Jacksonville native Antonio Clary celebrates Virginia's win in the 81st TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025, at EverBank Stadium. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on December 29, 2025 at 10:09 am
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Antonio Clary endured multiple injuries, a coaching change, the murder of his teammates three years ago and a few long Saturday afternoons. The odyssey is why his smile illuminated EverBank Stadium on Saturday night.
Clary is a Sandalwood High graduate who ended his collegiate career with a capstone victory in the 81st TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.
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The University of Virginia beat the University of Missouri 13-7 to secure its first 11-win season in its 122-year history. Missouri, meanwhile, ended 8-5.
“I can’t describe this feeling, to be honest,” Clary told Jacksonville Today. “All the things that I went through, just to get to this point and being able to end it with a dub in Jacksonville, it was all written by God. I can’t really describe it. Only He can.”
Missouri’s heave toward the end zone in the waning seconds was broken up by the Cavaliers secondary. Clary was in the vicinity as the ball touched the turf.
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Clary played at safety and on special teams this year for the Atlantic Coast Conference’s most surprising team.
Virginia finished 11-3. The Cavaliers won the Gator Bowl for the first time in three appearances.
Virginia and Missouri missed key offensive cogs that powered their programs during the regular season. Virginia’s top running back, J’Mari Taylor, did not appear in the game. Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula announced his intention to transfer from the program prior to kickoff and did not play. Matt Zollers started at quarterback for Missouri.
Zollers’ only turnover was a third quarter interception by Virginia’s Emmanuel Karnley. Clary deflected the pass to make Karnley’s job easier.
Full circle at the Gator Bowl
Saturday, Clary held an American flag aloft as he led the Cavaliers onto the Bill Gay Grounds at EverBank Stadium. It was a full circle moment for an athlete who used to sprint onto youth football fields in the River City carrying the American flag.
Afterward, Virginia head coach Tony Elliott considered Clary one of the forefathers of this year’s success. He also mentioned left guard Noah Josey and linebacker James Jackson as others who helped set the foundation for their 11-win campaign.
“What they’ve been able to do is phenomenal. You take guys from totally different backgrounds, different universities, different experiences, coming to Virginia, then everybody putting their own personal goals and agendas to the side to commit to the team and the overall mission of the team,” Elliott said in a postgame news conference.
“It’s really special. We’ve gotten contributions from all those guys, guys that were here from the beginning, guys that we recruited back when probably it wasn’t the most sexy thing to come to Virginia, right, to some of the guys we brought in this past portal cycles this year.
“It’s been really refreshing for me to realize in a landscape where there’s so many narratives that at the end of the day these are young people that want to win football games.”
Clary wanted to win. He says his alma mater has a bright future ahead.
He arrived in Charlottesville in early 2019. He played in five games as a true freshman before he tore his anterior cruciate ligament. It was the first of multiple injuries that derailed his collegiate years on the field. In 2023 he tore ligaments in his ankle during preseason camp, which forced him to miss the entire season. In 2024, the Jaxson sustained another ACL injury.
This season, Clary appeared in 11 of Virginia’s 14 games. His seven tackles in the Gator Bowl was a season-high. He also recorded his first tackle for loss and pass breakup in Saturday’s win.
Despite the on-field setbacks, Clary will not leave Virginia empty-handed. He earned his master’s degree in educational psychology after obtaining an undergraduate degree in history in 2022.
He was the first person Elliott handed the Ash Verlander Trophy after the head coach accepted the award from 2025 Gator Bowl Chairman Sara Leutzinger Pomposo.
“This team earned everything that we got,” Clary said. “We weren’t given anything. We just went out there every, single game and every, single week and tried to go 1-0. We earned it.”
