A year ago, the Virginia football team entered the final days of September with a 3-1 record. The Hoos had taken care of business at home with three convincing wins, but saw a road game slip away late.
That fast start set the table for a huge Friday night home game with Florida State at Scott Stadium. It was the ACC opener for both teams so they wanted to get off to a good start in the league. Plus, the Seminoles entered the week ranked No. 8 nationally.
In many ways, the situation resembled the latter stages of the 2024 season. While it was a little later in the schedule and conference play, UVA coach Tony Elliott had that year’s team out to a 4-2 start with several ranked opponents waiting in the wings. The stretch run began at No. 10 Clemson, but games against No. 23 Pittsburgh, No. 8 Notre Dame, and No. 13 SMU still remained too. In 2024, the Tigers hammered the Hoos and started a tailspin that saw Virginia register just one more win the rest of the way.
Fast forward again to that Friday night in 2025. Would the Wahoos be able to take advantage of the opportunity? They ended up winning 46-38 in double overtime and a wild field rush followed on a memorable night in Charlottesville. Reflecting back on that victory, Elliott said Tuesday that it may have given the team a mindset boost that things were different this time around.
“Well, I think it first and foremost, I want to say maybe [it] shifted the mindset, right, of what is possible and brought some proof of concept and some confirmation that, man, we can become what we desire to become and not just say it, not just have slogans on the wall, but on the field. Man, we can be who we desire to be,” Elliott said. “I think that’s kind of what it did for us internally. From a national perspective, it kind of brought the spotlight.”
The biggest key of all, though, was following up the win.
The Cavaliers won at Louisville the next week in another overtime game and then started to string together more victories through the rest of schedule. They grabbed road wins at UNC, Duke, and California. They blitzed Virginia Tech 27-7 in the home finale.
“We were able to follow it up. ... The next week we go to Louisville, we win another big matchup on the road, and then kinda you start having some success and then you’re able to confirm it, right? So it wasn’t just a one-hit wonder, as they used to say back in the day,” Elliott said.
Florida State week arrives on the 2026 schedule with the Hoos at 3-1 again. Can the Cavaliers build momentum for a second year in a row by defeating the Seminoles? This time, UVA must travel to Tallahassee and, as always, there’s talent waiting there for the showdown.
In other words, the challenge will be significant.
“Yeah. They got dudes,” Elliott said. “They’ve always had the best talent in college football. So that’s been consistent, and I think that’ll be consistent going forward. I mean, it’s Florida State. ... I mean it’s blue blood. I mean, it’s one of the big, big-time logos. So that’s what’s been consistent. There’s always been a ton of talent in Tallahassee.”
Tony Elliott Weekly Press Conference - Florida State
You go back with Florida State to the Bobby Bowden days. There have been several coaches since then. Has there been a common denominator to Florida State teams through the years, starting with the Bowden years?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah. They got dudes. They’ve always had the best talent in college football. So that’s been consistent, and I think that’ll be consistent going forward. I mean, it’s Florida State. Like when you, I mean it’s blue blood. I mean, it’s one of the big, big-time logos. So that’s what’s been consistent. There’s always been a ton of talent in Tallahassee.
Do your players all recognize that, or do you have to kind of remind them of that?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think when they cut on the tape, they recognize it, especially what you’re seeing now in college football with some of these marquee matchups early in the season. So, prior to playing them last year and this year, they’ve had a chance to see them go toe-to-toe with Alabama. And, man, when you watch that tape, especially early in that game, man, that was a heavyweight fight. That was probably two of the more talented rosters in the country going against each other.
So, I think when they cut the tape, they see it. Now, do they understand who Florida State is? I don’t know. But I don’t know the kind of climate we’re in college football if the players really know the history of college football. But I told them point blank, in my opinion, and maybe I could be getting old and not paying attention to the times, but it’s Florida State.
I mean, ACC football, Florida State. I mean, Florida State and Clemson for a long time were the two you had to go through, and I was fortunate to be at Clemson, so you had to go through Florida State. And man, I took some butt whooping’s from them dudes down there as a player and as a coach. And if I just start throwing out names. If I just started calling out the names of players, college and pro, it’s Florida State.
