The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Hoops Falls 2 Spots In Top 25 After Loss To VT; Cal (13-2, 1-1) at #23 UVA (12-2, 1-1), 9PM, WED

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: UVA Hoops Falls 2 Spots In Top 25 After Loss To VT Cal (13-2, 1-1) at #23 UVA (12-2, 1-1), 9PM, WED Inside Virginia Basketball – Pros & Cons Of This Team UVA’s O-Line Coach Takes Job At Stanford As OC Backup QB Danny Kaelin Enters Transfer Portal UVA Star WR Trell Harris Transferring To Oklahoma Florida QB DJ Lagway Considering UVA In Portal More UVA Football Transfer Portal News & Notes Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry show. I am fired up today, fresh and rejuvenated from a Christmas break and a layoff about eight or ten days here for our shop. We're back in the saddle on the Jerry and Jerry show a program that is the most watched and listened to UVA sports talk show in the country. And boy, oh boy, do we have a lot of content? for you. Jerry Hooty Rackcliffe, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, is going to put the

transfer portal into perspective. And folks, the portal is already impacting this Virginia football program. Backup quarterback Danny Kalent is in the portal. Trell Harris, your star wide receiver, is in the portal and now committed to Oklahoma. Ladies and gentlemen, Virginia football is upgrading its secondary by way of Blacksburg, Virginia, and newly minted James Franklin, Virginia Tech football team. We'll break that down. We'll talk about the offensive line coach from the University of Virginia who's gone from the East Coast to the West Coast for a new job as the newly minted offensive coordinator

for the Stanford Cardinal. Andrew Luck, the general manager of Stanford, is trying to rebuild that team. And how about a Florida quarterback from the Southeastern Conference flirting with the University of Virginia and tiptoeing around Thomas Jefferson's grounds last night? Gosh, I could continue if I wanted to, but this show is all about one man, Jerry Rackcliffe, the namesake of Jerry Rackliff.com. Judah Wickhauer is behind the camera. He's looking dapper and distinguished. He's not on camera, but you're going to have to take my word for it.

If you can go to the studio camera, Judah Wickhauer, and then a two shot as we welcome the star of the show, who you're sleeping, we got a lot of news here. I'm sleeping a little bit. Good, my friend. You look rested. It's good to see you. Good to see you, too. I wish I'd had some of those ice copies this morning to get me going. I'm 40 ounces in and on my second cup here.

This is what happens when a 7-year-old jumps on your face at 4.30 in the morning and says, Dad, can we play with the Legos I got for Christmas? You wake up and you do it. Yeah, you don't have much option there, that's for sure. My friend, we start every show the same way. Scatter shooting with Jerry Rackleff. Well, it's a busy time of the year for sure. two weeks of the portal

we had two portals before and now it's been condensed down to a two week period I don't know how they do it I don't know how these GMs and assistant GMs and the coaches do it not only trying to protect your players

but bringing in all these new guys to see if they're going to fit and trying to negotiate deals with it must be a maddening experience for those guys but you know we met with the virginia front office guys a couple weeks ago and they they've been on this thing since last summer so it's not they've done their homework it's just a matter of getting people in and out and trying to make deals i guess you got trell harris i mean i'm going to try to break it down for you not that you need

any breakdown i'm actually reading the content for this show at jerry rackliff dot com but for the viewers and listeners. Trell Harris, I'd say the best wide receiver on the roster, was banged up to finish the 2025 season, missed the bowl game. Trell Harris is now committed to Oklahoma. We got Danny Kalen, who was

the heir apparent to replace Chandler Morris under center, someone that was seduced and romanticized from Nebraska, rumored heavy six-figure compensation, if not more, for Danny Kaelin. He says, I'm going to enter the transfer portal. We got

DJ Lagway, the Florida quarterback from the SEC on grounds last night talking with coaches. DJ Lagway at one time was the top recruit in the nation as a quarterback, a five-star, before he committed to Gainesville and Florida. He overstayed is welcome there. The head coach got Can. Now he's looking for a fresh start and certainly a Brinks truck, as you like to say. My friend, where do we begin? We haven't even talked, Chandler Morris, at the seventh year, which would make him 26 years old

collecting Social Security if he gets a seventh year here in Charleston. I could continue, but the show is yours, my friend. Yeah, well, you know, just taking a look at some of the guys from Virginia that entered the portal, Eli Wood, Hunter Osborne, the defensive lineman that made somewhat of an impact. Harris, as you mentioned, Cam Courtney, who I thought had a bright future here, Maddox Marcellus, who filled in really well when Cam Robinson got hurt. Steve Bracey, another linebacker. Andre Green, a wide receiver, who didn't make much impact.

Sudarian Harrison, the same. Trey McDonald, the linebacker. Kaelin, as you mentioned, Davis Lane, Grady Brosterhouse, famous for the Grady Bunch that we'll never forget. Basically the Tush Push for UVA? Yeah. Jason Provard, the corner, who saved the... the Florida State game.

