The Virginia football team produced a balanced offensive night in its 59-3 rout of Norfolk State last week. UVA had 237 yards rushing and 229 yards passing in the win. The Hoos also tossed 6 touchdown passes from three different quarterbacks.
Those passing game numbers proved important for the Cavaliers. They only attempted 11 passes in the season opener against NC State, a 34-8 win, so as this season progresses, there will need to be a bigger passing threat more than likely. The NSU game provided the a better glimpse at how that might look when called upon.
This isn’t just a September question, though. The receivers and the receiving part of the offense have been an area of intrigue that dates all the way back to the spring. Virginia, after all, only returned one of its top seven pass catchers from a year ago so each week provides more information on what’s possible from that room. Against the Spartans, four different players caught at least 3 passes four receivers caught touchdown passes. Jacquon Gibson had 2 TDs, while Ty’Lyric Coleman, Isaiah Robinson, and Da’Shawn Martin had 1 each.
Robinson’s return is a story of improving health in the receiver room in general. The Cavaliers also saw Triston Ward get back into action against Norfolk State and now there’s the possibility of adding Rico Flores Jr. into the mix as well. The fourth-year receiver has been working through a hamstring injury, but returned to practice this week.
“He’s a veteran guy. He’s played a good amount of football,” Virginia coach Tony Elliott said of Flores. “He’s a very technical receiver. So he’s going to be where he’s supposed to be when he’s supposed to be there. And then I think he’s got, you know, some big play ability once he gets the ball in his hand.”
With that veteran presence comes versatility for the offense. Flores is someone that can play multiple positions and be, like fifth-year receiver Jacquon Gibson has in the first two games, a little bit of a Swiss Army knife for the offense. Robinson, meanwhile, is a 6’2” second-year player that provides the option to put a big body to the boundary side of the field like Coleman.
So suddenly, you can move pieces around the chessboard in a different way with Flores possibly back. Plus, there’s the possibility of playing with more tempo at times because no one needs to conserve as much energy if a deeper rotation is available.
All of that may make someone like Gibson even more of a threat to opposing defenses. That’s a good thought for the Hoos given that he’s coming off a 2 touchdown game.
“What I think that does is it allows us to maybe play a little bit more to his strengths and he’s got good short area quickness so he can do some of the underneath stuff that we used to do with Malik [Washington],” Elliott said. “ ... You get out there to the field [side], now you got a little bit of space, like you saw on the play that he made. It’s a little hitch route out there, but he’s got space now. He’s got the ball in his hand, and he becomes a runner. ... So having Zay Rob back and Rico back is going to allow him to maybe go where there’s more space and I think the more space he has, and that’s with anybody, right, but the more space he has, the better.”
What else did Coach Elliott say with the media at his weekly press conference? Check out the transcript below (edited for clarity).
Tony Elliott Weekly Press Conference - West Virginia
You have coached against your former boss at Clemson. Now you’re going to go against one of your former coaches. Do you enjoy matchups where you have a relationship with the guy on the other sideline, or would you rather not have that?
TONY ELLIOTT: That’s pretty cool. It’s humbling, too. It’s also an indication of how old I’m getting. But it’s pretty cool. What I remember about Coach Rich Rod [Rodriguez] is intense. Very intense, very demanding, fast paced, coached you hard, loved you just as hard. So, I’m excited about the opportunity
Along those lines, did what Rich [Rodriguez run] at Clemson still have elements of what he’s doing today offensively?
TONY ELLIOTT: Some elements, the tempo piece of it. I think he was ahead of all of the other guys from a tempo standpoint. I just remember it was spotting the ball and back on the 25-second play clock we had to have the ball snap by 19. So, we had six seconds to get the ball off once it was made ready for play.
So they still go fast. Run the ball, attack, mobile quarterback, that’s still very, very similar to our style back when I played at Clemson. So, some similarities, but also a lot of differences too, because that’s been a long time.
With that quarterback, what kind of challenges does he pose, like Michael Hawkins and his speed?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, he’s a threat at any second to change the game and score. And so, you got to do a great job of being assignment sound. They’re going to really challenge you from a preparation standpoint with the schemes that they do to make you play assignment sound football. And if you misfit something, it’s not like he’s going to go for a five or seven. He’s going to go for 70.
Jacquon Gibson mentioned that you have a relationship with his high school coach. Would you walk us through that, and is that the connection of how you guys got to [talk to Gibson]?
