sure their legacies are visible every time we step on the field, and that was the motivation behind the patches. As things progress, we’ll get input from the families and it will be a selection process to wear jersey numbers,” Head Coach Tony Elliott said.

Kickoff for Saturday’s game is at noon.

Friday night, has Fork Union and St. Anne’s-Belfield both kicking off their seasons at-home.

Monticello High School’s Mustangs will be playing their first game ever at Waynesboro this evening. MHS is looking to start the season with back-to-back wins for the first time in six years: Mustangs had an impressive come-from-behind win last week at-home against William Monroe High School, rallying from 14 points down late in the third quarter to win by 14. Kickoff against Waynesboro is 7 p.m.

Albemarle, Charlottesville, and William Monroe are all at-home tonight. They’re looking for bounce-back wins after losing their season openers.

Louisa is at-home to face Courtland at 7:30 p.m., looking to improve to 2-0.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic Coast Conference voted Friday, September 1, to admit three new schools.

The University of California - Berkeley, Southern Methodist University, and Stanford are now under the ACC umbrella. All three schools will start competing in the ACC starting next academic year.

This will make it a cross-country conference, like the Big 10 and Big 12. It also provides a landing spot for two more schools from the PAC-12.

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