Mekye Buchanan, a defensive end who's already signed with Texas State, Drey Walker, and a couple of the guys that you've never heard of. But that's quite a few people. And I guess the good news, we don't know who all is returning because not all of them announced that they were returning, but most of the offensive line, as we as of now, have declared they're coming back. McCale Bowley, Noah Josie, Drake, Matt Calf, Monroe Mills, who was injured and didn't get a chance to play, but arguably could be one of the best offensive linemen they've had.

On the defensive side of the ball, Jamerick Morris is returning, along with Jason Hammond and Fisher Kamak. some of these guys have declared for the draft and I guess that's not to be unexpected but it's a lot of roster movement going on that's for sure we'll talk basketball folks are asking us to talk basketball we're going to focus on the portal first I want to talk quarterback the sexy position

I initially read on jerry rackliff.com that Danny Kalin the backup quarterback enters the transfer portal Right. My first thought, oh, Kalen's entering the transfer portal. That must mean Chandler Morris is going to have a seventh year of eligibility and he's going to return to Charlottesville because why else would you enter the transfer portal if you're Danny Kalin if Chandler Morris has no eligibility left? He's the airport, air apparent under center and he showed flashes of brilliance against Wake Forest and kind of spot duty, if you may. then I see that DJ Lagway is on grounds last night.

So then I think maybe that's why Kalin's in the portal because Tony Elliott and the coaching staff told Danny Kalin, we're going to bring another guy in here and you're going to have to compete for the job. It's not your job to win. Can you please, my friend, help me decipher what is going on and the quarterback play here at the University of Virginia? Well, I wish I could. I wish there was some scuttle butt out there on

Chandler Morris, but if there is, it's being well protected right now because we haven't heard a peep from the NCAA or UVA about it. It would be nice for the NCAA to make some kind of a decision one way or the other. We know that initially they asked for more support information for his application for another year of eligibility, and they submitted that, and that's been, before the bowl game. So everybody seems to be in limbo. We assume that Lagway showed up last night. He was reportedly flying to Charlottesville last night for a visit

after having apparently a marvelous visit to Florida State on Sunday Monday when he met with Gus Mileson who compared him to Cam Newton. Yeah. who Mileson coached at Auburn to a Heisman trophy and after

Lagway left Tallahassee Florida State turns around and signs the Auburn quarterback unbelievable so so Lagway's looking for a job and I say job because these kids get paid

yeah oh absolutely and you know he he's definitely has some eligibility left I mean he was in his sophomore season at Florida this past year when things went sour and he claims because he was banged up some in the off season that they wouldn't they protected him didn't want him to run

the ball he's a dual threat quarterback and so he claims he's 100% fit now of course Florida seasons went straight to hell uh they finished four and eight and the Coach got fired. He's at JMU now. So, LaGway is definitely looking for a home. I know there were other schools on his list. Maybe Clemson. I'm not sure who else,

but that's where it is right now. Happy New Year from Renee Pettford to us. Happy New Year to you. Happy New Year, Renee. Happy New Year from Stephanie and Keswick. Happy New Year to Stephanie. Absolutely. Happy New Year to Cliff Daisy.

He's saying that to us on the eastern shore. Lovecliff or Mr. Daisy, he's a great guy. Commentary and comments all over the feed. If you have a question for Hootie Rackle, put them in the feed, I'll relay them live on air. Okay, so if you were a betting man, toughest question I think I've asked you on the show so far. If you were a betting man, who is the quarterback at the University of Virginia in training camp? Wow. First-string quarterback.

That's a heck of a question right there. Yeah. I'm thinking that the longer this takes with Chandler Morris I think it might be a good sign you would think if they were going to reject him they would have done it quickly so if I had to put money down on it right now as we speak I would say Chandler Morris

Chandler Morris is 7th year heading into his 26th birthday Most certainly with the pay raise on the 2025 season, I would think. Yeah. You would think you would get a pay raise. I'd think market value for a 26-year-old Chandler-Morris has got to be flirting with $2 million in compensation. But then you stop and think about this little,

we'll throw this little kink into it. Okay. If he gets a seventh year and his dad is now the offensive coordinator at Clemson, yeah. Would he opt and go to Clemson? Well, what I made of the Clemson use was, and Clemson needs a quarterback. Yeah, they do. And what I made of the, man, you just blew my mind right there.

What I made of the Clemson use, Chad Morris is the offensive coordinator at Clemson for a second go-round. That's Chandler's father. The intriguing thing about Chad Morris taking the job for Debussy and Death Valley was he took a hiatus from coaching in 2025 to, to basically travel with Chandler Morris and the UVA team. He was a consultant, actually, for the coaching staff with UVA. So when he takes this job at Clemson, my initial thought was that Chandler was not going to get a seventh year. You're the smart guy in the room. My thinking did not go that Chandler flirts with Clemson because they could open up a real Briggs truck for the young man.

