New Virginia football coach Tony Elliott wanted his team to be hungry this season. He didn’t count on an early revenge dish, though. Illinois delivered that on Saturday in a 24-3 win, getting payback for its own lopsided loss in Charlottesville a year earlier.
The top item on the revenge menu turned out to be humble pie.
“I felt like especially on the offensive side of the ball, just being transparent, Illinois punched us in the mouth, and the guys were reeling the entire game,” Elliott said. “You were hoping that somebody was going to step in and say, ‘Hey, fellas, follow me, I’ll find us a way out of this situation.’ But when you watch it on tape – I was trying to find some positives, but there wasn’t a ton of positive. The positive is we now understand what real work we’ve got to do with this offensive unit. … It was a piece of humble pie for all of us offensively.”
Understandably. The Cavaliers finished with only 222 total yards at an average of 3.5 yards per play. The offense gave up 5 sacks and converted only 1 of 16 third down chances, which came by default courtesy of an Illinois penalty. The Hoos scored just 3 points despite starting three possessions in Illini territory.
Individually, Brennan Armstrong went 13-of-32 passing for 180 yards with 2 interceptions. Keytaon Thompson was the only player with more than 2 catches as he posted 5 catches for 62 yards. Dontayvion Wicks produced only 2 catches for 23 yards despite double-digit targets. With the receivers unable to consistently get open or make a play, the passing game faltered. The top rusher for the game was back-up quarterback Jay Woolfolk, who had 31 yards on one scramble during a short fourth quarter appearance.
A lot of those struggles can be traced to issues on the offensive line. Virginia simply had trouble blocking Illinois. Rushing or passing, the plays often faced disruption from the Illini. The Hoos did not adjust blocking schemes with additional players in the protection plan often so when the linemen missed an assignment, it potentially disrupted the whole offense.
Elliott said the coaches can do things to try to help the linemen strategically. He included the coaches simplifying choices as part of the potential changes.
“Yeah. There are some things we can do. We’re going to work on those things to help them out. But if you look at it, a lot of it is with what they did, they put a five-man front, and you go five-man front, it’s one-on-one blocks. So now it comes down to execution of your fundamentals,” Elliott said. “Run game-wise, we knew that we were always going to have an extra hat that the running back is going to have to run through the hat, and I felt like Perris [Jones] – wasn’t Perris [from] the first game. He was diving his eyes into the ground and just running. There were a couple of plays where he could have had some big ones if he just trusts it, keeps his eyes up, finds the cut back. So those are all things we’ve got to grow through as a staff, but yes, there are some things, and for us – that’s what I told the staff, I had to do this in my past, as coaches, our job is to meet the kids where they are. At times as coaches you want to try to pull them up to where you are, but at the end of the day none of us go on the field. So we’ve got to make sure and be honest with ourselves and evaluate what they’re capable of doing and then help them to be able to do it, and then from there you build to some of the bigger things that you have offensively.”
Beyond the scheme and strategy evaluations, though, Elliott continued to zero in on the mental response needed from the offense. After such a rough outing where the Hoos scored only 3 points – and by Elliott’s estimation, got caught up in distractions – he said that they have to ignore past accomplishments and understand that a certain level of preparation and focus is required to create success offensively. In short, accept the bad performance, buy in, and get back to work
“I said, fellas, first and foremost, part of our problem, especially on the offense, is we thought this couldn’t happen to us. This can happen to anybody in football,” Elliott said. “I’ve been on the other side in College Football Playoff games where it was 31-0, 30-3 on the biggest stage, on the other side, and then I’ve been on the side where you get your butt kicked by Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and just like get beat up. It can happen. First, we’ve got to be humble and understand that this can happen, and then we’ve got to learn from it.”
Full Weekly Media Transcript – Virginia Coach Tony Elliott
Q. Tony, when you spoke to us after the game, you had not had a chance to watch the film. What, if anything, did you learn from the tape that wasn’t apparent to you during the game?
