The Virginia football team got off to a good start in Charlotte, but ultimately things unraveled against West Virginia. The Mountaineers answered the Hoos’ early momentum, took the lead at halftime, and eventually pulled away to a 38-27 win.

UVA returned to Charlottesville with a 2-1 record as a result. The attention quickly shuffled to the final non-conference game against Delaware this week at Scott Stadium and a long ACC slate ahead. Coach Tony Elliott reminded the Cavaliers in the locker room that they still had plenty of goals still in front of them.

When the team returned to the practice field, Elliott started to look for the signs of a team ready to put a loss in the rearview mirror. Those signs include the language team leaders and assistant coaches use as well as how players approach the new week. The most important sign: is anyone point fingers or is everyone ready to get back to work?

“You show up in practice, and or the first meeting. There's no sad shoulders. People aren't sitting low in their chair, man, they're up there attentive,” Elliott said. “And then when you get out to practice, man, guys are flying around. So definitely seeing the response that you wanna see. And then the other thing is, it's a positive that you've created an expectation of winning. Like people are disappointed when you don't win. ... So like, there's an expectation, we've created that. Now, the problem is we gotta feed that monster. We gotta keep it going. And the way that we do that is to take ownership, don't make excuses. Tip your hat to your opponent for making the plays and then going back to work.”

Elliott liked what he saw from his players, both in leadership spots and beyond. Monday’s practice showed him that they have the right approach and attitude. As the week progresses, though, he needs to see the corrections and focus needed to build from the loss to WVU.

For Elliott, that means dialing in on details. Maybe that’s keeping the pocket contained with good angles. Maybe it’s cleaning up dropped passes or missed tackles. In the case of quarterback Beau Pribula, maybe its understanding how to adjust protections based on what a defense shows - Elliott noted there was at least one play where Pribula moved the protection, but then lost track of who his hot read would be as a result. For a defensive back, there was an example of biting on a double move when it wasn’t necessary.

Those are all examples of little moments that add up when games are close on the scoreboard and that might be enough to tip the result the wrong way. Those are also examples of teachable moments and the opportunity to grow in Elliott’s mind.

That will be the messaging throughout the week for Virginia.

“I know that nobody feels good about a loss. There's no moral victories, but it's a lot for us to learn, and I'm excited to go get better. And I think the staff and and the players are excited to go get better,” Elliott said. “And, man, it feels good to, like have an expectation to win and for everybody to be upset when we don't win. Like, that tells us that we're definitely headed in the right direction. And Saturday can't get here fast enough. We're not gonna skip any days, we're gonna commit to the process, but it can't get here fast enough because nobody likes the feeling, but also everybody has taken accountability for what we can do better, and we're gonna get better and we'll be a better football team because of this.”

Tony Elliott Weekly Press Conference - Delaware

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, good morning. Just want to take a few seconds to acknowledge UVA Strong Day. It's a big, big day for our program, especially in particular with this staff. I think everybody knows what happened back in November of 22, and it’s something that, as a program, we carry forward every single day. As I said back then, that we were going to turn tragedy into triumph, and we were not, you know moving on. We were moving forward. And here we are, almost four years forward. And still, it's a very, very big component of our program. Still got seven players in the program that were a part of the team when the tragedy happened.

And obviously, they're the ones that are educating, kind of the rest of the new players just to who Lavel [Davis Jr.], Devin [Chandler], and D’Sean [Perry] are as human beings, first and foremost, and then also as football players. And also, got to just keep in mind that for the families, this is probably more like year one, right? Because they just recently got some clarity on the sentencing. And so now they're finally at a place where they can move forward and try to truly grieve the loss of their loved one. And so we got different folks that are in different phases of the journey to healing and recovery.

And my hope is that UVA will show up on Saturday and be UVA strong for the [Lavel] Davis, [Devin] Chandler, and [D’Sean] Perry families. It puts everything in perspective. I know we're going to talk in a minute about a football game that didn't go our way, but we were quickly reminded because this past Sunday was D’Sean’s birthday and so it puts everything back in perspective. And to be honest with you, I sit here a better man, a better father, a better husband, a better coach because of what happened four years ago. I'm proud to be able to be a part of that.
And I'm proud to be able to carry forward my weight of the burden.