Oh, yeah, they could. They've got tons of money, and they don't spend a lot of it on. on the portal. And let's cut to the chase. Chandler Morris likes to hop around. Well, he's been to four schools. TCU, you know, UVA. Yeah.

I mean, he hops around. He does hop around, but I have a feeling he likes it here. And he has a strong relationship with Coach Elliott and Coach Kitchens and Coach Lamb, his quarterback coach. but it's, it's, I mean, that's, it's the crazy world we live in right now with, I don't know how these coaches sleep at night because you don't know who's going to be on your roster from one day to the next, but, I mean, just look at, just look at all the possibilities for him. For Morris, that is. I mean, it's just crazy.

and if I had to put money on it I think he's going to get a seventh year because the whole premise of him applying for an extra year of eligibility was that he was hurt in that first game of the 22 season when he was the starting quarterback at TCU and missed pretty much the whole season and lost his starting job that's when he lost the job yeah and so I've seen the NCAA do crazier things, so, you know, why not give the kid an extra year of eligibility? One thing we can agree on is the NCAA has lost total control here.

It would seem that they lost control a long time ago, and I don't know if it's through the fault of their own and some bad leadership, or just they were just so overturned by lawsuits and staggering legal fees over. the years that just made them throw up the white flag the the the portal has disguised or distracted uh the fan base in large part from some significant news the loss of in of an offensive line coach virginias who might have been one of the best offensive line coaches in the entire country his unit really performed at a high clip the virginia offensive line in 2025 he goes from the east coast as an O-line coach at UVA to the West Coast as an offensive coordinator at Stanford as Andrew Luck, the general manager of Stanford, the former quarterback of the Indianapolis

Colts, is looking to rebuild that program. Do we put this news into perspective? Because I find it to be fairly significant. I thought it was a huge blow to the Virginia program. I think you mentioned earlier that maybe some other people had blown that off. It's just, you know, easy come, easy go. But I thought Coach Heffernan was a hidden jewel. He came here from Stanford, and what he inherited was a mess because a lot of guys had left through the portal. For a couple of years there,

he was having to put together a patchwork offensive line because of injuries, a lack of depth at that position through recruiting. and some, you know, the normal other issues, illnesses, et cetera. And up until, even last year... They started showing signs. Some of these guys, they had played when they were really young, like Noah Josie and Mikhail Bowley, who started as a true freshman.

Not many people started left tackle as a true freshman. They kept getting better and better. They were having to play a lot, and they were thusly getting exposed to injury more and stayed banged up a lot. But this year they were fairly healthy for the most part, and even though they had brought in a lot of lining from the portal, it was these returning guys like Bowley and Josie and Metcalf and a couple others who ended up shining and starting and doing a hell of a job, really. I mean, they made Virginia one of the best rushing teams in the ACC. They rarely gave up sacks for the most part and protected Chandler Morris, the best that any Virginia quarterback had been protected in years and years.

Because under Bronco, they had quarterbacks who basically ran the ball a lot, and they didn't need to be protected quite as much. You know, just we don't get to go to practice a lot, but the practices we go to, we usually see the early portions of practice. I just noticed an incredible rapport between Coach Huff and his offensive line. I thought those guys were so – he used to have this expression where we're five offensive starting line and we're a fist. and if one finger is out of whack then the whole fist is out of whack and that's something they took to heart

and he would he had a good sense of humor he would joke with those guys during practice but he wasn't afraid to jump on them too I mean he could get into them big time and wasn't afraid to and I think they respected that because he pushed him

he pushed him hard and I think he made him better and I thought there was such a strong bond there. I don't think it's going to be easy to replace him. You might be able to find somebody with more experience or something, but to find a guy who had the kind of bond that he had with those guys, it's going to be difficult. And he produced talent. NFL scouts in the stance watching UVA's offensive line and potential upside for playing on Sundays, Hootie. Yeah. I think a couple of these guys will be able to do that, particularly bully. I mean, he came from NFL stock to begin with. His dad played in the NFL with, I think, the Saints. And he's, yeah, he's

going to be a four or five-year starter. Cindy Riggs giving you some love. Bob Shada, the mayor of Birdwood, the vice mayor of Vibachi Restaurant, giving you some love, Hootie Rackleff. If you got questions for Hootie, put them in the feed. We'll relay them live on air. So Virginia, ladies and gentlemen, has to replace an offensive lineman, an offensive line coach. Virginia football's got to figure out who the quarterback is going to be. It's got a tight end position that is in flux. It's got a running back position. The star running back pieced out for the bowl game and is now pursuing a professional career.

It's got to find a tailback that can carry the load like Taylor did. This was a run first football team, ladies and gentlemen, that used play action as well as any team in the country. So it's important to replace that tailback. It's got a secondary that graduated a number of people, or they exhausted their eligibility. The secondary at UVA is, they're trying to replenish it. They're doing it in part through Blacksburg, which we'll highlight here on the program. My friend, which position besides quarterback concerns you the most right now? Well, they've made some strides.