TONY ELLIOTT: You know, in the heat of battle, you’re trying to find just anyway that you can help the young men be successful on the field. What was more evident when I watched the tape, just the guys didn’t respond well to the adversity. I felt like especially on the offensive side of the ball, just being transparent, Illinois punched us in the mouth, and the guys were reeling the entire game. You were hoping that somebody was going to step in and say, ‘hey, fellas, follow me, I’ll find us a way out of this situation.’ But when you watch it on tape – I was trying to find some positives, but there wasn’t a ton of positive. The positive is we now understand what real work we’ve got to do with this offensive unit and team in general, and defensively when you watch the tape, guys – what was very encouraging is there weren’t many times we were out of position or turning guys loose. We had the one busted assignment, and everyone is going to think it was [Josh] Ahern but really it was AJ [Anthony Johnson]. AJ needs to be sitting right on top of that wheel route. There were sometimes where we needed to be a step faster and make the play. A lot of encouragement from what I saw defensively. Confirmation that the guys competed until the end, but just it was a piece of humble pie for all of us offensively.
Q. Tony, would you agree that your receivers need to do a better job getting off the press coverage? Was that a factor? I know the line obviously had problems.
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, so just all the way around offensively we’ve got to do a better job of winning our one-on-one matchups. What was evident to me is when the bullets started flying, the guys abandoned their technique and they just tried to survive. And you can’t do that. To be successful is when the bullets start flying, the one thing you trust is your technique, and so man coverage, defeating man coverage is all about technique and applying your technique. The worst thing you can do as a receiver versus man coverage is just run because you do the job for the defender. You have to use what tools you have. As a receiver, your feet and your hands are your tools to defeat man coverage. As you attack soft coverage you’ve got to freeze the defender with your feet to create some hesitation and let your hands react to his reaction so you can create separation or move a guy or get to where you want to go, so we’ve got a lot of work to do there, and the guys have received the message and they’re owning it and they’re going to work at it.
Offensive line-wise – then the other thing, too, is just a unit playing together. One of the things that I challenged Brennan [Armstrong] is man, you’ve got to communicate to your wideouts. Maybe our protection is not as solid as you need it to be. You need to get on the same page with your wideouts, and what you saw with some timing issues, the wideouts need to be in tune to the game and say, hey, man, we’re in empty and we’ve got a five-man protection and they’re rushing six, man, I might need to speed this up a little bit. So those are a lot of things, the game within the game, that we’ve got to get to.
I think it was – it’s a positive for us as coaches because now we can illustrate to the players, it’s not about what you do. The playbook is on a piece of paper. But there’s real football that you have to adjust the playbook. That’s the game within the game. Now you need to understand why we’re doing what we’re doing and then that’s going to give you all the tools and understanding to do it or how to do it, not just what you’re doing.
That’s what these first couple days, this week have been, is let’s go get refocused on the details, and I shared with them today a quote that says, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” What I told them, I said, look, fellas, what I’ve done in my past doesn’t matter because all we’ve got is today. What y’all did offensively last year doesn’t matter. I said, look at the defense. What the defense did last year, they’re not thinking about it. They’re not focusing about it. They’re not paying attention to what’s in the rear-view mirror. I think that’s the biggest challenge for us offensively is for these guys to say, hey, it’s a new system. We’re not doing what you did last year. We’re building a foundation offensively here. If you will buy into the system and play within the system and trust the fundamentals and the technique that we’re trying to teach you, then it will lead to success. When you play outside of the framework of the team and the scheme, then you’re going to have situations where you get exposed.
Q. Are there ways for you and Des to scheme to help the offensive line out? Are there things you guys can do within the system you have?
ELLIOTT: Yeah. There are some things we can do. We’re going to work on those things to help them out. But if you look at it, a lot of it is with what they did, they put a five-man front, and you go five-man front, it’s one-on-one blocks. So now it comes down to execution of your fundamentals. Run game-wise, we knew that we were always going to have an extra hat that the running back is going to have to run through the hat, and I felt like Perris [Jones] – wasn’t Perris [from] the first game. He was diving his eyes into the ground and just running. There were a couple of plays where he could have had some big ones if he just trusts it, keeps his eyes up, finds the cut back. So those are all things we’ve got to grow through as a staff, but yes, there are some things, and for us – that’s what I told the staff, I had to do this in my past, as coaches, our job is to meet the kids where they are. At times as coaches you want to try to pull them up to where you are, but at the end of the day none of us go on the field. So we’ve got to make sure and be honest with ourselves and evaluate what they’re capable of doing and then help them to be able to do it, and then from there you build to some of the bigger things that you have offensively. But we’ve got a lot of work to do fundamentally and just from a football knowledge standpoint.