So that’s the way that I approach [it]. They got one of the best atmospheres in college football to play in. When Doak Campbell gets rocking, you’re not gonna find a more electric atmosphere to play in so got a ton of respect just for the program and got a ton of respect for Coach [Mike] Norvell and he’s done a really good job right and it’s hard, like it’s hard, and I think that you know this day and age is different and being consistent is a challenge for everybody, especially with the roster turnover. But they got a really good football team down there. Throw out the record, not worried about that. Not worried about what happened in the first four games. It’s gonna be a fast, physical, violent game on Saturday. And we’re gonna have to play well to put ourselves in position to the fourth quarter to have a chance to win.
In your time in the ACC, you’ve seen a lot of wide receivers. Where does Duce Robinson rank in that group, and how do you guys plan to slow him down?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, my relationship actually goes back with Duce [Robinson]. So, I was recruiting him heavily before transitioning to come here and even took a shot when we first got here and went out to see him and his family. First, he’s a phenomenal young man. It comes from a great family and thought he was gonna grow into tight end, but he’s been able to stay at the position and man, he plays the jump ball down the field, deep ball very, very well. Very, very polished on the underneath routes .Catches the ball very, very natural for a guy that big. So just a tremendous football player, got a ton of football instincts and intelligence. He is, my opinion, best one in the ACC for sure and I think if you put him in a conversation with the top guys in the country, he’s gonna hold his own.
Were you holding your breath last year when he’s juggling the ball in the end zone and the officials are reviewing it in the second overtime? What do you remember about that?
TONY ELLIOTT: Not really holding my breath, I just, man, I had a peace about that game. And the reason I had a peace about that game was how the guy showed up. And so, from the time we walked in the stadium to how our defense did their unity walk on the field, to the look in their eye, to the feel on the sideline, that even if he made that catch, we were gonna find a way to win that game. I had peace about it. And it was really just the demeanor of the guys; there was no panic. They believed that if we had to play seven more overtimes, that in the end, they were gonna find a way to win.
And just kind of following up on that. Ashton Daniels, another mobile quarterback that you guys are facing, what kind of stands out for him on film? What have you learned about your defense kind of going to this game?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think I’ll start with the latter part. What we learned is just got to tackle. Got to tackle and rally to the ball. And when you’re playing big, strong, fast, athletic guys, usually it’s going to take more than one person to get them down. And so, what we learned from the last game is that you have to be disciplined with a guy like Ashton and stay in your rush lanes. And in the run game, you got to stay in your gap and don’t get nosy and don’t try and do too much and just trust that by you staying in your gap is going to open up an opportunity for somebody else to go make the play and trust that they’re going to be there because when you get out of your gap and you lose the integrity of your rush lanes, they’re going to exploit it. And then once they get in the open field, you’re talking about a 6’3”, 225-pound running back with the ball in his hands.
And so now they got two of them, right? So, they got him and they got number 32. So, they got two big old guys back there that are very, very elusive, very fast. So, you can’t give them much space. And in order to do that, you got to fit your gaps, stay in your gaps, and then you got to rally and gang tackle.
What do you think that the defense kind of took away from what happened in West Virginia? How did they apply to Delaware? And how do you kind of think that sets them up moving forward?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think they just responded. They responded and went back to work, and we knew that the plan was gonna be different with Delaware, that they were a more of a pass first type of outfit and so we would have to find a way to see if you can take away their strength. I thought they did a really good job there and made some plays.
And then going back to the West Virginia game, I think we learned we just go to wrap up and tackle and we got a swarm because if you look at some of the plays if we tackle the ball, it doesn’t spit out for a 25-yard gain when we got three players in position. So just the little things is what they took away, and then they flushed it. And that’s the mindset, right? So, every game is the most important game on the schedule. Every Monday you show up, it’s mindset Monday, you’ve got to flush what happened the week before and get to work on the new plan. And so, I was proud of how they responded.
In secondary specifically, it has a lot of energy, such as (Omillio) Agard, Jacobie (Henderson), and (Brandyn) Hillman. How do you think they responded to kind of having that little blip and then kind of getting back to things against a really good Delaware team passing the ball and now going forward?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think just I’m not much of a stat guy, but they were able to come out and perform well statistically against an outfit that we knew was going to throw the ball and had success, got an experienced quarterback, some very, very capable, good receivers, and I thought they responded the right way.