They signed a last assembly sign. they at least got a commitment from a running back in Jakel Middlebrook from Middle Tennessee State who has one year of eligibility remaining. Middlebrook seems somewhat to fit the same mold that Jamarie Taylor had, and they're about the same size. He's 5, 10, 196 pounds. He rushed for a little over 1,000. yards in two seasons at middle

Tennessee most of it this past season but not only is he a running back he is a he can catch the ball he called 40 passes this past season and uh des kitchens and tony

elli like a running back who is a multi-threat and it can not just run it but catch the short screens and some of those other short passes and turn them into big gains uh they all

I also had a guy from Minnesota, a freshman. Fame, I don't know how he pronounced his last name. Honestly, it's I-J-E-B-O-I, so I have no idea. He had 97 carries and over 400 yards rushing as a freshman for the Golden Gophers this past season. So if they could land him as well, that would take care of the running backs. because they've got a couple other guys coming back I think they need to add a couple wide receivers a couple of defensive backs and they did get one defensive back and the kid from Virginia Tech his name is gosh what is Ellis got here somewhere

Christian Ellis, I don't know a whole lot about him, but... Didn't do much in Blacksburg. Yeah, I don't think he, I don't know if he even played this past season or not. He got Christian Ellis registered 99 tackles. We'll see this on Jerry Rackleff.com. I'm reading verbatim from his website. 99 tackles at an interception for New Mexico in 2024 before he transferred to Virginia Tech where he really did not do much in Blacksburg.

at all. The secondary, frankly, Hootie's got holes all over the place with guys who have exhausted eligibility. So right now it's about bodies, and you hope those bodies are talented as well. They also got a commitment from Rutgers starting cornerback, Jacoby Henderson, who had a pretty good season for the Scarlet Night. I played, had some impressive numbers against some of the top teams. in the Big Ten this past season. So that looks like a solid get right there.

Commentary and comments are coming in very quickly here. This is an interesting one that's coming from the panhandle of Florida. Danny Kalin could come back if they don't get their guy in the portal. Please ask Hootie if Kalin could come back. It usually depends. Sometimes when a guy breaks from a program, sometimes the coaches don't want a guy. back? I don't know if that's the case with

Kalin or not. I imagine there was a pretty good relationship there. So eligibility wise and rule wise, yeah, he could certainly come back if he wanted to. Don't know exactly what he's looking. Well, obviously, he's

looking for a starting job somewhere and he still has lots of eligibility remaining. So yeah, I think that door would probably still be open, In his mind, I don't know what his thinking or strategy might be. So he may have closed his door and may not want to come back. What's intriguing about Danny Kalen, ESPN is ranking the top transfer portal quarterbacks.

Anthony Kalandri, I think, checked in at 15, the UNLV transfer, the former two-year player, as we know, the University of Virginia. Kalin not on that ranking at all of top transfer quarterbacks. Now, that's probably because he got no playing time or very little. Right. Not a lot of experience. But at one time, was it a four-star recruit for Nebraska? Right. A prototypical drop-back passer, very different than Chandler Morris.

Kalan likes to stay in the pocket. He's got a nice arm. It just doesn't have much experience here. How about the Calandria entering the portal and looking to get back to power football? Yeah, I think that's the whole thing with him. I think he wanted to prove that he can play on the Power 4 level. He's already proven that he can do it on the group of 5 level. I had an outstanding year for UNLV this past season.

And I think he just wants more. I know he's visited Florida State and was supposed to visit Georgia Tech, I believe, yesterday. I think he had two or three other schools that he was looking at. So I imagine he'll find a nice landing spot sometime over the next week. Yeah, top 15 in the ESPN transfer portal rankings of quarterback Cala. There's a lot of quarterbacks in that. Oh, 100%. I was shocked with how many quarterbacks in there,

chasing basically chasing money here. What is Calandria, is it the Mountain West player of the year? Yeah. UNLV. Goodness gracious, Hootie. Tony Elliott and this coaching staff, a glimpse of what they're going through right now. And it's not just the coaching staff, a number of support personnel here. Yeah, absolutely. I think talking to the GM and the assistant GM,

they have, I think they said they had seven, full-time people, maybe 15-part timers or something like that. It's a pretty extensive group that they've put together, and they evaluate tons and tons of film of everybody that goes into the portal that they think might be a fit. And they do a lot of this during the season, you know, looking at players on other rosters of team. that they've played against and so it's a mind-blowing it would be fascinating to sit

down and watch the work week of one of these people to see what they have to go through you're talking about folks a year-long war room for this Virginia football team and frankly any college football program as they try to put the pieces together for the the next year roster the chatter on the Jerry and Jerry show was roughly a 30 million dollar roster players compensated roughly 30 million in the 2025 season is it safe to say that number will eclipse and exceed 30 million in 2026 it's i don't know exactly what's going to happen because with the the money that's come in through the house settlement part of i think 75% of it i believe is designated for football of the 20 million uh the rest i think for basketball

but they've since had other gifts that have come in and they're building a war chest over there. So I don't think they're going to run out of money and I think they have the money to go after some of the big names in the portal should they choose to. The way they did it last year, they signed some guys from powerhouse programs and they found some guys from,