Q. Darrius Bratton, he didn’t play on Saturday. Is that a long-term issue? And Mike Green, we haven’t seen him the last few weeks?
TONY ELLIOTT: So Darrius is we’re hoping not a long-term issue. He played in the first game, and man, love him because he gave us everything he had, but he’s just not healthy. He’s dealing with a bone bruise and a high ankle sprain. So that takes a little bit of time. So we’re hoping that it won’t be long-term. He didn’t do much last week practice-wise. He’s out there this week moving around. But what I told him and what I told Kelli [Pugh], our head trainer, I said, look, it’s not fair to put him out on the field if he’s not healthy because he can’t protect himself. There were some times in that first game that he was compensating and he almost got himself hurt. I’m hoping the next couple weeks we’ll see him back. With Mike green, he’s just no longer active with the team anymore, and that’s where I’m going to leave that one.
Q. When you got here in December, Chico Bennett was still in the rehab phase from his ACL. What has his progression been as he got cleared to practice and built up some more reps?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, he’s starting for us, so he’s the first guy to run out there, and he’s got some competition. That was probably – that and wide receiver were the two deepest groups coming into it with the addition of the grad transfers, the two deepest groups from a competitive standpoint. So he’s been pushed, but he’s worked every single day. His confidence is as high as it can be. He’s really buying into the relationship with Coach Slade and understanding that Coach Slade can help him. There’s nobody better to teach you how to rush the passer and play that position than Coach Slade. His progression went from the spring trying to build confidence back in the knee to now, you don’t see any issues. The biggest thing for him is getting him to do a great job of taking care of his body because he’s a guy that has to hydrate well. He’s a heavy sweater. He’s had a couple cramping issues at times. That’s really the only issue with Chico, and I’m proud of how physical he’s trying to play and holding the edge, and he’s being a leader for us, too, which is big.
Q. If you’re willing to share, first loss as a head coach, how did Tony Elliott handle it on Sunday? A lot of family time, a lot of alone time? What was your approach?
TONY ELLIOTT: So immediately after the game, there was no need for me to go visit with the coaches. I knew exactly what needed to be done, and I needed to address that football team, and I needed them to understand that we’ve got to own that. That’s us. We put that out there. We can’t blame it on anybody else.
Now we have to acknowledge, okay, what are some of the things that contributed to that. Last week, Wednesday we didn’t have a great practice. Thursday, we had to get after the scout team to give us a great look for the offense, which created some issues just from a flow of practice standpoint. Monday there was a sense of just after a victory, and I said it, and I said it in the locker room after the game, and I said it at halftime and I think I said it here last week, fellas, we’ve got to learn how to handle success.
For me, it was man, this is when I have to be at my best is this situation right now because there’s a locker room full of people that are looking at me to figure out, what do we do next. So what we do next is we own it, we accept it, we realize that for a week that’s what we are. That’s what we put on film. We’ve got to go back to work. We’ve got to be honest with ourselves. We’ve got to put our suits back on the way that we came in here. We’ve got to clean the locker room like we would after a win, that the process is not going to change, and then Sunday for me was – we got back I think at 1:30 in the morning, slept until about 8:30 and then went to the office, graded the tape, met with the staff, and everyone is trying to see how is Tony Elliott going to respond after a loss.
Hey, it’s Sunday. We’ve got to move forward. Monday is Monday; we’ve got to move forward. Really just illustrating to folks that, hey, I’ve got your attention now after a loss, right, but hopefully we understand that we don’t like this feeling and we don’t like to have our attention captured like this, so let’s stay committed to the process and let’s be honest, and I think the guys have responded well. They’ve had two good practices. But for me, it’s on to the next one. I mean, that’s just how I’m wired. You enjoy it for the night, or you weep for the night, and you know that joy is coming in the morning, and you get back up and you go back to work and you own your mistakes and you figure out how to fix them, and you move forward.
