UVA cancels final home game following deaths of three players originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Virginia Cavalier football team has canceled its final home game in the wake of a mass shooting that left three of its players dead and another wounded.
Virginia was set to host No. 23-ranked Coastal Carolina at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 19, but called off the game in the middle of the week — less than 72 hours after Cavalier football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry were gunned down in Charlottesville late Sunday night following a class field trip.
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It is unknown if Virginia will play its final game of the 2022 college football season against ACC and in-state rival Virginia Tech. That game is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 26, in Blacksburg.
“It feels like it’s a nightmare, to be honest with you, and I’m ready for somebody to pinch me and wake me up and say that this didn’t happen,” said first-year Virginia football coach Tony Elliott during a news conference Tuesday.
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Davis Jr. and Chandler were both junior wide receivers for the Cavalier program. Perry was a junior defensive end.
Running back Mike Hollins was also injured during the shooting but reports indicate after surgeries he is in stable condition.
“The first meeting was really, really ... really tough,” Elliott said, before fighting back his emotions.
"You prepare for this job, [but] there is no chapter on something like this."
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., 22, has been accussed of killing the three football players and wounding two other university students. He was arrested on Monday after more than 12 hours on the run.
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Several religious services were planned Tuesday evening around Charlottesville, and a campus-wide event honoring the victims is in the works.