Tony Elliott Says Virginia Has Improved The Most In This Underrated Area Heading Into The Season

After the Cavaliers second scrimmage, UVA head coach Tony Elliott says his team has seen a lot of growth in an area that might seem simple to those on the outside:

"The guys are really learning how to practice. We're doing a much better job of getting full speed work without being on the ground. That's been, and that's why I think we've been, you know, we haven't we haven't had as many concussions, knock on wood. We haven't had as many shoulders as we've had in the past because guys are practicing better. We've taken advantage of every single day. And so you're seeing some consistency.

Today I got after them this morning, and some of it is my job to see an opportunity. So it wasn't as much as they weren't doing what they were supposed to, but they gave me an opportunity and I had to capitalize right to get them ready to go, and that's my job, right, because they're gonna go, but we needed a certain level of intensity and it's my job to help there but they came out had a really good practice today they were we're getting better in understanding situation of football and really what it takes to win at the end of the game with some of our four -minute stuff and some of our two -minute we had a really good two -minute work in the stadium on Saturday and then we had some good four minute work here today so I think we're getting better better there and and the leadership of the team is, starting to to really you know emerge which is going to be key because at the end of the day situation or no situation if you don't have good leadership it doesn't matter."

Better home record is the goal for UVA

There is something else that needs to improve for Virginia and that is their play at home.

Under Tony Elliott, UVA is 6-12 in games at Scott Stadium and 2-10 in ACC home games. Elliott knows that must change if the Cavaliers are going to achieve their goals this season:

"So this, this is this is a whole different team because there's 54 new ones that have never Been in Scott Stadium other than the scrimmages. So I haven't talked about it as much yet, other than the days that were over there. And just really trying to create the mindset that the grass is sacred. That there's blood, sweat, and tears, equity from a lot of guys that came before us that have created a standard that we have to uphold. And so that's been the messaging up to this point. And then as we break camp and we really start to focus on the first game, we'll talk a lot more about that. But I have a sense that this group is going to take pride in it and the previous groups did as well.

I think the difference in defending Scott Stadium is in the fourth quarter finding ways to win and not beat yourself. So we've got to be a more disciplined football team. We have, I think, depth will help us be a football team that can finish better in the fourth quarter because we've got guys that haven't played snaps right as much as we're talking about building competitive stamina like The body just it's gonna it's gonna slow down after about a hundred snaps, so I think depth will help us, you know be a little bit fresher And you notice the teams that are really good in the fourth quarter a lot of times because I got a lot of depth And they can play guys and enter fresher team in the fourth quarter and then they can lean on people So those are a couple things that I think we got to do better, right? And I anticipate this group is going to take pride in that."

Virginia is going to get an early chance at defending their home field against Coastal Carolina next Saturday.