Q. Did you sleep on the plane?
TONY ELLIOTT: Well, I tried to sleep. It was kind of cold. They had the AC blowing. It was cold. I didn’t get much sleep on the plane. Watched a little bit of tape on the plane to knock out some of that, just to kind of see what was going on, and then got some rest and got up. I was hoping to be able to make it to church, but I slept a little bit longer than I wanted to, and then went back to work.
Q. When you have a performance like that, I’m sure you dissect everything. Unless it’s like to back up the punter five yards to give him more room, every penalty is costly. How do you typically deal with that in film review with the team?
TONY ELLIOTT: So we have – so the way we start Monday is I have about 30 minutes to dissect the game with the team from all angles, from player performance to coach performance to effort, things of that nature. So the way that I’ll attack it is letting them know positive, negative, offense, defense, special teams and then move into what we call the non-negotiables where I deal with the loafs and the bad efforts personally, and then we break out as an offense, defense, then they watch the film together and just create that collective accountability.
Then each coach will have a different set of consequences and discipline for the issues that we’re having, from a penalty standpoint. Ball security, we go right back to work with ball security and trying to teach these guys and understand just the fundamentals behind carrying the ball and what you have to do and how you have to train your body. Naturally you’re going to keep the ball away from your body and expose it to the defense.
Q. Frank Beamer used to make guys that got 15-yard penalties get up at 6:00 in the morning and run. Do any of your consequences kind of mirror that?
TONY ELLIOTT: Not getting up early. We’re already up early since we’re a morning outfit so everybody is up early, but each coach has a set of consequences for different penalties. For instance, running back fumbles the ball, Keith [Gaither] is going to have them doing updowns with the ball, carrying the ball, working on ball security while they’re doing it. Tujague [Garett Tujague] is going to have his set of different consequences for penalties. So I allow the coaches to manage that. The biggest thing for me that I’m worried about is the effort. There were some great opportunities to highlight the positive and then also highlight the negative.
Q. Can you share some of the consequences for penalties?
TONY ELLIOTT: That’s more internal to us. I’ll let the coaches be protected in what they do with the players.
Q. Moving on to Old Dominion, what’s your impressions of them, and from the tape, I know a lot of coaches are copycats, do you expect to see them try to pick some of the stuff from Illinois and use it against you?
TONY ELLIOTT: Of course. Hey, that’s called professional courtesy. Hey, that would only be right if a coach is going to see something. It’s not as much copycat, its man, give your guys a chance and make sure that the other team fixed it. There’s no doubt that they’re probably going to bring some five-man fronts, which you haven’t seen a bunch on film. They’re primarily a four-down. They will walk their weak side in around, but it’s not a true odd structure, to try and create some confusion. But I would imagine it’s not hard for them to take one of the linebackers and walk them down on the line and create a five-man front to see if we fixed the technical issues that we had from a one-on-one standpoint. But ODU, as I told the guys, first and foremost, they’re confident. They’ve already beaten a Power Five. They’re prideful. They want to win the state, just like we want to win the state. They’ve got a leg up on everybody because they’ve already got one victory in state. They’re capable. They’re very, very, very capable. They’ve proven that.
But then when you watch them on film, defensively, I think that collectively they’re more athletic than what we saw last week. Not quite as big up front, but athletically they’ve got a 6’2″ corner that can play anywhere. I mean, he can run, he can play man coverage. Their linebacker, 42 [Jason Henderson], is a really, really good football player. People look at him and probably underestimate him, but he’s a really good football player, and he’s the heart and soul of that defense. No. 5 [Alonzo Ford Jr.] is a very athletic defensive lineman. They’ve got depth on the D-line so they can roll guys in, keep them fresh. But I think you can also tell the pride and what the football team is about by how their field goal block team plays, and they blocked two field goals. They blocked two field goals. That just tells you a lot about a football team when after a defense has gotten scored on, or they’ve allowed them into scoring position, how hard do they play on that play. So they’ve blocked a couple field goals. They’ve returned kicks for touchdowns. They’ve blocked punts.
