Everything From Tony Elliott After Virginia's Massive Upset Over Florida State

Heading into Friday's week five matchup against Florida State, Virginia's ability to come out on top looked rather slim. To the surprise of many, the Cavaliers took an early lead during the first quarter after UVA tight end Sage Ennis scored a touchdown off a pass from quarterback Chandler Morris. Right off the bat, this put the Seminoles in a dangerous position. From then on, the nail-biting game remained incredibly tight until Virginia secured a monumental 46-38 victory over Florida State.

Following the jaw-dropping upset, here's what UVA head coach Tony Elliott had to say:

1. Elliott's Introductory Statement

"I'll open it up real quick. How fun was that? That's what Scott Stadium is supposed to be like, and that's what I envisioned when I decided to take the job here of the potential. And man, really, really proud of the students and the fans for showing up. And, man, it made a difference. It made a very, very difficult place for a good football team to come in here to play. So just, man, it's, it's what it should be, and this team is going to keep working. But really, really appreciate everybody. The atmosphere was unbelievable. Man, it felt like a, you know, championship kind of kind of game. And that's what we desire to be as a program. That's where we want to go. But we all got to do it together. So just appreciate everybody for showing up and making Scott Stadium. You know what it is, is a very difficult place for opponents to play."

2. On competitive stamina...

"Oh, definitely. I mean, competitive stamina is just competing to a standard, regardless of circumstance. The circumstance constantly changed, and I thought the guys did a great job. And that was that was a heck of a football game, and that were two teams that both teams wanted to win, and they were going to fight. It was going to come down to who could who could find a way to make one more play than the other. In order to do that, you've got to have competitive standing..."

3. On the turning point...

"You know, it's kind of that middle eight, right? So we give up score, and then we come back and we match the score, and then we're able to come out and get a stop, just to start the third quarter with the missed field goal, and then go down and score. And so it was huge, right? It just leveled the game back to a 0-0, game, so that we weren't chasing possession, because we knew that this was going to be a one possession game that you had to get to the fourth quarter and find a way to win it. And so that was huge. Those two big plays, and those are just, man, you know, at the end of the day, man, the guys got in position. J'Mari was, I don't know y'all, I don't know if y'all heard it. That was a loud hit. He got hit right squarely in the hole, and found a way to keep his legs moving and pop out. And so we were able to go in at half and and be basically 0-0 with the 21-21 tie."

4. On Virginia's defensive power at the end...

"Hey, man, that's number one offense in the country, right? And they've, they scored 70-60, and, man, they beat, you know, Alabama, and so, man, all we wanted to do was find a way to get enough stops to give our offense one or two more possessions than the other team. So man, we going to celebrate that one because they made they made some plays, they made a couple stops, and obviously they gave up some points, but in the end, they gave us an opportunity, you know, as an offense, to have a few more possessions to be able to go score more points, and at the end of the day, man, our number one objective on our plan to win is outscore the opponent, right? And I think they're going to get some confidence, you know, from this. And I mean that quarterback is dynamic. I mean, Lord have mercy. He's, he's dynamic. And I mean, Duce Robinson, man, he's phenomenal. I recruited him a little bit. And first of all, he's an outstanding young man, but he's, I mean, all I'm gonna say is, they got enough stops and we found a way. We'll go back to work, we'll fix it, we'll find ways to get better. But at the end of the day, when they when we needed stops, they got us to stop so that we can can find a way to score more points than the opponent."

5. On rushing for 211 yards...

"I'm glad you asked that question, because people are going to say, what is cliche? It's because of belief at the end of the day, belief, we got Drake Metcalf starting at center. We got Kevin Wigginton, who was questionable for last week with an ankle injury. And at the end of the day, it's all belief, it's all and that's really what I've been challenging everybody in our program, is just man, the heart of a champion doesn't mean you're perfect, right, but you just believe. You believe beyond your circumstances. You believe beyond what you see in front of you and that group. Man, I could tell. I could tell by the way they practiced this week, I could tell by how they showed up for pregame that they believed. They didn't know how it was going to get done, but they believed, and I didn't know how it was going to get done, right? But I believe that, at the end of the day, playmakers are going to find a way, but super proud of that offensive line. And man, credit to Terry Heffernan. I mean, what he's been able to do. You know, we win the portal, and we brought in seven offensive linemen, and right now, five of them unavailable, and still be able to do that versus, you know, very quality opponents. But at the end of the day, it's belief. And they believe in coach, they believe in the rest of the coaches in there. They believe in the plan, but more importantly, they believe in the man next to [them] and they won't be denied. And really, if you think about anything great that's ever been accomplished, it's because somebody believed, right?"

6. On Chandler Morris' hand...

"He was told in the game that looks like it's a little sprained there, but he's a warrior man. He's a warrior and just so happy for him, and he that's why he came here. He came here because, you know what he believed? He believed in me, he believed in the staff, he believed in the players in the locker room, and he believed that he could come in and help, you know, this program, take the next, the next step. So I know that sounds cliche, but at the end of the day, tonight's all about the good Lord and belief, and hopefully we can continue to believe and stay humble so that we can really, really, you know, go reach our potential."

7. On Morris' performance...

"Yeah. I mean, when you play in games like that, it's hard to be clean when you're playing against really, really good opponents, and he's trying to make a play. And the one over here to Jahmal. I mean, that's a competitive play, right? I know he's going to want the one back out, rolling to his right, but the other ones, man, he's trying to go make competitive plays, and he's a warrior, and that's all you can say. And so we're going to look at the tape, and we'll get back in on Sunday, and we'll evaluate everything like we do, just as if we hadn't won the game. We're going to be very critical. We're going to try and go get better. We're going to put together our practice plans so that we can improve on the things we need to improve upon, so that we can get ready for a really, really good Louisville team on the road."