I won't say totally obscure programs, but they got a guy who's starting from Elon, a guy starting from North Carolina Central, guys starting from Tennessee Tech. So they've beat the bushes, so to speak, to find talent all over the country. They may not have to spend that much to get what they need. some of these guys are still going to be here, so it's not like that they had to replace all of them, like last year when they had to replenish almost the entire roster. Vanessa Park Hill watching the program,

the Queen of Ehrlichville, William McChesney watching the program, the Mayor of McIntyre, Rob Neal, the Duke of JMU watching the program right now. We love you, Rob Neal. Bob Seffick watching the program, ladies and gentlemen. A lot of folks. the show right now. Questions, comments, put them in the feed. We will relay them live on air.

Renee Peddeford is on the edge of her seat, wanting us to talk basketball. Renee is a basketball fanatic. She's a basketball fanatic. We will talk basketball now. A tough loss to Virginia Tech. I think we saw in that Virginia Tech lost the value of someone like Jacari White when jump shots were not falling. And Jacari White appears to be the best pound-for-pound shooter on this basketball team, at least statistically, white out for a prolonged period of time. We don't know exactly with a hand injury, a wrist injury here. Anywhere you want to go on Virginia basketball, Blacksburg loss, Virginia Tech loss, NC State win. Well, yeah, that was a tough loss, and it was, again, coming out of a long, a prolonged break in action. We saw what

happened when their first came back from the exam break, which was an 11-day break, and they took them forever to get going. The second break, the holiday break, wasn't quite as long, but they were totally out of sync when they got to Blacksburg. And I'm not going to take anything away from Virginia Tech. I think Mike Young does a great job. I think they have a very talented basketball team. They play great.

And it's hard to beat them in Blacksburg. I don't care who you are. And they were short-handed. They were short-handed, too. They had a couple of guys out, including at least one starter. And then their star point card got banged up late in the game with an ankle. Yeah.

So it was a tough loss, but I think they learned some things from it. And, you know, it's not the end of the world that you lose a game for sure because they bounced back strong in Raleigh and jumped all over NC State. Beat the brakes off the wolf? They really did. State lost their starting point guard midway through the first half.

But I don't think that would have made a whole lot of difference because Virginia was playing really good. They were getting contributions from guys all over the floor. And I really think just watching, this team, they learn so much and from, it seems like almost every game they play. And as far as the coaching staff and how to use their players and different combinations and certain things that work, certain things that may not work, I really think that this team is just going to keep getting better and better and better and will peak at the right

time. I definitely think this is an NCAA team. Oh, yeah. I definitely think that they can make a run depending on who the matchups are in the postseason. But I think this is going to be a fabulous season for these guys. I, I 100% agree. I think the upside of this team is yet to be determined. I think this team is completely brand new and is just slowly jelling. I mean, you have no cohesion with the roster prior to this season. and it was literally assembled on the fly. Exactly. He's got post play.

He's got perimeter play. He's got beat you off the bounce, attack the rim play. He's got shooters behind the line. Derritter seems to me like to be a grizzly bear in college basketball. Absolutely. Few people in college basketball can match up with the physicality of a Derritter. I would like to see Derritter shoot less three-pointers and just frankly post up and bully ball someone in the paint. Because I don't see how you stop that man.

You can't stop that. Yeah. The three-point shooting, I understand he's trying to show upside for scouts. Yeah. NBA-wise. Yeah. But if you want victories, you just demand the ball on the block. I mean, you're the pro here, Hootie.

What do you think? No, we're on the same page there. Sometimes, you know, I don't mind him taking threes. Sometimes I think the timing of his threes might not be. Especially in the hockey game. Yeah. Might not be in the best. timing. I think he has to develop a better sense for when to take them.

But that does make him and Grunlow and Hugo more dangerous to try to deal with because there is that threat that they can make the threes and you have to respect that. But yeah, I think the timing of his threes need to be, he has to have better judgment. that but I agree with you the more effective he is down on the block there I don't think there's many people in college basketball that can stop him one-on-one if he gets the ball down inside and he's just he's a bull in china shop I'm excited to see the Duke match up with the boozer freshman one of the boozer twins who a lot of people say is the number one pick in the NBA draft yeah matching up with the

Ritter, because De Ritter, who a lot of people are saying is a second round pick in the NBA draft, will have a lot to prove. And Boozer, the freshman, has the physicality to match up with Derritter. And Derriter has that – Derritter has got a mean streak to him. I love the mean streak. I love it, too. Yeah.

