Everything From Tony Elliott After Virginia's Big Win Over Stanford

The Virginia Cavaliers are 1-0 in conference play with their 48-20 victory over Stanford. The offense was again electric, especially through the air, and now UVA is 3-1 heading into their big matchup against Florida State on Friday night.

After the game, Virginia head coach Tony Elliott spoke with the media and here is everything that he had to say.

1. On what pleased him the most vs Stanford...

"Just good complimentary football. For the offense to get off to a fast start. First, special teams creating good field position. Defense getting stops, offense going down and scoring and playing good complimentary football, and then finishing the fourth quarter. Not giving up any points there in the fourth quarter. Just really pleased with the team effort. There's plenty for us to coach better at and to clean up, but just super proud of the guys showing up with the business-like mentality. They continue to have that each week, and playing good complimentary football, and then also giving us some opportunities to grow in the process of having success."

2. On Kam Robinson...

"It's just good to see five running around. I think everybody loves to watch him, because you never know what you're going to see. I mean, you have a chance to see something special because of the ability level that he has. But it was good to see him get back in there, play good football, lead us in tackles, come up with a turnover. Now he's knows that he's ready to roll. Should have confidence in the shoulder and actually bring a good jolt for us down the stretch."

3. On Chandler Morris and Trell Harris connection...

"We felt like this week we get some opportunities to put the ball in the air, and you were starting to see it with all the guys. It was good for Chandler to have a game like that, where he just kind of got really settled in and got into rhythm and made some plays and extended some plays and found some big plays down the field. And really good for Trell. A guy that's kind of been working his way back to have a breakout game like that. So just super, super happy for him."

4. On being able to create big plays through the air...

"You know what I've learned in this league? You have a plan to do both, but then it unfolds how it unfolds based off of what the defense decides to take away. You want to start with the run. Even though I'm a wide out by trade, I just want to run the ball. The best offenses I've been around could effectively run the football. That's where it starts, and that creates some of the play actions to create some more of the intermediate throws, and then also some of the deep shots. So we're going to need to be able to do both down the stretch. And I think we know how competitive this league is week in and week out. And you'd like to be able to say you're going to do what you want to do when you want to do it, but you know that that unfolds throughout the course of the game."

5. On the injury to Brady Wilson...

"I felt like we were able to keep going. We did get a couple of holding penalties inside that we got to clean up. But those were not necessarily on the center, but that's the impact when you have to move a guy from a position to bring somebody else in. In fairness to them, things are moving fast. They haven't been in the game as long, but that's the opportunity that we have to improve and get better. But we were able to continue to move the offense, have some success, and very hopeful that it's not more than a calf strain, but I won't know for sure until doctors check in the morning."

6. On his message to the team during the game...

"The message that I told the team is, and it's relative to life: a lot of times we don't see the potential that we have, and it takes others to see that potential in us. I wasn't really happy with how we ended the first half. I thought we had an opportunity there to come away with points, and it was self-inflicted penalties, and then we missed a field goal, and then we had a big play bust, and now went from potentially going up four scores to now a 14-point swing. And so I was challenging them at halftime, like, we can't be complacent, and we can't be afraid to just play and not take your foot off the gas. Because then that's practicing bad habits.

The message was, just finish the fourth quarter. This is what we play for. We train for the fourth quarter. And that's where I said, "Hey, you're tired—so what?" I mean, it's a heart check. The biggest thing for me was just letting them know that we're not going to settle to just be complacent. Man, I know this may not be the right way to describe it, but in this sport, the good teams, when there's blood in the water, man, they go after it, right? And that was kind of my message to the guys.

Man, we had blood in the water right there at the end of the second quarter. It's not that they didn't want to, but I can't say that that's okay, right? Because, man, we need to be able to, when we have people up against the ropes, keep going and keep playing to a standard, and not be satisfied. That's the whole concept of competitive stamina. It's not competing to a circumstance, but competing to a standard at all times."

7. On OC Des Kitchings...

"This is what I gotta remind myself and remind everybody. It's hard to win. It's hard to win, and they had near 600 yards of offense. There's a whole lot of positives, but as coaches, we're going to be critical. We're going to focus on the areas where we can improve, because we know that a game can flip quickly, right, with a play or two. Just super proud of the guys, I think, we've been able to put up some yards and score some points, and we're going to need to continue to be able to do that. So we can't be, but to be able to have that kind of production and then also score the points to go along with it.

There's a lot of positives, and we'll enjoy it for, I guess, 38 more minutes. Because tomorrow is actually Monday for us, with the short week, so they got 38 minutes to enjoy it, and then we'll get back in there, watch the tape, correct it, and then start putting together a plan for a really, really good Florida State team coming in here on Friday."

8. On Chandler's previous tape at North Texas...

"I've said that before. He's just got an uncanny ability to get the ball out, get it out quick, different arm angles, different trajectories. He just has a natural knack for that. So you saw that on tape. We've seen it out on the practice field. And then also, too, he's just got a sense about him. He can feel things without necessarily seeing it. He can feel it. And then he's got the ability with his legs to get out of some tough situations.

But I will say, man, super proud of the offensive line. I know we got one sack credited, but I told Chandler that was on him. I told him. I said he's got to throw that ball out of bounds on that draw play, and he will next time. So I told OL they still got four games with no sacks. So that was on Chandler."

9. On handling a game against a top ten team...

"One. don't make it bigger than what it is. At the end of the day, it's a conference game. It's the next step in the progression. Don't try to be superhuman, but you got to have a good understanding of your opponent, what you're going up against. Then you got to prepare to the standard. You got to block out the noise. The difference in games like this is everybody's going to be ready. Everybody's going to be excited, man. It's a prime-time game. There's all these things associated with it, but it's still about the preparation.

I know you'll be ready, but we got to make sure that we don't just try to skip the preparation and get to the game thinking that being ready is going to get it done, because now you're going to have to go out and you want to play well, take care of the football. The same thing that you had to do tonight, versus the team that we played. You got to take care of the ball. You got to protect the quarterback. You got to win the line of scrimmage, and then you got to communicate so that you don't give up a big play."

10. On starting fast in the second half...

"It's momentum, right? Momentum in these games is big, and it just puts pressure. And we knew in this game in particular, when you look at the structure of how Stanford is built, and they want to run the ball. They want to control the clock. They're a huddle team. They want to minimize possessions. If you can get off to a fast start, play complementary football, and get ahead by a couple scores, you make them a little bit more one-dimensional, right? Their strength is running the football. And we knew if we could get off to a fast start, then we might have a chance to put just a little bit more pressure on them to try and try and come from behind."