Fresh off an appearance in the ACC Championship Game, Virginia is set to face Missouri on Saturday in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.

Ahead of the matchup, Virginia head coach/former Clemson assistant Tony Elliott and Missouri head coach Eliah Drinkwitz met with the media during the Gator Bowl coaches’ press conference Friday.

Both coaches were asked the question, if they could invite two or three people to Christmas dinner, who would they invite and why?

Elliott said Jesus and former Clemson stars Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne.

“Yeah, I got three names that come to mind,” Elliott said, via MizzouToday. “The first would be the big man upstairs. Because obviously that’s his birthday and the real reason for the season. Just to put everything in perspective. And then I haven’t seen Trevor and I haven’t seen Travis. Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne in a long time, so it’s been about five years.”

Of course, before being hired as Virginia’s head coach prior to the 2022 season, Elliott spent 11 years on Dabo Swinney’s staff at Clemson. He was promoted to assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in January 2021 after seven seasons as co-offensive coordinator (2014–20) and a decade as running backs coach (2011–20).

Etienne played for Elliott at Clemson from 2017-20, while Lawrence played for Elliott and the Tigers from 2018-20. With Elliott as co-OC, Lawrence and Etienne won an ACC Championship each season they were at Clemson and helped the Tigers win a national title in 2018.

Both Lawrence and Etienne were selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft and play their home games at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., where the Gator Bowl will take place.

“So I think I would have invited them over just to celebrate with us,” Elliott said of Lawence and Etienne. “We’re in there, playing in their venue, in their hometown. But then also to help our team understand what it’s like to play in the postseason. Because we’ve been approaching this game like a playoff game. This really is a, is two teams that are a drive, a drive and a half away from playing in the College Football Playoff. So I would have brought those two over just to maybe help me get these guys fired up to go against.”

After Elliott’s answer to the question about who he’d invite to Christmas dinner, Drinkwitz had a question for Elliott regarding Lawrence and Etienne.

“You didn’t sign them right? They aren’t playing?” Drinkwitz asked.

“I tried to, but they wouldn’t answer,” Elliott quipped back.

When 19th-ranked Virginia (10-3) takes on Missouri (8-4) in the Gator Bowl, Elliott’s Cavaliers can reach 11 wins for the first time in program history.

Under Elliott, the Cavaliers have already recorded their second 10-win season in program history — the first since 1989 — and matched the 1995 team with a program-record seven conference victories. Virginia made its first ACC title game appearance since 2019, falling to Duke 27-20 in overtime.

The Gator Bowl will kick off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and will be televised on ABC. It marks UVA’s first bowl game since the 2019 Orange Bowl against Florida. The Cavaliers were most recently bowl eligible in 2021, but the Fenway Bowl against future ACC foe SMU was canceled due to COVID issues.