There's not a lot of players that have that mean streak. He has it. Yeah. That's – you know, he plays on the line. Yeah. Well, you know, Ryan, Noted him told us early on, he says, well, sometimes, frankly, he's just, he's just a bully. I mentioned that to DeRitter a couple days later, and he kind of, he didn't really snicker

about it. I think he kind of likes it. His teammates call him Tank for a very good reason. But, yeah, I like players that have a little bit of a mean streak in them. I think you've got to have some of that if you want to be really, really good. How about, you know, my favorite player on the roster, because of his approachability, people can identify with a five-foot-eight point guard in Chance Mallory, then you've got the Charlestful connection, then you've got the grit that Chance Mallory embodies.

ACCC play, you're starting to see some matchups with Chance Mallory. He saw that in Blacksburg, where he was matching up against pretty much Chance Mallory clone. and that particular matchup against Virginia Tech, he did not win. Now, he did not win the matchup. Now, Chance Mallory kept team in the game. That tipping at the buzzer off a missed jumper,

was that the second overtime, I believe, was just heady. I mean, he's a heady guy. Chance Mallory, the IQ's off the charts. We're going to learn a lot about freshman Chance Mallory now that Atlantic Coast Conference play has opened. Yeah, and I think he's excited. about that because it's going to test him

and push him and make him a better player. And he doesn't back down from anything. And so I think we're going to see the best of him now that we're in conference play and from here on out, well, there is one more non-conference

game left, but I think we'll see him push to greater heights as the season goes along. I'm anxious to see what he's going to look like in in March. Yeah, same, same. Renee says Chance's nickname is the Prince. Yes, he is. The Prince of Bel Air is Will Smith, the Prince of Charlottesville, or the Prince of the John

Paul Jones Arena is Chance Mallory, no question about it. Questions all over the feet about Jacari White and the injury. Yeah, well, we got an update yesterday from Coach Odom. He's recovering. The surgery went well. It's, again, It's his non-shooting hand. They're hoping that they'll be able to get a smaller splint on his hand sometime in the very near future. It just depends on the individual and how they heal. Some guys heal faster than others. Ryan said he had a guy of VCU last year with a similar injury.

We've seen some Virginia guys over the years with similar injuries. and you first come out with a big club on your hand and then you get smaller and smaller as your healing progresses they're hoping to where they can get a splint on his hand so he can use his thumb. If he can use his thumb, it helps catch the ball and do other things that you need to become a more effective player.

and I think we'll probably see that sometime within the next week or two to where he'll be able to get a smaller splint and maybe return to action. I mean, the importance of Jacari White should not be underestimated. He's nearly a 50% shooter from the three-point line. He's the team's best shooter on paper and probably reality. Yeah. And we saw it against Virginia Tech when they needed a buck, and they struggled to find a bucket.

Yeah. A lot of folks asking the question, what happened with Thomas and why he was on the bench for so long and overtime? Never got an explanation for that. I don't really know. That remains a mystery. I don't know that we'll ever know, but he did play a lot in Raleigh and played well.

It was significant in that game against the Wolfpack. So I guess whatever it was, it's gone now, and we'll see him return and be more effective. Ryan mentioned yesterday that some of it was the fact that he had come into the ACC, and he was now facing a little higher caliber. competition night in and night out not only on his own team but from opponents so not to say not to diminish players from San Francisco over that conference they have great players and great teams but I think the overall talent pool is a little stronger here and then in the ACC and so I think that took a little

bit of an adjustment, a mental adjustment, just to know that you're going up against better competition, night in, night, day in, day out in practice and in games. There's two perimeter players that can use the bounce, use the dribble to create their own shot or facilitate for a teammate. That seems to be Malik Thomas and Chance Mallory. There are times when Malik Thomas seems to force the issue. off the dribble. Yeah. And is just driving into traffic recklessly or, you know, somewhat out of control.

I will say, though, that this team is much more dangerous offensively when Malik Thomas is on his game. Because he is a natural born score. And, you know, they're going to need him to perform well when the jump shot is not falling and find a way to get to the hoop, just like they're going to need Chance Mallory to do it, too. because I don't see a Dalyan Hall being that guy. Jacari White's more of a spot-up shooter. Der Ritter perhaps could do that, but he's a post-player. This comment's an intriguing one that I've been eager to relay to you.

Who's your three? Is it Tillis? Is it Lewis? It's probably going to be a combination of those guys. Lewis usually starts, and he showed us why the other day at State. When he's on, he can light it up. up. They're kind of different players, even though Tillis has a nice perimeter shot.

He's also a much more effective guy down in the block. He can use that big body of his. And as Jeff Jones says, he can Barclay people, just back them into the basket and go over top of him. I don't think Lewis can do that. but Lewis has a little bit better, I think, overall shooting touch than Tillis. So a lot of it may depend on matchups and who you're playing against from game to game. Tillis, 24 years old. He's a man.