They just got back to being who they are, having fun, and again, going back to West Virginia, I thought the quarterback made some really, really good throws. But then also too, I thought we made some critical mistakes that they cleaned up, and we’re gonna have to do that going forward, and that’s week to week, right? So, this week, we’re talking about back to managing success. Can you learn in success? Last week, we knew that everybody was going to show up on Monday, pissed off because they’re experiencing that feeling of a loss. Now, okay, you’ve had victory; you kind of got back to business. Can you maintain that edge and focus? And that’s the hard part, right?
That’s the mental toughness aspect of our sport is, man, you work for three hours on Saturday, you experience success, and then you know what you wake up on Monday and you go right back to work and just falling in love with the mundane. So, I think that’s what they did and that’s what they’ll have to do. This week is gonna be an even bigger challenge ‘cause it’s a different challenge. Last week we had a lot of smaller spatial guys, now we have some monsters, some big old guys that can run and stretch the field, and we got a quarterback with a huge arm that can get it down the field.
And then they’re gonna have to come up in run support because again, they got probably one of the tougher guys in the league to tackle at running back and then we got to be assignment sound because if we’re not the quarterback can pull the ball on the zone read, right or designed quarterback runs. So again, what happened last week, man, we’ve already moved on. That’s in the rear-view mirror. We got to focus on putting together this plan and owning this plan because not only do you have to own the plan in this game, you got to play fast. This is going to be the speed of the game in this matchup.
So, going back to kind of that first question about Florida State, like, that’s Florida State. Like, this is a fast game because they’ve got fast athletes, they’ve got big athletes. And so, it all comes together. So, the message is if you want to play pro football, well, this is the closest you’re going to get to it at this level in playing these guys.
Coach, looking at the film, like you said, when you see the Alabama game, SMU game, these guys are Florida State, like you said. These guys are moving fast, aggressive, and being part of, personally, being part of the 2005 team, I know exactly how it is when you go down and playing the Florida State Seminoles, and it’s aggressive. And the fans are aggressive. Two parts is how do you get your team ready for that mindset that they’re going to have to win on the road? And the second part is seeing as [the Delaware quarterback] got hurt, knowing that [Ashton] Daniels is a very elusive quarterback who likes to run the football, how do you kind of keep the defense focused on keeping contain on him?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think it starts with right there fast, intelligent, tough. We believe that we’re a fast outfit, too. We believe that we play fast.
We believe that when you cut the film on and you watch Virginia, you’re going to see a physical brand of football. And this is what we want, right? So, you’re looking forward to the opportunity to test your mettle. That’s the mindset. Like, if you want to be the best, then you have to go play against the best.
And so now we’re talking about the best talent in the country so it’s a great opportunity. So, really, that’s kind of the mindset it starts with. It’s really about us. And then you cut on the film last year. We played fast, we played physical, and we played tough. So, we just be who we are and then don’t get caught up in any of the other stuff. I think that’s sometimes where in this game you can get caught up in the other stuff and get distracted, and that distraction slows you down. So, you have to minimize all distractions so you can play fast and the way you play fast is owning your preparation.
So that’s really kind of how we’re approaching this in terms of physical piece and then the mental preparation. And then the mindset of it doesn’t matter who you play, where you play, when you play, you’re always chasing your own standard and not letting the environment, losing to the environment or the logo before you ever show up. It’s a football game and the beautiful thing about a football game. And we learned that, right? We learned that versus West Virginia. We were a 10-point favorite in that game and we didn’t take care of our business and play to our standard and we lost. So the beautiful thing is when they spot the ball for three hours, like all that other stuff don’t matter. What matters is, you know, play in and play out which man wants to go execute with precision and toughness and physicality, and that’s going to be the one that wins.
Xavier Brown was one of the guys who was already committed when you took over. Were you familiar with him at all?
TONY ELLIOTT: I was not familiar with X prior to taking the job here.
I think you were going to honor all the commitments. Did you go ahead and break down tape of them at that point?
TONY ELLIOTT: No, at that point they were already committed and made a decision with the administration that the right thing to do was to honor all those guys. And you go back and you think about the quarterbacks that were committed at that time were completely different style of quarterback than what we envisioned playing with going forward, but we honored it. So we didn’t go back and necessarily watch tape to evaluate the fit. We were going to do that once we hit the practice field that spring. So that’s how we approached it.