TONY ELLIOTT: I just know that, I don’t know if that was like a big, big connection. I don’t remember that being something that I used. It was more having a chance to get him down here and going through the process of us explaining what we could do for him from a development standpoint and then him being able to see all the resources that he’d have available.
How well has he [Jacqon Gibson] matched what you expected to get in terms of what he’s actually producing?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, you expected with his physical frame that he’d be able to be a very good run after the catch type of guy. He is improving down the field, being able to make plays on the ball down the field from what we’ve seen out in practice. So I think he’s only gonna continue to get better. So he’s definitely what we thought we were getting and still has some upside that he can tap into.
West Virginia’s defensive packages, they put a lot of pressure, switch things up, are very fast. Who do you see keying on or what has stood out to you?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, Zach [Alley], he’s a lot like BV [Brent Venables]. I’m thinking about my hairline now, all the hair I lost on the practice field going against Brent [Venables]. And he was right there as an assistant helping Brent [Venables]. And so he’s going to be very multiple, like you said. He’s going to show you some things that he can do maybe you haven’t seen before to really stress your preparation and ability to adjust in game. They’re gonna go from being a Okie 3-4 type of defense to being a five-man front playing man coverage. And then they’re gonna show pressure, drop out, play exotic coverages on the back end. So, you gotta do a really, really good job.
And the challenge for us this week is we now have five days. The last two games we’ve had at least two weeks to prepare for that game, so now we have to transition to the normal rhythm of getting ready for a game. Got to do a great job as a staff of helping the guys with that new aspect of preparation.
You know front wise they got they got multiple guys they can put in multiple spots. You know number 50 brings a lot of juice off the edge. The linebackers are downhill. They’re gonna gap you out. So in our world, that means that they’re not gonna let you stick on double teams. You’re gonna have to you have to win one-on-one blocks and the backs are going to have to be precise with their angles and their vision to be able to find the creases if there are any and then they got some length on the back end and some speed that they can match you in man coverage.
So, great great challenge for our guys in particular on offense to prepare for the multiplicity of what they do. And then they got the personnel to be able to do it.
Then as far as your defensive front, any update on Jason Hammond?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, unfortunately for Jason Hammond, looks like the MRI has come back and he’s probably gonna need surgery. So don’t know the extent of how long the recovery will be but looks like it’s gonna be an injury that’s gonna require surgery.
West Virginia’s third down efficiency is over 50% and you guys have very similar rushing yards in two games. What would you say the key to victory is? Most people think it’s in the trenches; would you agree?
TONY ELLIOTT: Oh, it’s absolutely in the trenches, I think. The key to the third down efficiency is what they do on first and second down. And so they’re getting the short yardage. They’re not having to have long third down conversions. And the shorter the length, the higher the percentage should be. So if you’re building your metrics for third down conversion, if you’re in 3rd and-1 to 2, your indicator is going to be 80% plus, right? So you should convert 80% of the time. So what they’re doing on first and second down is they’re being efficient. They’re staying ahead of the chains, so they’re not having to convert long yardage.
And then obviously, once they convert, now they can play with tempo, be aggressive. And if you match any kind of personnel packages, now they can keep your personnel package on the field, spread it out, and then here we go, right? And then that creates explosive plays. really good job of being efficient and then converting on short yardage. But then also whenever you make a mistake, they exploit it.
Like you watch the first game, first play of the Coastal game and boom, here they go for 70 yards, right? And then now, in two plays, you scored a touchdown and you rushed for 72 yards in two plays. That’s tough to defend. So we’re gonna have to do a great job. And then they have the quarterback too, right? And so whenever you have the quarterback, especially in some of the short yardage conversion situations, they can go empty and now you’ve got to defend the entire field and then your quarterback can run just as good as a running back. So it poses some significant challenges where we’re going to have to be gap sound, assignment sound. And when we arrive, we arrive in swarms.
Because typically what happens is with the quarterback or with their backs, the first guy doesn’t get them to the ground. He makes the first guy miss. And a lot of times, there’s not a second guy there. So now that extends for big plays. And then if you’re staying ahead of the chains and you’re not getting in the third down situations, then you can be really aggressive with your play calling. And then you can be more creative too, which poses more challenge for you defensively.
Speaking to that, they like to run a lot of 11 personnel. They like to run a lot of empty with the tight [end], and then they do a lot of motions. And they had a particularly big play where they motioned the tight end, motioned the receiver, and it looked like a quarterback keeping, and they got probably like a 50-yard gain. How do you keep the guys focused on making sure that they don’t look in the backfield and make those type of mistakes?