He's a grown man. He's an absolutely grown man. Closing thoughts, Jerry Rackliff, The Hopper. What's on the show? What's on your mind? What's coming to Jerry Rackcliffe.com? We can go a little longer if you want to. We can do that.

I don't have a press conference, I think. Just depends if any, are there any more questions out there? There are. Yeah, let's handle somebody. Okay. How about this one? This one comes from Newport News, Virginia. This is from Troy Smith.

Troy Smith says this. Does he expect Mallory to enter the starting lineup now that the Atlantic Coast conference has started? I don't. I don't. Although he certainly could. there's nothing holding him back from that. I just think that Ryan likes the chemistry of bringing him off the bench

because he brings a lot of fire into the game when he comes in. And we've joked about that in the past. He's like a rocket coming into the game. And so I think coaches are funny about the chemistry on their team and lineups and role play and et cetera. so I even though and Ryan has said that you know chance is good enough to start

there's no question about it and there's several guys on his bench who are good enough to start but I just think he likes this year I think he likes the fact that chance brings energy off the bench and brings in some immediate

scoring or threat of scoring and defensive aggressive when he comes off the bench and can add a spark if the team has kind of hit a lull. So I don't think we'll see him starting. Not that he couldn't, not that he doesn't deserve to. I just think it's something that Coach Edom prefers to keep it the way it is right now. Olivia Branch watching the program, the Queen of Keswick. Olivia, I wear the hat that you gifted to Hootie and I quite often.

Very grateful for that gift. Absolutely. Very comfortable hat. Viewers and listeners, put your thoughts in the feed. I will relay them live on air. This comment comes in from northern Virginia. This Virginia basketball team, if there's a weakness on the roster, what is it? Their defensive rebounding is something that Ryan addresses constantly.

He thinks they could do a better job there. They're one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the country. defensive rebounds, they have shown that that's something that they really need to improve on. Ball handling, turnovers. 11 a game for Virginia. I'm sure he'd like to cut that down a little bit. Sometimes it gets out of hand. Free throw shooting, sub-70%.

Yeah, they could do better there. but I think defensively sometimes they don't seem to answer if they get punched in the mouth and I think he'd like to see a little bit more toughness on that side of the floor as we enter conference play

because they're going to get into some real physical matchups down through running the ACC gauntlet. And so I don't know that they have a huge weakness anywhere, but I think those are some things that they would like to improve on. Virginia basketball has Cal. What are you making the match of against the Golden Bears Wednesday night, 9 o'clock tip, ACC Network? I hate these 9 o'clock games personally.

About the 11 o'clock tip off at NC State. That was 11 a.m. That was, excuse me, I still got a little bit of a cough from something. Do you've seen any 11 a.m. tip-offs? There's been a couple over the years, but not many. There was even an 11 a.m. football kickoff a couple of times. But not many times in basketball. And that was because there was an NHL game later that day in the same arena.

So they had to make adjustments to that. uh certainly didn't bother virginia but uh cow on me though yeah 11 o'clock 10 oh no that's it's a little too early just like the 9 o'clock is a little too late i think uh cow's 13 and 2 overall uh their two losses came to kansas state 99 to 96 and to louisville 90 to 70 so uh it makes you wonder if they how good a team they are, maybe defensively. They're one-in-one in the league. Their one ACC win came over Notre Dame, and I think everybody probably saw that one.

The 72 to 71 with the Phantom. Foul call. Those day-day aims. Yeah, that sent Micah Shrewsbury bananas. The Notre Dame head coach almost went to jail. He wanted to attack a referee. If they hadn't held him back, I think he might have gotten a hold of that ref.

And that guy in the past... And it was a horrible call. It was a horrible call. It was a phantom call. Wasn't that Day Day Day was the guy who was shooting? For a four-point play, the former Virginia Guard who started at Kansas State, came to UVA South Paul, somewhat underachieved at UVA, but has upside and talent. Now performing at a high clip for Cal.

We'll see Day Day Day aims on Wednesday. Phantom call sends Day Day to the line to complete a four-point play. Cal wins. The Notre Dame head coach basically goes John Sina or Dwayne the Rock Johnson on the referees before he gets to the man in pinstripes. His players and his coaching staff bear hug him and keep him at bay. Then he has to issue an apology. This is like the second or third time this coach has had an outburst like this. He has had a few outbursts. And his team's not performing that. He got a slap on the wrist from the ACC. I thought he might get one game suspension, but he was just publicly reprimanded.