This is not a checklist item for us. This is not about painting the field. This is who we are. And it's a part of our journey moving forward. And there are tough days that we have to deal with as a result of it. But it's also a privilege to be able to carry forward the legacies of Lavel, Devin, and D’Sean. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about those young men. There's not a day that goes by that I don’t think about their families and pray for their families.

I know how hard it's been for me. I can only imagine how difficult it is for their families and excited to have all three of the moms here this weekend. It's going to be awesome. And so, my ask, and I don't ask for much, is just, man, we show up and we be UVA strong for them because at the end of the day they paid the ultimate sacrifice. They no longer can experience the joy of just visiting with their loved one. And so this football team will be prepared to play and understand the significance of this game.

I just would hope that everybody would show up and be UVA strong because, to be honest with you, the expectation that we've created about winning here, a lot of it is a result of what happened then because a bunch of folks, staff and players, decided to stay and to stand in a very difficult time. And that's probably what I'm most proud of. And then all that happens after that is just kind of icing on the cake, but we are where we are by no doubt because of Lavel, Devin and D’Sean and the legacies and the privilege of carrying that forward.

So with that, I'll open it up for for any questions.

Is this a topic that you discuss with the players or do you leave that to the guys who are still here from 22?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, so it's discussed not in extreme detail, you know, on the front end. I think every young man that joins our program knows that this is part of our, just a part of who we are, part of our legacy, part of our burden. You walk by it every single day when you walk in the building. You can't go past, you can't get in the locker room without walking past. The likeness of Lavel, Devin, and De’Sean. And then talk a little bit about it during fall camp, just so everybody knows when they see the diamonds, they see the numbers, what's the significance. This week, we'll talk about it in more detail. And then also, this will be a week where our players will have a chance, that we're here, to really address their teammates on a personal level as to who Lavel, Devin, and De’Sean were as people.

Do you have an update on Noah Josey going into Saturday?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, so just an ankle issue. He was out at practice yesterday moving around. He'll work back in today. So, hopeful for this weekend. You know, grateful that I don't believe it's as severe. But he wasn't able to finish in the game. But since then, through treatment, you know, he's got mobility and he's moving around.

And then, as far as Saturday goes against Delaware their passing game has been pretty good early on. You guys got tested a little bit this past Saturday. What do you kind of see there, and what are the biggest challenges that their quarterback, [Nick] Minicucci, provides?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah. So I think we're going to have to do a good job of just making some adjustments in some of our alignments from a man coverage standpoint. I think we had some big plays that we gave up just from an alignment standpoint. You know, we got to continue to just have the awareness with the ball in the air of where it is and not get lost, stay connected to receivers. Don't panic at the point of attack to give up any PIs.

Obviously, there's gonna be times where from a coverage standpoint, we're gonna have space because we're keeping everything in front. So when that happens, we gotta make sure that we rally and we tackle. And then also too, we gotta have clean eyes. We jumped a double move that we shouldn’t have that resulted in a touchdown. So just focus on the things we can control.

And then from a coaching standpoint, you know, just make sure that each time we have some man coverage calls, we put guys in the right position so we don't have traffic issues. You know, when you go back to the game, the touchdown right before half, the kid made a heck of a throw. Like, I mean, Corey's [Costner] in position. He dropped it right over his arm. Like, there ain't a whole lot you can do about that. The touchdown late was a double move; we shouldn't have jumped there, just trying to be too aggressive. So we got to be disciplined there. We gave up a big play on a pass interference. Again, it was a kind of a technical breakdown early that resulted in getting out of position at the point of attack. So, things we can all clean up.

So, I didn't see structural, it wasn't like we had guys just running wide open. So, I think we were in position for the most part. We just got to finish on some plays, and that's what we worked on this week, and we'll continue to work on. So, we'll be in ... and we got to get some pass rush. You know, one of the things that we did not get to the quarterback enough. From that standpoint. So hopefully we can create a little more pass rush that'll give us a little bit more, less time on the back end, I should say, from a coverage standpoint.