I mean, this is a confident group, and you can tell they’re having fun and they’re playing for each other. Then offensively they’re sneaky. They’re sneaky good. It doesn’t look like it, and then boom, here goes a big play. Their run game, they’ll hit you for two, they’ll hit you for three, and boom, here goes one for 40. So we’ve got to do a great job on both sides of the ball, and it’s going to be a good challenge for us. I’m excited for us, especially offensively, because we’ve got a structure that’s going to challenge us, and athletically they’re capable, and they’re going to come in here confident. They have no reason not to be. They’re going to come in here and sense that there’s blood in the water and they’re going to come after us. We’ve got to have our minds in the right place and show up Saturday ready to go.
Q. You mentioned on Saturday a lot about preparation and practice and the guys feel like they’ve had a better practice so far this week. What have you seen from them that lends to that?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, it’s just every day when you show up, you’ve got to make a decision, and that decision is what is your effort going to be, what’s your focus and intensity going to be, and then are you going to be aggressive. They’ve got to make a decision every single day. I’m going to remind them and challenge them and try to create an atmosphere that fosters that, but each one has to make a decision. I think after the victory you can sense like, okay, oh, we’ve got it. Okay, now I see this is what Coach is talking about; we’ve got it. So hey, let’s just go through the process. No, you’ve got to attack the process. You’ve got to attack what we’re doing every single day and you’ve got to have a certain level of execution, a certain level of precision, and we didn’t have that intensity that we needed in a couple of the practices last week that you could tell that some of the guys felt like – I’m just being transparent and honest from my perspective, that some of the guys felt like, okay, we’ve got this.
You can never – if you want to be great, you can never have that mindset. You’ve always got to be humble. That’s why I said it was a great piece of humble pie for us offensively, and then the flipside on the defense, when I watched the defense last week, man, they accepted the challenge of trying to tackle that running back. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I almost had to blow the whistle and calm them down because I want thud and they’re taking guys to the ground; they’re taking the scout team to the ground. It was just a different level of intensity. What my job is now is I got to foster the leadership collectively, and there’s still a lot of teaching, too, and I’m developing the staff, getting them to understand my expectations, so everybody – I’ve got to create an environment collectively where everybody raises to that level of humility day in and day out so we can go out and attack the day.
Now they’re coming off a loss. Nobody likes to lose. That’s what I told them today. I told them, today has been one of the best Tuesdays we’ve had. But it shouldn’t be because we lost. It should be the best Tuesday every week because that’s all we’ve got. We’ve got today, and we’re hoping for Saturday. It’s just a mindset with these young people. There was just some distractions, there were a lot of distractions during the week, and I stole the quote from Coach [Dabo] Swinney that he would always say, which is very, very relevant. I think it’s relevant to anybody that’s trying to do something special is you’ve got to starve the distractions and feed the focus. You’ve got to starve your distractions, and I noticed some distractions during the game. Guys were more interested in talking trash than winning between the whistles and winning the play.
Those are things that I’ve got to make sure that I police and I point out and I correct because that right there is not what’s going to win. What’s going to win is you fighting for six seconds when that ball is snapped until the whistle is blown, not after and in between plays.
Q. You challenged this receiving group a lot in the preseason. I know that’s your background, too. What is the message to these guys after two games where they haven’t found a flow, especially a guy like Dontayvion Wicks, who comes in, as you say, one of the most talented guys you’ve worked with?
TONY ELLIOTT: The message is this isn’t last year. Those plays don’t carry over to this season. We’ve got to focus on what we have right here. Yes, it’s new, but just embrace. Embrace the opportunity to grow and be developed and just trust. I’m not a guy, and y’all are getting to know me, but I don’t like to talk about things that I’ve done and accomplished. But just illustrating to those guys, fellas, I can help you, alongside your coach, just as Marques [Hagans] can help you. Just let us coach you. Let us make you better. Let’s not worry about what happened last year; let’s focus on today and let’s focus on going forward. That’s a transition for any player that’s accomplished. Brennan, too, I’m on Brennan every single day about his body language, about his leadership, about communicating with your wide receivers. This isn’t last year. We’re not freelancing as much. I want you to make a play, but these guys need to be where they’re supposed to be, and these guys up front got to protect you and give you the time to do it.
