Everything From Tony Elliott After Virginia’s Overtime Thriller vs North Carolina

No. 16 Virginia just wrapped up yet another incredibly tight victory, this time finishing with an overtime score of 17-16 against North Carolina. The Cavaliers played hard right up until the end, but once again, there were plenty of mistakes made that could have easily cost them the game.

Here's everything UVA head coach Tony Elliott had to say after the overtime thriller:

On how previous overtime games helped UVA's confidence...

"Yeah, huge, that's what I told the guys, man, we've been here before, right? Unfortunately, this is what we do, right? We take it all the way down to the end. But I could sense the same, you know, just like the same attitude and belief as I did in the Florida State game. And I think that kind of started it, and then it carried over into the Louisville game and then today. So the guys just had confidence that we were going to play however long it takes. And that's one of the bedrocks of our program is we play 60 minutes or however long it takes to find a way to win the game."

On moving away from the run game in the first half….

"Yeah, they were doing a good job of playing wide ends and not letting us get outside, and then the most success we were having was with the play, I mean, with the play pass and the passing game. And so we just kind of were trying to get some chunk plays and see if we could ignite the offense. And then we found a little bit in the second half, but they did a really good job of boxing everything in, playing some man coverage, having an extra hat that, as soon as the backs may find it on our more inside targeting plays, they had an extra hat there to down the football."

On if he thought UNC was going to go for two and the win…

“You know, I didn't, to be honest with you. I would have kicked it and given the guys another opportunity in the second overtime because then you have to go for two. But hey man, he's won a lot of football games and I mean he's one of the, you know, best in the business for a reason and so obviously he felt good about the call, but when I did see it come over towards our left hash, I mean, the closest to us would be our right hash on defense but the left hash where I was looking at it and I know he's got a left-handed quarterback. I thought that was a little different from the sprint out. So, I was hopeful that there were some plays that may be eliminated by bringing it over there. But he still kind of rolled out to the opposite the throwing hand. And then I was a little nervous because I saw the back kind of leaking. And then when I saw our guys trigger on it, I felt like they had an opportunity, but they were going to have to tackle low, and they were going to have to knock him back and not let him fall forward. He finds a way, doesn't he? He's around the ball and is becoming one of the top playmakers for us.”

On his plays and what he saw…

“Yeah, I mean, how big that became. That was huge. I thought it was going to be a foot out of bounds. They were just looking to see where, because I didn't see the ball come out down there. I didn't see the ball come out. Now, I know the folks up top, you know, mentioned that the ball had come out and then when I was looking at it, the vantage points that I see, I couldn't tell if his hand had because what I saw on the screen was I could see a white glove and then I could see the ball behind it, but I couldn't tell if it was still in his hand when it touched the pylon. So, I didn't know. So, I was actually, to be honest with you, preparing for, okay, it might get overturned into a touchdown. And then obviously, I guess they got it right. We'll go back and we'll see it, but I didn't get to see all the angles that the folks in Charlotte had.”

On the difference in his offense since September…

"You know, I think it's inches. It's a game of inches, and we've got to get our rhythm back. We've had to kind of plug and play with some guys. Continuity is a big thing. So we got Brady back, but then we lost Ross, you know, and then X is now out. So just kind of getting in rhythm with all the different pieces that are there, and now, you know, people have got more film to be able to find ways to try and stop us.

And then we got to make some plays, right? There are some plays that we've made [before], and right now we're just an inch or two off. But in my experience, even as a play caller, there's never been a season where it was always perfect on offense, but we're doing a much better job of taking care of the ball. Which and then defense is getting turnovers, which gives us a chance. But, you know, I'm not panicking, right? Because we're finding ways to win, right? So, at the end of the day, we're finding ways to win. And I know that the group that got off to a fast start is the same group that's in that locker room, and we'll evaluate this game and see the areas where we can improve. You know, like last week, we protected the quarterback really well. This week, we didn't do that as much.

