Based on the following account from WaPo, it makes me think there was some kind of friction (real or imagined) between the shooter and the football players. The young lady who gave her account said that everyone was nice & polite to the shooter during this trip.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/15/uva-shooting-witness-reveals-details/

There's also mention of the University escalating a disciplinary action against the shooter on Oct. 27 for not disclosing a misdemeanor concealed weapons charge from 2021 (link & swipe below). Could that have set him off and cause him to take out his anger on the football players? Did the university's investigation somehow involve members of the team?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/13/shooting-university-virginia-charlottesville/

The University of Virginia’s threat assessment team started scrutinizing Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. after a student reported Sept. 15 that he had heard Jones make a comment about possessing a gun, a university spokesman said Monday.

U-Va. spokesman Brian Coy said the tip came as part of an investigation into a separate hazing allegation.

Coy, in a statement elaborating on remarks that U-Va. Police Chief Timothy J. Longo Sr. made at an earlier news conference Monday, said the tipster did not tell the university he saw Jones with a gun. Nor was there a specific threat associated with the gun-possession report. U-Va. officials also reached out to Jones’s roommate and heard nothing from him about seeing a gun.

But the threat assessment team did discover another detail, Coy said in a statement: “that Mr. Jones previously had been tried and convicted of a misdemeanor concealed weapons violation in 2021, for which he received a 12-month suspended sentence and a small fine.”

The Washington Post could not find a court record of the conviction, which Coy said occurred in Henrico County.

Coy added: “Throughout the investigation, Mr. Jones repeatedly refused to cooperate with University officials who were seeking additional information about the claims that he had a firearm and about his failure to disclose the previous misdemeanor conviction.”

University rules require students to disclose such convictions. So U-Va. officials took a further step, Coy said: “Accordingly, on October 27, the Threat Assessment Team escalated his case for disciplinary action.”

Coy added: “University officials take the responsibility to evaluate and act upon potential public safety threats seriously.”