Q. Xavier Brown got extended work in the game the other day. Was that mainly because it just wasn’t clicking for Perris and Mike [Hollins], or has he been making a move in practice?
TONY ELLIOTT: He’s a guy that he knows one speed, and I love the way that Xavier practices. Because he’s full speed all the time, it allows him to play bigger than what he actually is. He has shown that the lights aren’t too bright. You often worry about freshmen that do well in practice, you throw them in the game, it’s moving a little bit faster, are the lights too big. But he’s shown that the lights aren’t too big, and when you’re doing it by committee, you try to find the hot hand, and he was finding a little bit.
Perris diving his eyes in there and doing enough, but we needed him to do more. We needed him to be what he’s capable of being. Mike I thought probably played the best out of all of them collectively in all that he did. So by committee, it’s going to be the guy that gets the hot hand. But he’s proving it in practice and he’s proving in the game that he’s a guy we can count on.
Q. A couple questions about coming back home this weekend. Why did you want to sing the “Good Old Song”? Why did you want to start that tradition here at Virginia?
TONY ELLIOTT: Just paying respect and paying tribute and honoring the institution that we play for and just showing pride and pageantry and all the things that I think are special about college football, and giving our guys – I want them, part of my vision for them is, to have a great appreciation for the experience that they have here at UVA. So you need to know the “Good Old Song.” I think everybody needs to know the “Good Old Song” because this is a part of you. Then also paying tribute to the fans, and just everybody that supports us. But more so to create a sense of pride in what we play for and giving these guys things that they can believe in, that makes their experience special, that will add that extra fuel and that extra fire for them to go that extra mile to be the best version of themselves.
Q. What did you like about the atmosphere of Scott Stadium in that home opener, and you mentioned after the game against Richmond that you noticed some of the empty seats, too. What needs to improve?
TONY ELLIOTT: I think we’re building a program, and I know there’s a lot of people that are waiting to see what we’re all about, but also, too, I know that we’re all – everybody is important. Everybody’s role is critical. These young men, they love energy. They love excitement. They’re modern-day gladiators, so to speak, and they love the roar of the crowd. It creates a feeling that’s hard to describe unless you’ve been down on the grass in the arena, so to speak.
I liked the fact that the students showed up. Need them to stay the whole time. I would like those folks that love Virginia football to not come when things are going good, but man, show these young men that you support them regardless because that’s what being a fan is. Man, you’re there with us, thick and thin, good and bad. That’s why we’re going to sing the “Good Old Song,” and that’s why we’re going to do the things within the program to represent you the best that we can, because we have respect for that.
So we understand the relationship, that it’s twofold. That’s why I want to see the stadium full, because I know, and these players know, that when Scott is rocking, it can be a heck of a place to play for us but then also a hard place for other people to come play. But I think we’ve all got to understand that every role is critical, and that’s why I challenge the fans, and you know what, I understand that everybody has an opinion, everybody has their likes and dislikes, but man, we’re in this thing together, and we need the fans there. We need, because there’s going to be – you’re dealing with 18- to 22-year olds. They need every encouragement that they can get to continue because football is hard. Man, football is hard. It’s a hard sport. There’s a lot that goes into it. A lot of the motivation is man, you want to perform. You want to perform well for the crowd, and you look forward to that.
That’s why I said what I said after the game last week. Not a knock on anything, but hey, I know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to earn those seats. But also, too, there’s also some responsibility on that side, too, man, to show up and create an atmosphere for these guys so that they can play well for you.
Q. Do you have an update on [Daniel] Sparks?
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, he’s doing good, so we’re hopeful that we’ll get him this week.
Q. This is the last non-conference game until November. What’s your nonconference scheduling philosophy? Do you like what Virginia is doing right now? Would you like to see things change?
TONY ELLIOTT: I feel like, man, you’ve got to play games. You’ve got to play people. They asked me if we wanted to open with Tennessee. I said heck yeah. I’m building a program, so I need to know where we’re at. We’ll find out where we are respectively within the conference, but on the national stage, and I understand that there’s probably a couple games that we’re not ready for right now, but I want to build to that. But I think in order to get to those type of games, then you’ve got to play those nonconference games.