TONY ELLIOTT: Do your job. First, it starts with the mentality of just doing your job and trusting your teammate to do his job. So practice this week, we got to do a great job of putting them through all of those situations and all the different calls because what’s challenging is on some calls, my eyes do follow the motion, some calls, my eyes don’t follow the motion. So you got to do a good job of putting them through all of the calls in those situations so that they have the muscle memory and the discipline to keep their eyes where they’re supposed to be. And that's really what that’s about.
And we do it too. We do a lot of shifting and motioning. And you see, we’ll do double motions. We’ll jump the tight end, and then we’ll bring motion, and then he’ll go, and then he’ll come back. It’s all intentional to try and get the eyes to be undisciplined. And if the eyes are undisciplined, then either you’re out of a gap completely, or you’re too slow in fitting your gap, then boom, here goes the big play. And when you’ve got a quarterback that can run it like a running back and can find it, typically quarterbacks, especially in the zone world, they don’t find it like running backs, right? They’ll bury it up in there and they’ll plow for four yards. But if they can find it with their eyes, when you misfit a gap and you’re spread out and empty and you don’t have anybody to fit because you’re playing man coverage to defend the pass, then that’s, you know.
It’s really kind of the option football principles, right? When we run some of our option stuff, we’re trying to get you in man coverage. And once we get the ball to the back on the perimeter or you take the back and the quarterback runs, there’s nobody else there because everybody else is covering the receiver. So it’s a big challenge.
You saw Will Bettridge become an all-time scoring leader on Saturday. What kind of leader, what kind of rock has he been for this program over the last four years?
TONY ELLIOTT: First and foremost, he’s got a big task of wearing one of the most sacred numbers in our program, right? He wears number 41, and there’s a relationship behind that too, so it’s not just a jersey number. So every time he goes out there, he’s not just representing UVA, he’s not just representing his family, he’s representing his high school, he’s representing the Perry family, he’s representing one of his best friends. So that’s a lot of pressure in and of itself and then to be able to do it with just class, humility, grace every day and showing up and being the same person and somebody that his teammates can just count on to do his job.
And to be available. I mean, that’s what leaders do. I think a lot of times people wanna focus on the big aspect of leading, right? But it’s just the consistency every day that make the best leaders and that’s what he does. He just shows up every single day and he is who he is and he leads and he welcomes and he carries the responsibility that he has very, very well.
Coach, you’ve talked about the five deep running backs that you have. How difficult is that to make sure that they all can get in some kind of rhythm while still getting in the game? Do you kind of go by the flow of the game and see how somebody’s having success? Do you kind of ride them versus kind of what your game plan is week to week?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, it all depends on kind of the flow of the game, the practice week, because it’s competition - they're all competing to get on the field. And so far, it’s been A, all of them have earned the right to play. Let’s just figure it out as we get into the game. And I know it may not be easy if you’re the fourth one to go in there, because you’re chomping at the bit. But they have confidence that they are going to get their opportunity. And the way that we practice, we try to rotate them that way in practice, so that they have the ability to try and find their rhythm as quick as they can.
I think it’s also a reflection of the offensive unit as a whole. That the guys up front are consistent, so it helps those guys quickly get into a rhythm. And when you can jump in there, and the offensive line is creating running lanes, and you can pop you a good positive gain, you know, when you first run, then you quickly, you know, settle in. And so really, by far, so far, it’s just been by committee. All those guys know that we trust them all in every situation. And I think what you’ve seen is they’ve all played in different situations from short yards all the way to the long yards, third down situations.
Given that the ACC championship Game is in Charlotte and one of the team’s goals is to get back there, did that make the opportunity to play this game at that stadium especially attractive?
TONY ELLIOTT: I think it’s a great opportunity for us to get the bad taste out of our mouth from the last time that we were down there. We came up a little bit short. I don’t know if when we scheduled this game in Charlotte, we had all of those details about going back after coming up a little bit short. But it is an opportunity for us to go back to the stadium, get that taste out of our mouth, and then hopefully do what we’re supposed to do, take care of business, find a way to win the game, and then now we can get into conference play and already have got all that stuff out of the way. And we also got a clear vision of where we wanna go.
With Jason Hammond out, Darrion Henry-Young is that the next in line at defensive tackle?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, so Darrion [Henry-Young] was rolling, Sichan [John] was rolling, those guys will roll. Kervins [Choute] has got to step up, Jonathan Allen’s got to step up, and hopefully we’ll get Chase [Morrison] back here in a week or so from the ankle. And so all those guys, Britt [Anthony Britton] will have to step up. It’s unfortunate part about football, it’s the next man up. And sometimes you gotta carry a little bit bigger load than maybe you want to, but it’s whatever you gotta do for the team. So I’m excited for the other guys to get their opportunity. I’m really heartbroken for Jason, because I know how hard he worked to get back and he missed some time in the past and nobody wants to have to, just as you're getting going, have to fix something to get yourself back ready to roll.
