No. 19 Virginia held off Missouri and reached 11 wins for the first time in school history with a 13-7 victory in the Gator Bowl on Saturday night in Jacksonville, Fla.
Chandler Morris completed 25 of 38 passes for 198 yards, Harrison Waylee rushed for the go-ahead touchdown and the Cavaliers (11-3) controlled the clock to secure their first bowl win since 2018.
The Tigers (8-5) scored a touchdown on the game's opening drive but were blanked the rest of the way to fall to 0-5 this season against ranked opponents.
Missouri All-American Ahmad Hardy ran for 89 yards on 15 carries. With 1,649 yards, he broke the Missouri single-season record of 1,627 set by Cody Schrader in 2023.
True freshman Matt Zollers started with quarterback Beau Pribula entering the transfer portal and managed 101 yards on 12-of-22 passing with an interception.
Virginia opened the second half with a 19-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to take its first lead at 10-7. The Cavaliers converted two fourth downs and took 10:07 off the clock, capped by Waylee's 2-yard run.
Virginia got the ball back on an interception by Emmanuel Karnley, and Will Bettridge's 39-yard field goal extended the lead to 13-7 late in the third quarter.
Missouri began its final drive with 1:33 left at its own 18 with no timeouts. Zollers completed passes of 11, 14, 7 and 24 yards to reach the Virginia 21. On fourth-and-10 with 8 seconds left, Zollers had to come off the field after hitting his head on the ground. Walk-on Brett Brown's pass into the end zone was broken up by Devin Neal.
The Cavaliers converted 13 of 23 third downs and 2 of 4 on fourth down and dominated time of possession, 38:34 to 21:26.
The Tigers only converted 3 of 12 third-down attempts and failed on all three fourth-down efforts.
Hardy broke off a 43-yard run on the game's opening drive. Two plays later, Jamal Roberts scored on a 5-yard rush for a quick 7-0 lead that turned out to be the Tigers' only points of the game.
Bettridge had a 42-yard field goal early in the second quarter.
--Field Level Media