You always said you learn more about your team in this situation coming back from adversity like this. Just in the first couple days from leaving Saturday, what have you learned about this team and their mentality in the locker room?

TONY ELLIOTT: So the first thing is you're listening to, like okay, what kind of language do we have? Is it blaming and pointing fingers, or is it, “hey, Coach, this won't happen again,” Coach , or your leadership, is saying “Coach, hey, we we're gonna get them right.” And when you go into your senior leadership, and it's like, “Okay, what did we learn?” “Coach, it's about the little things, right? We got to control what we can control. Anybody's capable of beating you, so you're starting to hear, like, not coaches’ speak, but you're hearing those things regurgitated to you. So now you understand that, okay, the thinking is in the right place.

And then you show up in practice, and and or the first meeting. There's no sad shoulders. People aren't sitting low in their chair, man, they're up there attentive. And then when you get out to practice, man, guys are flying around. So definitely seeing the response that you wanna see. And then the other thing is, it's a positive that you've created an expectation of winning. Like people are disappointed when you don't win. It's not a okay, onto the next one. I know for me, I didn't eat after the game. I didn't sleep much. I probably lost about six pounds. I can see that agony in the folks around the building.

And so like, there's an expectation, we've created that. Now, the problem is we gotta feed that monster. We gotta keep it going. And the way that we do that is to take ownership, don't make excuses. Tip your hat to your opponent for making the plays and then going back to work. And I saw that on Monday and I'm excited to get out there today because today's a big day for us. And so we'll know kind of is it just that initial being upset that we lost, or have we really transitioned to the point to where we understand just the importance of every single day, every single rep, because that's what's going to lead us back to getting on the other side of the win-loss column.

And then Devon Baxter also left. Any update on him?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yep. So he was out moving around, just a shoulder injury. And so he'll be kind of day to day and hopeful that. By the end of the week, he'll be ready to roll.

Coach, expectations are high, emotions are high. D’Sean's birthday just passed, the loss that I'm sure everybody is feeling, like you said, because you set a high expectation. How do you keep the guys focused on a Delaware team that's very capable and making sure that they focus on everything that matters and also the fact that they want to win and they want to be recognized and respected nationally?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, so. I don't think there's a whole lot that you have to do because we just lost a football game. So, like, everybody's attention is high. Now, the key for me is to make sure that we don't try and go do too much and overcorrect, right? Like, that's the big challenge. When we watch the tape, when you look at it, it's the little things. So, staying focused on the little things, you know, things that you preach all the time and the things that they did that created the success that they had early. And then now I think they have an understanding that it's always about the little things and it doesn't matter who you're playing, you got to stay committed to those.

And if you don't do them all the time, then there's going to be about five plays that could beat you. So I think their attention is captured right now. I think the biggest thing is not letting the significance of the game and everything else make us overcorrect to where now we're trying to do too much because it was what we predicted. We wanted to have a one possession ball game in the fourth quarter and find a way to go win it. And we got there and we came up short.

Okay, so let's make the corrections and let's not panic and overcorrect and then now that leads to overlooking your next opponent or trying to do too much. I think when you cut on the tape and you watch Delaware and you watch them versus Vanderbilt and you see how competitive that game is, how physical these guys play, I think the film helps. So, it's not a situation where you cut on the film and it's like, okay, no, like you cut on the film and it's like, you better buckle your chin strap watching the film because defensively, they're going to come after you and then offensively, they got the skill. And you watched their skill guys break tackles and make plays versus another Power Five opponent. I think we got enough there to keep their attention. The biggest thing is make sure we don't get too hyped, too excited to play, and we overcorrect.

Statistically, it was the worst like the defense has played since, I think, last year. Yep. Rushing wise, it was the worst yards they gave up since the NC State game last year. And a lot of people said that maybe they needed that loss to kind of focus in, like you said. Do you think it kind of put a chip on the defensive shoulder?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think, you know, and so just going into kind of the mind of myself and the staff, like you watched the first seven plays that looked like Virginia football. The first seven plays on defense, man, we were swarming, we were everywhere we needed to be. And then we gave up a pass interference call. That creates a 15-yard explosive play and now we let him score and then there's other pictures where man, we're playing good ball and then we hit the back in the backfield and we don't wrap up and then it's an explosive play.