On the defensive line you had Cazeem Moore eligible for Friday’s game. How has it been working through that and what did you think of the handful of snaps he was out there on Friday?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, it’s a it depends on who you ask, right, like like for me it’s not as much of the heavy lifting because I’m not the one you know reading the I guess the lawyer reports and following up with all of the folks. I’m like, all right, tell me when he’s ready to go and we’ll turn him loose. But kudos to [Justin Speros and Cory Martin] and Dr. Williams and everybody and Jason Baum and everybody involved in just really monitoring that and then putting us in a position to have him available.
And really, and I mentioned this to the team yesterday, because Cazeem was our scout team player of the week because his role was to go down - we didn’t know how much he’d be available, could he be eligible to play? We knew he could practice. So he’s over there giving us a great look, getting ready for this game, being one of the Norfolk State defensive linemen. And you know what, he did it with joy, and he gave great effort. He was just a complete team guy, and so really, really happy for him, our football team, for all the work that was done to have him eligible to be able to play. And now going forward, I think his role will increase now that we know, kind of have some clarity on his situation for at least the next couple of weeks.
Has De’Shawn Baker, maybe crossed paths with him at South Carolina State?
TONY ELLIOTT: Oh, so shake and bake? Nah, man. First of all, I’d love to have shake and bake right now with this offensive line that we got. You’re talking about a 6'1", 6'2", tailback with soft hands out of the backfield. Was a great, great leader. Really, really good player.
So that did help. I’m not going to take credit, because it wasn’t like I called, shake and bake, and said, hey, Jaquon’s got to come here. But I know the coaching staff will have worked with him. And then we’ve also got other players that have come through there, Jacobie [Henderson] as well. But no, shake and bake was a really, really good player. Probably a player that should not have been where he was, could have played at a higher level, but he was a really, really good football player. And he’s doing a great job, too, down there at the high school that he’s at. I think they have perennial power in the state of North Carolina. ...
He had a chant too. Like he had one of the chants, I’ve been meaning to call him and ask if we can borrow it. Yeah, you have a chant to get us going offensively that I always looked forward to hearing him say. Really good player.
Beau [Pribula] is off to an impressive start. Can you talk about the progress he’s made technically to make him a better passer?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, so I think it starts with probably had some unfair assessments and evaluations of him as a quarterback. And I think I’ve said it several times, he’s got a quarterback mind. So he is a quarterback. He’s not just an athlete that plays a position. He thinks like a quarterback. He processes like a quarterback. He understands the nuances of the position, the game management, all of those things. And I think that has helped him to transition to the system to where he’s very, very comfortable.
And I think he, along with the staff, do a good job of communicating, to being able to figure out the passing game that he’s most comfortable with instead of trying to force him into saying, hey, no, you’re going to do this. Like, what are you comfortable with? And then through that, man, we can start to develop in some of the areas that you want to develop. And I thought he did a really good job in the RPO aspect of the system this past weekend of taking the access throws that resulted in some big plays. And then when we had a chance to drive the ball down the field, he’s been really, really accurate. So I think that the more that he just continues to be comfortable in the system, I think he’s going to continue to evolve.
And then I know there’s great communication between he and Coach Kitch and Coach Lamb just in terms of what he’s most comfortable with as we continue to try and develop holistically, right? So you do see that he looks a lot more comfortable in the pocket. But yeah, I think that’s a function of also the ability to play his game, run the ball, be able to handle the RPOs. And then when we wanna take shots, we can move him off the launch point and clear everything up for him so he can deliver the ball and it’s helped that some of them have been guys running wide open too.
You had hoped to get Rico [Flores Jr.] back this week. Is he back and what will he add to the receivers?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, so he practiced yesterday. So we’ll see how we do today. Today is a bigger test because it’s a longer practice. We got pads on and we really turn it up full speed and get after it. So we’ll see kind of how he responds there, but I think what he brings is leadership first and foremost. He’s a veteran guy. He’s played a good amount of football. He’s a very technical receiver. So he’s going to be where he’s supposed to be when he’s supposed to be there. And then I think he’s got, you know, some big playability, you know, once he gets the ball in his hand.