We practice every week, you know. So we have segments of practice where we rep our offensive two-point plays versus the anticipated looks, and then they rep their two-point plays, and you actually do it, you know, a couple times a week, the front end of the week and then also the back end of the week, so you're as sharp as possible. Yeah, I think it's three years in the making. Back in, I guess it was what was it, 23, where we lost five games by three, one scoreless, right, so we were on the other side right of that, so I think that helped us because we learned a lot, right? So what we learned in those situations is that it's much easier to lose a game than it is to win a game, if that makes sense and then we were making some costly critical mistakes to cost us games where I think now we're capitalizing on if an opponent makes a mistake or we're making the plays because of the belief of the young men in that locker room. So, a lot of it s going through being on the other side and they say when you're building a program, you have to first lose how learn, how to lose close, and then win close and I think because of the experience that we had in the past, it's helped us, you know, get where we are right now."

On the health of Chandler Morris...

“Yeah, I mean it's October, getting ready to go into November, and none of these guys are 100% healthy. They're all dealing with stuff, but he's battling, and you know, I think that we all know that the shoulder, you know, got hurt early, and that's something that's going to linger. I think back to like Tony Muskett. The same thing happened to Tony Muskett early in the season. And it's just something that you have to battle through throughout the course of the season. But he's a warrior, man. He's going to do everything he possibly can to be ready to go. And I know that at the end of the day, there's nobody in that locker room who wants to play their best more than Chandler. And so I'm excited to see how these guys respond as we get ready for a different week of preparation going out to Cal.”

On Chandler's overtime run...

"He had the ability to audible based on a look that we thought we might see in that situation, and it was similar, but then they did a good job of showing it and then turning it into something else. And so part of it was it was kind of a run flip option. So the flip wasn't there. You've got to go run it, bud. Yeah. So I know that the quarterback position gets the most scrutiny, right? They probably get too much credit when things are going well, and they get all the blame when things aren't. But if you question Chandler Morris's commitment to the Virginia Cavaliers, our university, our program, then I don't know what else to tell you because there's nobody in that locker room that's more committed to our program. I told you he's a warrior, right? He's got the heart of a champion, and he's going to lay his body on the line, which he showed in two games that resulted in putting us right there on the three-yard line with a chance to go win it in overtime.”

On J’Mari’s touchdown run…

"You know, I think really we lost the Grady bunch. We had a really good thing going last year with Grady Brosterhous, who was one of our additional quarterbacks who could go under center and do the quarterback sneak. I mean, you're not going to ask Chandler to go under center and do a quarterback sneak like you would Grady. So that kind of inspired it. So we got to be creative and good football coaches, which you know we have in our building, are going to find ways to continue to be good at something. You want to have tendencies, right? You want to have a tendency that you're good at. Now, you have to protect it and find different ways to do it. But I mean, if it's working, I mean, let's not go away from it. Let's not give the other team too much credit and talk ourselves out of something that could help us.”

On the amount of sacks UVA gave up...

“You know, I think they did a really good job of getting into a five-man front and creating one-on-ones, right? And when you can get into a five-man front, you create one-on-ones, and then they were getting us in some long yardage situations where you got to drive the ball down the field. That's very difficult, right? When you can stay ahead of the chains and now you can come and dictate some calmer fronts, you get more slides, you get more protection, you get more help with your teammates up front as opposed to when you get isolated in one-on-ones.

There were some times in the past, you know, Chandler pulled it down and got us out of some of those situations. So, we have to evaluate how long we're holding the ball. But the biggest thing is staying out of long yardage situations, and then you don't have to drive it down the field as far. When you're trying to convert because [not] everything is a two-down situation, right? There are some third downs that you have to try and go get because you're not in a field position to be able to maybe throw under the sticks, knowing that you got fourth down to go get it. So, we'll evaluate it. We'll look at it. But man, I'm confident in the coaches and the players that we got in this program to own the mistakes, get better, and see where we can put together a good plan, have our best week of preparation so we can go chase our best game versus Cal."

On his trust in Jayden Thomas…

 "I mean, that's why he was back there. We knew that he'd shown a ton of reliability catching the ball, and we felt like, in this game plan, we were going to have to have possession of the ball, and then whatever we can get in returns, yardage, and field position would be a bonus. But credit to him, man. He had some opportunities. He wasn't afraid to catch it and run with it and, you know, created some field position for us, which was big. So now it gives us, when Ross comes back, which we anticipate he'll be back next week, gives us some depth. Then in different situations, you know, we got some flexibility."