So, players who stay five years at school are a little bit of dinosaurs in this era. What does it mean to have a guy like Xavier and there are others too who’ve stayed the course here but also come back from adversity?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think it says two things. First, it reveals the true makeup and character of that individual and what they’re committed to. And you bring up X [Xavier] Brown, I mean, there’s not a better ambassador for Virginia football than X [Xavier] Brown. But the perseverance that he’s had to go through from recovering from injury to staying here, being a part of what took place in ’22, and he’s still here, so I think it speaks to that. Then also it speaks to just the environment we’ve been able to create here at the University of Virginia, where even though maybe the cool thing is to bounce around, but we’ve created an environment where guys feel comfortable and want to stay and want to be a part of what we’re doing.
Last year, obviously, this game was huge for UVA and the program. Earlier, Omillio (Agard) said that he remembers watching it in the hotel room the night before his game at Wisconsin, and that it did impact his decision to eventually come here. What do you think this game last year kind of did for the UVA program as a whole?
TONY ELLIOTT: Well, I think it first and foremost, I want to say maybe shifted the mindset, right, of what is possible and brought some proof of concept and some confirmation that, man, we can become what we desire to become and not just say it, not just have slogans on the wall, but on the field. Man, we can be who we desire to be. I think that’s kind of what it did for us internally. From a national perspective, it kind of brought the spotlight.
And then we were able to follow it up with some other, the next week we go to Louisville, we win another big matchup on the road, and then kinda you start having some success and then you’re able to confirm it, right? So it wasn’t just a one-hit wonder, as they used to say back in the day. You’re able to follow it up and now the key this year, be consistent. So yeah, it might not have national rankings and recognition, but it’s still Florida State and if you want to be a champion in this league, I just believe that man, you got to go through Tallahassee.
The field storm last year was big, obviously national. It still gets talked about as one of the best. What do you remember about that storm?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, it happened fast. And I really wanted to get over to Coach Norvell and just shake his hand and congratulate him because, man, it was a battle. That was two teams, both teams battled all the way til the end, and both teams believed that they were going to win the game and it just happened to go in our favor. So I wanted to congratulate him. He’s a phenomenal coach. He’s an outstanding human being. So, my years of now being in this seat, having a chance to get to know him through the time we spend together at our coaches meeting and then also prior to him becoming a head coach, spent some time with him when he was at Arizona State, when we would clinic with different staffs in the offseason. So got a ton of respect for him and what he does, but I didn’t even have a chance to get close to him. And the next thing I know, I felt bad for some people ‘cause they were getting run over by the police trying to get to the locker room. That’s what I remember.
Learning from the West Virginia experience earlier this season, is there anything you’re taking away from the preparation that week? Any adjustments you’re making with your team to get ready to play away from home for the second time? I saw that I think only one player on your roster has played in Doak Campbell. So just getting ready for that environment, any adjustments in the preparation, getting ready to play away from home?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I don’t know if you can simulate or recreate what it’s going to be like going into Doak Campbell throughout the course of the week. So, not a ton there, other than you’ll have crowd noise at practice the next couple of days just to increase crowd noise. We have music. We play music. It’s loud, you can’t hear it. But now it’ll be some more pointed sounds to maybe get them used to what they’re going to experience. So, that would be the only change.
And then when I look at it, the preparations have been the same all four weeks and so what are some tweaks and what are some things that we had to get better at? Of course, like each game. Like this past week, as a head coach, I got to get better at sideline management, in-game engagement, I got to coach my guys better on celebrating. Like there’s a lot of things that I learned from the game.
We learned that we got to continue to work from a protection standpoint with our backs and some of the schemes that we have getting married up against the right person. So there’s a ton of things that we learn right throughout the course, but in terms of the changing the process, man, the process has been the same. And I think the reason our guys have confidence is because of the way that we prepare. So, no major tweaks to the weekly approach. There’ll just be some different components that we add specific to this game plan, if that makes sense. And I think the key to where we want to continue to strive to go is the consistency in our process.
I think we learned from West Virginia to answer your question, the importance of just the attention to detail for 60 minutes and just truly the importance of every single play. And that’s something that this team needed to learn. Like last year’s team, you know, they figured it out, right? So they were the Cardiac Cavs, I think is what they were called. They went all the way down to the end and they found a way to win in the fourth quarter because, man, they were making the plays necessary. Where I think we learned from West Virginia is ,there were some routine plays that we didn’t make that turned into big plays for the other team. Which statistics will tell you when you allow the other team to have explosive plays, I think it’s, you know, now they average like two points per possession more. So that’s what we learned.