But, yeah, that was an atrocious call. And I'd like to see some of these referees be held accountable for some of these brutal. The officiating I've seen this year has been overall the poorest I've seen in quite a while. The officiating in Blacksburg and the Virginia Tech game was atrocious. Yeah, well, we saw Ryan. get his second technical of the season and it was he was I'm sure he was fed up with

well no that was at the NC State game I think it was a sort of an afterthought or a carryover from the Virginia Tech game when the disparity in foul calls were so immense and I think he saw it

maybe starting to happen again early in the second half against state and decided to put his foot down and and not only get the attention of the officials, but also get the attention of his team who had gotten off to a slow start in the second half. But, yeah, some of the officiating I've seen this year has just been poor. I think some of these officials need to be held accountable

for some of the calls they've made. that Notre Dame call was just unconscionable. I mean, the guy that was called for the foul wasn't even close. It was a fancy. He didn't even touch him. No. The Notre Dame call exasperated by the coach's reaction. And part of me understands the coach's reaction

because he's literally coaching for his job here. I mean, to say the guy's on the hot seat is an understatement. Yeah, especially on the last play of the game where the guy had made a three-pointer. and then you give him a chance to win the game with a free throw that he didn't deserve. And that's what happened. And Notre Dame lost 72 to 71 as a result.

Their other impressive win was against UCLA, although I don't know how good the Bruins are this year, but Day Day Day Ames is averaging a little over 17 points a game. He's playing well for Cal. I'm excited for this matchup with Day Day and Chance, because Chance is going to get a lot of minutes on Day Day Day Day. And in a lot of ways, they're very similar. With Lightning Quick, non-ball defenders, good handles, explosive.

Day Day Day's got the size edge. That's the story of Chance's life is the size edge, probably. Probably going to be the story of his collegiate career. Probably going to determine whether Chance has a chance in the NBA or not is that right there because he's got all the other fundamentals. Day Day Day may look to exploit the physicality against, against Chance because I would imagine Ryan Odom is going to give chance the majority of the minutes to de-day Ames, who looks like it's the go-to guy for the Bruins.

Yeah, I don't know if Dallon Hall can stay up with Ames quickness, if they get matched up together. But it would be interesting to see how they handle that. But, yeah, I agree with you. I think Chance will probably get some significant time. one-on-one with him um my friend it's a pleasure doing the show with you absolutely same here you know what's in the what's in the hopper jerry rackliff dot com transfer portal 24-7 will be keeping up with that and um also keeping a watch on chandler morris and uh i don't know what kind of wheels might be turning on the replacement for

Coach Heffernan at the offensive line if they might want to they may want to just wait until the portal is over with before they handle that. Again, they may have somebody, he may have somebody on his short list already, but. Renee wants you to pontificate on the,

oh, yeah. The court naming on Tony Bennett. Yeah, apparently, Anthony Gill was doing an interview with somebody I think it was Chris Graham Free Press

I think David Driver actually A freelance guy After a Wizards game After a Wizards game And it came up that Gil was talking to Some of his former teammates About maybe possibly coming back

I think it's January 24th North Carolina game Alanakums to Charlottesville. And he let it slip. I don't think we had heard anything about that. I had not heard anything about that. The Virginia planned on having a ceremony and naming the court for Tony Bennett that day.

So we haven't heard anything official about that, but it sounds like Anthony Gil may have let the cat out of the bag. But certainly that would be a really nice moment for Tony Bennett. It's a no-brainer. Virginia's fans incredibly well-deserved what he did for this program for 15 years and brought them a national championship and brought the program back to national prominence after wandering in the basketball desert for a few years under Dave Lado. and so hats off to Tony Bennett he deserves any accolade he can get 100%.

Name should be on the hardwood for my kids to see when they're my age. Yes, absolutely. And they ask me when they're my age about Tony Bennett. And I can assure you in our household, our 7-year-old and our 3-year-old know who Tony Bennett is because we watch anything UVA-related. and their father over the honey nut churios this morning in a hot cup of coffee was reading jerry rackliff.com the three-year-old was giving an ego waffle to the german shepherd and the seven-year-old was watching paul patrol on youtube that's how our morning started and it started at 4.30 today so i'm approximately seven hours into my day already and it's 11 20 in the morning it sounds like your dog is a lot like my two dogs that anything that hits the floor has gone before you can blend The soon-to-be 12-year-old German Shepherd follows the three-year-old around everywhere because the three-year-old is constantly putting food on the floor.

And that's our house. Somehow the 12-year-old German Shepherd is overweight, despite only getting two handfuls of food in his bowl every day for breakfast and dinner, and it's because of the three-year-old. I love you. You're the great man. Love is mutual. Jerry Rackleaf, the namesake of Jerry Rackleaf.com. just a pleasure to do the show.

The hour absolutely flies by. That was 66 minutes without stopping folks. And it's because the man knows Virginia football inside and out like the Pope knows Holy Water. Judah Wickhauer knows distinguished and well-dressed, as well as anyone I know. He's the Elmer's Glew of this team. He's our glue guy. Our glue guy. My name is Jerry Miller, and this is the Jerry and Jerry Show.

And the I Love Seville Show is up at 1230. So long, everybody. Thank you for joining. Thank you. I'm glad you remembered to get the Renee's question in there.