Tony Elliott Discusses Virginia's Persistent Overtime Habit

If there's anything that is entirely certain about the Cavaliers this year, it's that they will fight right up until the end of each matchup. Of course, Elliott would prefer to see his program score early and control the game from the start, but there is undeniably a higher sense of confidence that has formed within the Hoos after being forced into overtime in several games.

As Elliott stated during his latest postgame press conference:

"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."

There aren't many football programs that are as comfortable playing during crunch time as the Cavaliers are, but this wasn't by choice. When they played Florida State during week five, they went into overtime before claiming a much-needed 46-38 victory. One week later, they played Louisville and fell into another overtime battle, but managed to come out on top again with a score of 30-27. Now, week nine marks their third overtime game this season.

During Elliott's media appearance on Oct. 21, he praised his program for their mentality heading into the final quarter of each game, stating, "... what you're seeing is our guys are finding a way to make the play to win the game and eliminating the mistakes to lose the game, right? So when I think about a lot of those close losses, it was more so man, we just didn't quite make the play we needed to make. And I think now the guys understand that. And so they're taking pride in the way we finish practice with having a fourth quarter mentality. So that in the fourth quarter, we can eliminate the mistakes, and then we can go make the plays."

This statement becomes all the more true after defeating North Carolina. UVA will compete right up until the end, and so far, it has played out incredibly well in their favor.