As far as like injuries, like Peyton Lewis, Devon Baxter, any update on those guys?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah. So Peyton is working back in, doing some further testing on Devon. And we should know sometime this week as to the extent of his shoulder. Corey’s working back in with the hamstring. Dillon’s (Newton-Short) working back in with the hamstring. Today’s a big day. So, yesterday is a non-padded practice where the focus is mostly on the mental piece of it, film study. It’s not a long practice. We’ll find out today kind of how guys are trending. So, all of those guys will be more game-time decisions as we get closer. But today’s a big day from a practice standpoint.
This is kind of a bigger picture question. When you look at the depth chart, you see one freshman only, Jack Rhodes. But I remember a few years ago, that wasn’t quite the case for you guys. I remember one time it was like nine freshmen on the defensive side of the ball. Do you look back at where you guys started, how young your team is, and how you were able to kind of get that competitive depth and the struggles you guys, challenges overcoming so much different things?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think the biggest thing in reference to that point is the change in the landscape. I think the change in the landscape and then the evolution of the program. I think when you look back to that first year, I think we led the country in freshman snaps but, you know, we weren’t active in the portal because we were just trying to figure this thing out, this landscape. So we didn’t necessarily have the understanding nor the resources to go be, you know, as competitive in the portal. So, man, we were building it with high school guys and playing freshman. Then the landscape just continues to change. We learn more about the landscape. Administratively, there’s more concerted effort to go acquire resources to be able to kind of build your roster a little bit different.
But I also think about now Caleb Hardy is a much better player because he played as a young guy. Man, Kam [Robinson] played as a young guy. So a lot of our core guys that you’re seeing that are veterans are the ones playing. If you look at kind of how I came up in this business, that’s how you did it, right? I mean, heck, I remember in high school, you didn’t think about playing varsity until you were a junior. And then you were a junior, you were a role guy, and you start as a senior. And then when I go off to college, it was the same way. You redshirt as a freshman, you try to make teams as a sophomore. You’re a rotation guy as a junior, and then you’re a dude as a senior. That’s kind of how you used to build it back in the day, right?
And so, kind of, we’re at a place from a program standpoint now and with the landscape changing, you’re trying to be a little bit older from an experience standpoint because twofold, you want to be competitive, but then also, like with the landscape, it’s harder to develop the younger guys. And so I wish we had more young guys ready to play, but I think that also can be attributed to the fact that we’ve evolved and grown as a program to where we can now be a little bit more competitive to have some more veteran guys ready to go.
Most of the noise is about Florida State’s offense, but what concerns you about their defense?
TONY ELLIOTT: Everything. No. So defensively, they’re very multiple so they’ll do - the good thing is, there’s some carry over because some similar structures to last week, which are unique. So you typically don’t see that defense that I can’t give a name to because it’s a three-man front with a third safety. I just call it Cyclone defense, right? So they do some of that but they’re bigger, faster, stronger and then they got a ton of D-Linemen. They can roll about 10 of them and they look like Florida State D-Linemen, right? Like, it’s something about the gold pants, them and Notre Dame. Something about the gold pants. When they put on the gold pants, it seems like their gold pants make their butts look bigger, all right, on film for some reason. Like, you can see all the definition in their legs. So, like, they got dudes on that D-Line.
And they got versatility. So, they got two big, heavy, true nose guards and then they got some athletic three techniques, and then they got fast, speed, edge guys. Their linebackers are Florida State linebackers. They look like big athletes that used to play running back in high school that can go sideline to sideline. And then they got 6’0”, 6’1” corners that can run. So they’re very multiple structure wise, but they got really good personnel. They’re very athletic on defense. So I know you said the noise might be about the offense, but you watch them early in that Bama game and then early in that SMU game, right? So the SMU game, there was a miscommunication on defense that resulted in that long touchdown but other than that, it wasn’t like they were just going down the field on them. So they’re very, very capable, very, very athletic, got good length, and they got the depth.
And with Rico [Flores Jr.] performing like he did last weekend, does that take a little pressure off the other receivers and open things up?
