It was a fast-paced search since the end of the 2024 season, but UVa found their presumptive starting quarterback for 2025 on Monday. North Texas QB Chandler Morris picked the Hoos and signed on the dotted line, following a visit to Charlottesville last week. Morris chose Virginia after also visiting Oklahoma State, UCF and Memphis, and had plenty of other interest.

The newest Cavalier quarterback comes from a football family and played in a football hotbed. Morris is the son of former Arkansas and SMU head coach Chad Morris and played his high school football at Dallas area Highland Park High, the same school as Matthew Stafford, Clayton Kershaw and other famous athletes. The elder Morris, of course, worked with Tony Elliott when Morris was the offensive coordinator at Clemson and Elliott was on the staff there.

Despite the connections, Morris is plenty impressive on his own merit. The new Cavalier was a highly sought-after high school prospect, signing with Oklahoma. Morris sat behind Spencer Rattler in 2020 with the Sooners and transferred to TCU in the offseason. Morris redshirted in 2021 and won the job in 2022, but was injured in the season opener and backup Max Duggan kept the job, taking the Horned Frogs to the national title game. Morris threw for 12 touchdowns and just over 1,500 yards in 2023, and then transferred to North Texas where he had a career year. Finally having an opportunity to play a full season as the starter, Morris had a great year with the Mean Green, throwing for 3,774 yards and 31 touchdowns with 12 interceptions and a 63.1 percent completion percentage. Morris had four 400+ yard passing performances this fall, and seven games with at least three touchdown passes. Morris also rushed for 242 yards and four touchdowns.

This one is pretty obvious. UVa didn’t have a starting quarterback, with Anthony Colandrea and Tony Muskett gone. UVa added Nebraska transfer Danny Kaelin over the weekend, but Kaelin has yet to take a collegiate snap, and going into a pivotal year with a talented but unproven QB seemed like a very risky proposition. Morris brings a ton of collegiate experience in quality programs to the table. He has played a ton of football at this level, has a strong arm and has a chance to elevate UVa’s offense. If, of course, they can find a few more players to play with him.

And that may be a secondary benefit for the Hoos. Morris is a prolific QB who has played at a number of places and may be an attractive QB for prospective transfer additions when UVa is shopping around. Virginia has been in the market for pretty much every position on offense, but surely the elephant in the room in a lot of those recruitments has been who will be throwing the football. Now everyone has that answer, and Morris’ ability to make big plays in the passing game could be something that draws more transfers, particularly at skill positions, to Virginia.

Morris had other options and in this case, UVa probably needs him more than Morris needs them. Perhaps he can put together a great season on the back of his impressive 2024 campaign and put himself in a position to play on Sundays. It probably is satisfying for him on some level to get back to a power conference program and have a chance to prove himself once again against good competition.

The one thing UVa can offer that many other schools could not or maybe would not, is a pretty clear path to the field as the starter. Sure, Morris had other options where he could walk in and be the guy, but at Virginia, they need him to be good from here until the season opener, win the job with Kaelin as his backup, and have him play well. So this is a match that seemingly works for both parties quite well.

Barring something unfortunate, this is your UVa starting quarterback for the season opener and beyond. If Morris can hit the ground running when he gets to Virginia, and the staff can find a way to build an offense around things that he does well, Morris has an opportunity to help turn the program around, at least for the immediate future. UVa needs Morris to be productive for this team to play well. He might not need to throw as often or for as many yards and touchdowns as he did at North Texas, but Morris will probably need to hit 20+ touchdowns and 3,000+ yards for this season to be a good one in Charlottesville.