So I think you gotta really look at it and evaluate it for what it is. Yes, statistically, one of the worst games, you had three big plays in the passing game. You know, one was an unbelievable throw. The next one was a jump ball. Their guy made the play. And then one was on us as coaches that in a man coverage situation, we created a traffic issue by not pressing the corner, and we couldn't expect Jacobie [Henderson] to run over the top of everybody and run that guy down. So like the stats, you gotta be careful with that.

I think the biggest thing is when they watch the film, they see just how important the little things are, to like wrap up, we can't just, you know, put a body on somebody, we gotta wrap up and then we got a swarm. We gotta chase the ball. There's a, there's a time on a 2nd-and-9 where we got three players and we got the quarterback boxed in. We get our shoulders turned and now he bounces to the outside and outruns everybody and now it's a first down where that probably would have been a 3rd-and-5, which is a manageable situation to get off the field. But versus talented opponents and opponents that are capable of beating you, those little things can turn into a stat sheet that doesn't look great in your favor. So that's where we got to be careful and really just focus on okay, how do we correct?

And a lot of it is just little things and attention to detail, which is a challenge for everybody. That's the hard part about college football. You got 60 minutes, you got 75 plays, and you got to be dialed in on 75 plays for 60 minutes. With momentum swings and things changing, and then, man, you got fatigue that sets in. You get late in the series, and, man, you've played eight plays already in a series, but you still got to be intentional and locked in. And that's where we, as coaches, got to help our guys through the way that we prepare them. But I think, regardless of stats and whatnot, you know, the fact that the guys came up short and they went down there with the expectation to win, it's got their attention.

Coach, what did you see from Beau [Pribula] on Saturday? And what was the kind of response from him and response from him from the team and his leadership going into this next week?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think it's the first time that we've seen this team with any adversity. Like, and I told that to the seniors leadership, this is the first time that I think you guys, because the first two games, there wasn't a ton of adversity. It kind of went our way the way we wanted, the way we drew it up, and we were excited about that. But I knew there was going to be some adversity with the football team that we played this past weekend, and I thought the guys responded at times. It's just we didn't make enough plays, you know, in the end, and they did.

What did I see from Beau [Pribula]? Man, his leadership put us in position to tie the ball game late, made an unbelievable play on fourth down to keep a drive alive to go score. Does he miss two throws? He missed two throws. I know he wants back. That probably would have led to explosive plays. Three receivers dropped the ball for him. That would have been positive plays. You know, protection wise, they did a good job of running our protection hot in one situation.

There's one play I know he wants back where he adjusted the protection and slid it in a five man protection and then lost track of who his hot was when they were bringing six. So that's an opportunity for him to grow. But he's a competitor, right? He's going to bounce back. He's right back on the practice field, right back in here on Sunday, evaluating the film. So it was a team effort, right? Where we just, in all three phases, we didn't make the plays that we needed to make, which is an opportunity for us to learn and grow. And I anticipate Beau and everybody will bounce back.

You mentioned Delaware's defense, and I wanted to ask specifically about what you kind of see from their D-Line. It seems like they're really explosive and quick. And just at Coastal, they sacked their quarterback four times. How can you kind of get Beau [Pribula] and the rest of the offensive line ready?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, so their defensive scheme is different and unique. And I just was talking with the offensive staff, and I'm like, all right, well, what do we call it? Like most other defenses have a term associated with them. They do something that you don't see much. And the only thing I can equate it to is what I used to call the Cyclone defense that Iowa State used to run. And they may still run. I don't know if they do or not. They may even be running it at Penn State now.

But it's a three man front and three safety look and very multiple. And they constantly got linebackers blitzing from all different directions. That's how they create a four man front. And then from there, they can play different coverage structures. So it adjusts your rules in terms of where your quarterback's eye progression goes to be able to start.