8. On his message to his players in the locker room at halftime...

"Yeah, the message in the locker room is, boys, this is right where you want to be, right? It's a little different message than last week, like and I told him, I said last week, I got after you pretty good, right? Because we kind of stumbled into the middle eight, but we knew was gonna be heavyweight fight, and it's 0-0, at half, right? And we had given them some punches. They had given us some punches, and so we were right where we wanted to be. That was the message. And I said, Hey, it's gonna come down to who wants it more in the end, right? Who's gonna strain, who's gonna fight, right? And who's gonna find a way to make a play. And really the play that you need to make is the routine play, right? And just focus on making the routine play. Get it to the fourth quarter..."

9. On Kam Robinson's impact since his return...

"I mean, he's super dynamic as an athlete. He can go make plays for us when things break down, you know, he can kind of be in a racer on defense. The guys, you know, look to him because they know that he can. He can make things right. But, man, I'm excited about he just getting going, too. You know, he's been down for about four weeks, and his only second week back, but he's going to continue to make plays. I think we know that he's got the capability of being a household name, but we got to continue to push him. And the more he plays, you know, the speed of game is going to slow back down for him, and he's going to continue to make more plays for us, but they rally around him. Him, Mitchell Melton. You know, Mitchell Melton continues to make plays. You know, those two guys right there athletically, you know, give us a chance, and they're really starting to embrace their opportunities as leaders, so to help us get to the next level. But hey, they gave us some points, but we scored a bunch of points too, right? And the reason we did is because we play some complimentary football at times, and we got enough stops and more possessions than what they had."

10. On Friday night's aggression...

"Hey, to be a champion, you got to go beat a champion, right? And two years ago that was a champion of our league, right? And they were in the college football playoff, and it wasn't for an injury, they probably had a shot to go win it all. So, man, you can't coach scared. You can't play scared when you're playing against that bunch over there. You got to be aggressive. And we knew that with their offense, we weren't going to be chasing three points. We're going to be chasing touchdowns. So we knew we knew we were going to have to be, have to be aggressive, especially as the game, you know, went on. We saw the course of it. And in this game, there's already enough pressure, right, so they don't need me, you know, screaming. But they showed me throughout the course of the week, by the way that they prepared right, that they had learned right, and they responded the right way, from the way that I challenged them last week. And, you know, a game like this, really what they need from me and the coaches is just help them. You know, they already know kind of what's at stake and how hard it's going to be, how physical will be, how fast the games will be. They just need us to to help them. And they biggest thing for me was just to keep reminding them that, hey, keep believing, keep straining, 0-0, don't look at the scoreboard right. One play at a time. Do your job. And that aggression, I guess, showed that you believe in them.

I mean, they see that we, we plan to win, right? And you got to, right, because it's a race to Charlotte for everybody in our league, okay? And you gotta, you gotta win if you want, if you want to be a champion, man, you gotta go beat champions. They don't, they don't give you games. You gotta go. You gotta go win."

11. On what this game means to him...

You know, for me, I know what I signed up for, right? So I understand that man, heavy is the crown, right? That there's going to be that but you know, for me, it's really about the Davis family, the Chandler family, the Perry family, the coaches in that locker room, the staff, the players, and just trying to be a model of that belief, right? And there's been days that I didn't know how I was going to do it, but as soon as I walk in the office and I see one of their faces, it reminds me, you know why we're here, what we're about. Stay the course. Don't deviate from the plan, right? Double down on what you believe in. And I came here because I believe that Virginia, right, can be one of the premier football programs in the country, to go alongside with the what being one of the premier academic schools, right, that everything associated with this university can just ooze with excellence. And that's why I came here. And I knew it wasn't going to be easy, and I didn't, you know, know what adversity we were going to walk into. But here's what I do know, is adversity is a companion of a champion, an enemy to the week, and so we had to embrace the adversity, and that's really what this is about. And hopefully we can, we can change people from the inside out, right? And everybody that is associated and touches the program you know, can, can can look to us and say, You know what? And there's something different about, you know, that group, and hopefully tonight is just gets people's attention. And if we want to be a premier program, it's gonna take all of us, okay? It's gonna take all of us sitting in this room, having a good relationship, working together. It's gonna take the folks in the stands. It's gonna take the students. It's gonna take our players. It's gonna take our staff, our administration, our faculty, it's gonna take everybody, right?

But I think that's what we all want. And really, tonight is just, you know, one step in that direction. But in the big scheme of things, we just won an ACC game, and you know what? We go on the road tomorrow, I mean, next week, to Louisville, right with a chance to win another so so we wanted to be in the driver's seat, and that's all we did, was just keep ourselves in the driver's seat. So we got to keep two hands on the wheel, put the seat belt on right, make sure that we check the rear view mirror, make sure we're awake, so that we don't we don't hit, we don't hit a pothole along the way."

12. On the storming...

"Yeah, I hope that nobody got injured, right? You don't want to see that, and I hate that I didn't get a chance to go and shake coach Norvell's hand, because I got a tremendous amount of respect for him, and what he's done with that program, he's got a phenomenal team. Man Zero, Mr. Little. I want to tell him how good of a player I thought he was in all my years of preparing for Florida State. I think he's one of the best you know that they've had come through there, and he will be. And I wanted to hug Duce Robinson's neck. I mean, a lot of things that I wanted to be able to do, but I understand. I'm happy for the folks you know, on the field as well, but I just pray that nobody got a seriously injured."