So, one, it brings a comfort because now it’s like, okay, we’ve got another body, you know, added to the mix. Isaiah Robinson, having him back last week ahead of schedule was huge because it’s like, man, now we got more depth so then now we can play with a little more pace when we need to. And then now the guys can sell out, play in and play out as opposed to if a guy knows he’s got to play 60 plus snaps, just the natural tendency is to reserve a little bit for later in the game. Now we got more depth, we can roll them. And then we got versatility to change things up.
And so then now, with Rico back, you have a flexibility to maybe move some guys around, which you didn’t have, and I think that’s important because down the stretch, that helps with depth when you can move guys around and get them experienced playing at other spots, then if you do have an injury, now you’ve got more flexibility. So having him back, having Isaiah [Robinson] back was big, and Triston’s [Ward] been working back into practice too, and he got in so that just adds another piece of depth for us to just ... because those guys got to run, right, they got to run. They got to run full speed and the more you have the better.
Jacquon Gibson is one of those guys that can float around. What is it about him that you’re so confident in his versatility? What can he bring when you do have a full wide receiver room?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, so when you look at him physically, he’s got the ability to play on the outside if you need him and then he’s also got the skill set to play on the inside in the slot. So what I think that does is it allows us to maybe play a little bit more to his strengths and he’s got good short area quickness so he can do some of the underneath stuff that we used to do with Malik [Washington].
But he’s had to be a Swiss Army Knight for us early on. He’s had to play everywhere, which is good for his development, but then also, it’s a little bit more challenging in terms of showcasing his skill set because he may be asked to go play into the boundary at X, whereas he’s probably better suited to be out there as a Z or as an F in space, taking the top off of coverage. And it’s different, when you go into the boundary, it’s different. Right? Like they’re in your face. It’s short area. Man, it’s hand-to-hand combat. You’re fighting. Not a ton of space.
You get out there to the field, now you got a little bit of space, like you saw on the play that he made. It’s a little hitch route out there, but he’s got space now. He’s got the ball in his hand, and he becomes a runner. Whereas if you throw that ball into the boundary, that space is going to evaporate very, very quickly and so now he doesn’t maybe have a chance to get going, to make a guy miss. Or, you know, that space, there is no space, and now he’s having to make a contested catch where it’s a bang-bang and not an opportunity for run after the catch.
So having Zay Rob back and Rico back is going to allow him to maybe go where there’s more space and I think the more space he has, and that’s with anybody, right, but the more space he has, the better, whereas like you look at Zay Rob, Zay Rob’s a bigger guy so he can create a little more space with his length so he’s probably a guy that’s better suited to play into the boundary as opposed to out there to the field, if that makes sense.
Coach, on Friday, we saw a lot of the quarterbacks in the game, saw Eli [Holstein] get in there and make a nice throw. Cole Geer gets his first touchdown pass. What have you seen from that quarterback room, the leadership from Beau and from Eli, just the camaraderie in general in that quarterback room?
TONY ELLIOTT: Well, I think you mentioned it as you saw the camaraderie. I don’t believe I’ve been a part of a game where three quarterbacks have thrown a touchdown pass, and heck, I don’t know if I’ve been a part of many games where there’s been six touchdown passes thrown.
So, I think that just the fact of what you saw is a testament to the relationship that they have. I was sitting there at pre-game meal and all of them were sitting together. They’re sitting together as a position and they’re communicating, they’re talking. You can tell there’s a genuine friendship and relationship. And while those guys are competing, they also are supporting each other. And so, it was just awesome to see those guys.
And it’s good to see Eli [Holstein]. What Eli [Holstein] did right there, down there on the one yard line, put that ball up in the corner of the end zone, like you don’t just do that, right? Your confidence level has to be in a certain place to be able to say, you know what, like one, all right, the running back just kind of worked us all the way down there and now I got this one-on-one and I feel like I can make it. And I have the ability to do it and just the confidence to be able to do that is big. And then I think you’ve also seen that just when he goes out and commands the system.
So, I think it’s a testament to, like you said, the leadership. Leadership of all of those guys. And then Cole [Geer] goes in there, and Cole looks like he belongs. He looks confident, and he knows what’s going on, and he’s ready to rip the ball. So that just brings a lot of comfort to myself and I know to the staff that, one, you got three guys that can go out there and function at a high level, but then also, man, they’re pulling for each other, and they’re providing leadership for our football team because the quarterback position, I mean it is what it is, like that’s your football team right there in terms of the leadership, the guy. Like everybody looks to that individual so when you have that in a room and multiple guys can provide that, man, that’s big.
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