52 does a really, really good job up front. He's a twitchy, powerful guy that's very disruptive. They do a good job of changing the defensive techniques with their D-Linemen to put them in positions to be successful. And then they're constantly moving around so they're very well coached. The staff does a great job of putting their players in position to be successful based off of the skill set and the size that they have. And they play extremely hard. And they play tough. They're physical. Their linebackers are, man, their linebackers, they're downhill guys that like to mix it up.

So, what we have to do is one, we have to have great identification from our center, just in terms of the front structure and the communication to the running backs in terms of protection. Stay ahead of the chains, you know, on first and second down so that we don't get to third down to create obvious passing down situations so that we don't have to necessarily stay in six man protections. They don't mind rushing seven and playing cover zero on the on the back end. So great challenge. It's a great opportunity for us to to get better all the way around. Then the quarterbacks got to got to do a great job too of making sure that he's prepared and in tune to make any adjustments that we need to make. Make the right adjustments and then have everybody communicated and on the same page.

Rico [Flores Jr.] made his season debut last time, obviously had the big 4th-and-10 catch, but what did you just make of him and what does he add to this passing game?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, it was good to have him back. You could tell that he's still trying to get his legs underneath him. He's been down for several weeks with that hamstring. So, really, the first time he was able to test it in a game situation. Great to see him make a play when we needed it on 4th-and-10. I think he adds, obviously, depth that we need to be able to stay fresh and sub guys. But then also, I think as his legs get underneath him, he's going to add the ability to move him around in different spots to accentuate his skill set as a guy that can catch the screens and make plays with it. He also can get behind you, but then I think he's really dangerous in the intermediate passing game with his route running ability.

And then you called it a more controlled passing game against West Virginia after the game. Just kind of, was that just a situational thing? Or do you think this offense can be maybe I don't know what the opposite is but a less controlled passing game?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, well, we come out versus Norfolk and all we talk about is the passing game and we have explosives. I think strategically, we wanted to keep the ball away from their quarterback because we knew how explosive he was. And so we wanted to lean on the run. And then we probably could have got to a little bit more play pass but then we also knew going against Zac [Alley] that he was going to be aggressive. They were going to rush. They were going to take chances. And we didn't want to get into a drop back passing situation. We wanted to lean on the run.

And when we were able to do that, I think we were able to control the momentum. And then when we had to play from behind, things were a little bit different, right? And so then we tried to make sure we didn't get the quarterback hit and get the ball out quick. But when we needed to, we can, when we got ourselves in 3rd-and-long situations, which we did more of that in the second half. Now you gotta lean more on your six man protection so you can get four receivers out so you have a chance to convert on your long yardage situations.

So I think we're still growing and learning what this group can be. I know one thing, I'm not panicking about the situation. Like it's one game and it was a one possession game in the fourth quarter where we wanted to be. We got to finish. Now, do we have to evaluate and see, okay, what can we do to create some more explosives? But we really wanted to lean on the run, which you saw in the first drive, like the first drive, when we leaned on the run and we stayed ahead of the chains, we could throw the ball how we wanted to throw the ball. But just being able to sit there and drop back and throw it up and have jump balls, I don't know if we're built for that. But I think we can do a better job of off the play action manufacturing some more explosives.

That's probably the one area where just challenging the staff that we could have done a better job. And then once you get your quarterback hit, then you're like, okay. And then you see that he's going to be aggressive and he's going to be willing to put seven up on the line and stress you and then he's going to put five on the line and bring two from the second level. That kind of makes you a little bit more controlled in your passing game, or else you're going to sit there and get your quarterback hit every time.

I'll just kind of following up on that, Beau [Pribula] told us after the game that West Virginia did some things that he hadn't seen on film. How exotic did they get and are you concerned that you may get that same look going forward?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I'm sure it's a copycat type of deal. So you're going to get now, does it surprise me? No, because I've gone against Brent Venables for 11 years. 11 years, Zac Alley was with us for eight. And so, one thing I know about Brent [Venables] is Brent's always going to have new stuff, you know, every week. And so, I knew there was going to be something, something new. And then, the moment you make an adjustment, then they throw something else new at you. So, will we see some of it? Yes. Will we now be better prepared? Yes. I think with Beau, now just everybody's sense of urgency that when we get these seven up looks,to make sure that we recognize it, right?