TONY ELLIOTT: You would hope that it does. I think that it also takes a little bit of pressure off the run game, so you can be more balanced. And then also, hopefully, it just balances things out so you can create just more one-on-one matchups across the board. But we’ll see. It was one game, but it was good to have him back. I thought he played well. It was awesome to see the number one catch a bunch of passes in Scott Stadium considering the context of the game last week. So I’m very grateful for that as well.
I’m wondering when you guys were recruiting Da’Shawn Martin, did you evaluate the touchdown he scored last year for Kent State at Florida State?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, we looked at all of his explosive plays. And I think the thing that attracted us is we saw a lot of similarities to Trell Harris with the ability to have that over the top speed, and I think we’ve seen some of that show up. Now we’re getting on Beau [Pribula], we need to put a little more arc on that ball and we probably catch that thing in stride. So opportunity to get better, but you are seeing his capability to get behind defenses. And then Kam Courtney, I thought it was good to see Kam Courtney. That’s the Kam Courtney that I’ve been wanting to see for a long time. And now he’s just got to be consistent because I think he can be a really, really good playmaker in this league for our team.
Then a younger receiver, Josiah Abdullah, he’s handling the punt returns for you guys. He caught a touchdown, too, later in the game. What are you seeing from him? And is he doing a good job with the punt returns?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, the punt return, he’s done a really good job because he’s possessing the ball, first and foremost. And the kicks last week, the ones that he had an opportunity with some space, I thought he did a good job. Took one chance, right? He’s trying to make a play, but I think he’s doing exactly what we’re asking him to do. I think as we get into league play, we’ll probably have a little bit more opportunities with some space for him to get loose and really impact the field position.
And then what I’m seeing out of him at wideout is now his work ethic is kind of putting him in position to make plays. He’s a very hard worker, very conscientious guy. His knowledge of the position is increasing and you’re starting to see him play a lot faster. That’s not an easy play because when the ball is thrown, he’s even with the guy and sometimes receivers panic in that situation. Just trusted his speed, trusted his technique, just kept on running, and made a heck of a play.
You mentioned after the game, Kam Robinson is starting to kind of get back up to what he can do. How many strides has he made, and how have you evaluated his play so far?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean, here’s a guy that probably had a 12-month recovery. He does it in nine, he’s back out there playing. And now you’re starting to see him be Kam, be reckless, violent, disruptive. Now you’re starting to see him put ball carriers on the ground on first contact. So he’s starting to kind of come into his own. And as he just continues to make strides, then we’ll do more with him, right? But also, too, he’s making strides as the green dot guy. You’re seeing a lot more confidence in his body language, communicating with his teammates. And I think over the next eight ball games, you’ll start to see more of the Kam Robinson type plays that he’s capable of.
Beau [Pribula] has been kind of lights out. And like you said, Florida State’s defense is very fast laterally, very fast on the ball in general. And their defensive line, they don’t mind rushing four and still getting home. And so, how do you keep Beau [Pribula] locked in on that? Because, like you said, it’s like that Cyclone defense, so they can bring more, but they have no problem only bringing four.
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, so I think it just starts with his commitment to the process, which he’s shown that he’s committed to the process because you don’t play at a high level if you’re not committed to the process. So staying committed and then not trying to do too much and knowing the game plan inside and out, and then just going and being a playmaker when you need to be a playmaker. So, not a whole lot of conversation other than hey Beau [Pribula], be yourself, stick to the plan, and then we’ll give him some tidbits throughout the course of the week on just how their style of defense.
Now if they’re going to rush four, then obviously your throwing lanes might be a little bit smaller because they got more guys in coverage, but if they’re undisciplined in their lane integrity, then you know what the same thing I’m telling our D-Linemen don’t get out of your gaps, stay in your lanes, then use your legs. And then in a game like this, what I’ve learned is man, the quarterback’s legs become, and I’m not talking about designed runs. It’s the same thing with Florida State, it’s not the designed runs at quarterback that hurt you, it’s the off schedule, okay, play’s not there, having that internal clock, understanding, pull it down, don’t find a check down, go get four, get down. Now you stay ahead of the chains.
Or they’re in man coverage. I recognize man coverage. They’re rushing four. They don’t have gap integrity. Now I scramble for 11 and now I’ve added a first down that was off schedule. And that to me is kind of where the separation lies in games like this. And so our quarterback or their quarterback, which one is going to make those off schedule plays to help his team from a big picture standpoint?
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