I think the challenge thing was some of the front structures were similar to what we saw, but then the back end was different and this is where we got to help our quarterback and we got to grow all of our guys, our quarterback, our backs, our offensive line. It's like, okay, you got to see the whole picture, right? Because I think what happened is we checked to some things based off of what we saw on the front, didn't take into account what was on the back end, and we made the wrong check. So that's going to happen especially early on in the season.

Now, as we go on throughout the course of the season, I don't think there'll be many things that you won't see, if that makes sense. But in game three, especially when you played kind of the schedule that they played, they didn't have to show a ton of stuff. You know that offseason wise, there's stuff that they're preparing for us. And so we'll get better. We'll have Beau better prepared for that. We know it's going to be copycat, so we'll have answers and we'll make sure that everybody is fully on the same page from those answers.

Because we saw some of that stuff versus Duke last year. So, Manny [Diaz] does the 7 up. I think that's kind of the theme now with these defensive guys. Everybody wants to go 7 up and have seven guys on the line and then try to get you to change your slide. And that's what you saw a little bit. So some of the stuff we were checking, but we didn't get to the right checks, you know what I'm saying? Because it didn't match the back end. And so that's on us as coaches to make sure that we have everybody fully prepared for that.

So kudos to Zac [Alley]. And then they went a five man front, right, which forces you to isolate man-on-man blocking. And then they brought two second level guys on the back. So, in essence, they overloaded your protection so, we got to have an answer for that because I know we'll see that. And that's not something that you don't see people trying to blitz your back and overloading your back with two on the back. It's just the different front structures. And so now we got to just grow and get better as an offensive unit all the way around. And we will.

I'm actually excited about the challenge going forward because I know that last year we made some checks late in the season to these looks and were successful so just some growing pains that we're going to go through. Unfortunately, right, it kind of contributed to us not having a fully successful outcome, but we're going to grow and we're going to be better because of it.

And just as a follow up, how would you grade your wide receiver room for that game?

TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I still think it's too early to tell, right? So you play against NC State and you're running the ball. Heck, you run it 30 something times in the first half. You don't ask them to do a ton. Then you come out versus Norfolk and you play a bunch of them. You have some success passing in the game and then you get into a game like this and kind of the strategy was to lean on what we felt like we were better suited to do, which was to run the football. And then we got into a chess match and I don't know if it's fair to grade them yet, right?

And I think now going forward, if we can stay at full strength and now we have the depth and we have Robinson back now, Isaiah, and then we have Rico [Flores Jr.] back, I think in a couple weeks I'll be able to give you a better, fair assessment.
But I don't know if it's fair to grade them yet based off of kind of the body of work that we had. Now, I do know this that if we're going to be stressed and challenged from a protection standpoint, then they're going to have to win because if they're going to pressure us, it's going to be man coverage and guys are going to have to win and make plays gonna have to win and make plays down the field and underneath.

Sorry to ask about the receivers again. I was gonna say, you guys played like six or seven regularly on Saturday against West Virginia. Is that the number you wanna be at moving forward, or would you rather have three or four that you lean on?

TONY ELLIOTT: The problem is you have 75 snaps in a game and 75 snaps in a game for a receiver is not ideal. You’ve got to think about their world. They sprint 45 yards down the field and then they’ve got to jog back. Then they’ve got to explode and block. Then they gotta catch the ball. Over the course of 75 plays, those guys can get worn down.

So you want to be fresh. We traveled 10 of them. I’d love to have 8 of them that can roll at any time because now what that does is put pressure on the defense. If I’ve got a fresh guy ever so many plays going against a tired DB, then I might create an advantage. Ideally, you’d like to be able to roll especially if we’re trying to drive our snap count above 70 snaps per game. To have three guys go play 70 snaps, that becomes tough, and then the cumulative effect over the course of the season. We want to play as many games as possible so we’re looking at as many as 16, 17 games. That’s a lot of snaps for three guys. If you don’t roll guys, the minute you get somebody injured then you don’t have competitive depth or depth that’s prepared because they haven’t played. So the more, the better for us.

I wanted to ask you about Fisher [Camac]. He had 11 tackles in the game on Saturday, was chasing and running down. What did you think of his effort Saturday? I know you wanted to get to the quarterback, but his effort?

TONY ELLIOTT: No, I thought he did a good job. And he's all over the place. He's playing field end. He's playing in our speed packages on third down. He's playing those. He's wrapping. He's got to play the zone read, and he's gotta play the power read, then he's gotta transition from run game to pass game in play action. So just I think he's taking the steps necessary to develop into the player we think he's capable of. And hopefully now he'll get some more opportunities to just rush the passer, all right?

Tough part is we get into the game and into some manageable, like 3rd-and-4 to 7, right in that range - they can use quick game, they can get the ball out fast, they don't have to pull it off the line, which kind of neutralizes your pass rushers. But he was player of the game for us on defense and man, hopefully he'll continue to play at that high of a level for us.

In the running back room, it was four guys but [Jekail] Middlebrook took overwhelming of the snaps. Is that something that you kind of pictured when you're looking at this depth of the running back room kind of going with the hot hand in the game moment and also kind of shortening a little bit with the rotation there?

TONY ELLIOTT: I think it was more so just the flow of the game and kind of the way that it evolved. I thought when Noah [Vaughn] got in there, man, he had a couple of runs, it was a little good change of pace for us. And typically, Xay Davis has gone in there second at times, but X [Xavier] Brown pops one. And so it's more by committee, right, unless it changes. And somebody just absolutely takes it and distances themselves. I think it was more just he a function of the flow of the game with Middlebrook and the number of carries and snaps that he played.

Rodney McLeod is doing the game for ACC Network. I believe he talked to the team during camp. What do you remember about his remarks? And also, I was looking, I think Clemson played Virginia twice when he was in the program here. Do you remember him at all from your scouting report.

TONY ELLIOTT: No, he wasn’t. I want to say he was right before I got back. Wasn't he like 09 to 12? He was 8 through 11. So I didn't get back. I went back for the 11 season. So I don't think we crossed over in those games. But in terms of his talk to the team, it was phenomenal. He did an outstanding job. Talked about his journey and the importance of just being present on your own journey and not comparing it to anybody else.

He talked about the importance of everybody's role and he gave us a great quote that I actually used yesterday. It said everybody's fingerprints are on the trophy from his Super Bowl experience, that everybody's fingerprints are on the trophy. Everybody matters. He also talked about just how cruel and violent this game can be and the emotional roller coaster that it can take you on. The importance of having healthy outlets when you do face adversity in this game.

So I was hopeful that we were gonna have a chance to have him commentate one of our games, but it was one of the best talks that we've had of all the speakers. He did a phenomenal job and grateful. And again, I'm still taking messaging from that talk and using it with our players, even as most recent as yesterday, I talked about it.

Because again, adversity, like adversity reveals a lot of things, and I think the biggest thing for us and where I have to step in as a head coach and make sure that I'm doing everything possible and coaching the staff and the players and demanding is the little things. Like I saw some little things that were uncharacteristic of us from just like a cultural standpoint of like how we take the field, how we get off the field. Like we stopped doing some of those things at points in the game, and the play reflected that. And then you know what, we responded after being challenged, and we did those things that we're accustomed to doing. And you know what, the play reflects that on the field.

And so I know that nobody feels good about a loss. There's no moral victories, but it's a lot for us to learn, and I'm excited to go get better. And I think the staff and and the players are excited to go get better. And, man, it feels good to, like have an expectation to win and for everybody to be upset when we don't win. Like, that tells us that we're definitely headed in the right direction. And Saturday can't get here fast enough. We're not gonna skip any days, we're gonna commit to the process, but it can't get here fast enough because nobody likes the feeling, but also everybody has taken accountability for what we can do better, and we're gonna get better and we'll be a better football team because of this.

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