I was asked about JMU. Man, we’ve got to play JMU. That’s in state, and we’ve got to play JMU. Philosophy-wise, if we’re going to get to where we need to be, we need to play those games, and I think it’s good for the state when we play those games. It’s good for us in recruiting, it’s good for them in recruiting, it’s good for the state when we play all the different teams within the state.
Q. A couple on the demeanor of the guys Saturday. Did you like the sideline, the energy, or was that …
TONY ELLIOTT: Yeah, that needs to improve. It was – unless you’ve been in one of those situations – here’s what I told them. I said, fellas, first and foremost, part of our problem, especially on the offense, is we thought this couldn’t happen to us. This can happen to anybody in football. I’ve been on the other side in College Football Playoff games where it was 31-0, 30-3 on the biggest stage, on the other side, and then I’ve been on the side where you get your butt kicked by Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and just like get beat up. It can happen. First, we’ve got to be humble and understand that this can happen, and then we’ve got to learn from it.
But what I didn’t like is the guys just had a look, and it’s one of those things as a coach, you’re like, man, I’m trying to say whatever I can say, I’m trying to holler, I’m trying to talk quiet, I’m trying to pull everything that I can, and you just can’t pull those guys out of it. What it’s going to take, it’s going to take one of their teammates. It’s going to take one of their teammates going in there and saying, fellas, hey, we’re going to get out of this thing. I’m going to put my back; y’all just follow me. Unfortunately, KT [Keytaon Thompson] was the only one that was trying to do that. I kept trying to urge Brennan, man, Brennan, go in there and talk to your guys. Go in there and talk to your guys. Go in there and talk to them. And he would try, but then he wouldn’t have success on the field, so now he’s struggling.
Defensively, didn’t have that problem. Even defensively they were coming off the field encouraging the offense saying, man, we’ve got you. We’ve got you. So I just need that type of demeanor to spread to everybody. I think that you’ll see that going forward because sometimes you’ve just got to go through it to learn, and I told them, too, I said, hey, fellas, the wise man, he learns from other people’s mistakes, and I illustrated some things – as a matter of fact, we talked about the LSU fumble on the punt return, and I told them especially, he was trying to do too much. The game was in a situation he was trying to do too much. Then what happens? We have a young man that is trying to do too much. Yes, I need you to make a play, but I don’t need you to force a play. The play that I need you to make in that situation is you slip, you’re on the 10-yard line, fair catch the ball. Things are off. It’s already off. Just fair catch the ball. Okay, now you put yourself in an even worse position and you added to it, and you turned around backwards. He’s just trying to make a play, but that’s not the play that I need you to make.
So in practice I need you to have the right focus and demeanor and attention to detail that when we work on it, when we work on the drill where your heels are on the 10, you’re taking a game rep, and you’re not just going through the motions and I got this. That’s where when you think you’ve got it, and I’m not saying that was Billy’s [Kemp] case, but just the mentality, when you think you’ve got it, you’re going to be humbled, you’re going to be exposed, because guess what, you’re practicing a bad habit. It’s going to show up at the most inopportune time. Fentrell Cypress, trying to make a play. Kid is trying to make a play. Probably hadn’t touched the ball in who knows how many years, just trying to make a play. But I don’t need you to make that play; that’s not the play I need you to make. I need you to down the ball in the end zone, put the ball on the 20. Let’s say we have the same outcome, now we flip the field, and Lavel [Davis] is in the red zone. That’s points.
It’s a lot of teaching opportunities for the guys. Unfortunately, they had to go through those situations, and hopefully now when I say, fellas, let’s learn from other people’s mistakes, and I point it out, maybe their antennas go up a little bit higher and they’ve got a little bit more sense of urgency to say, you know what, I want to learn from somebody else’s mistakes and not the hard way.
Q. Sticking with that, going through to learn things, you were very candid in here Monday about probably should have gone for it more going into the half. Anything in this game that comes up and you say to yourself, man, that’s a good one to put in my notes to change going forward?
TONY ELLIOTT: You know, the only thing is there at the end, I was a little hesitant on the 4th-and-6 after the penalty, but I was like, man, I’ve got to show these guys I’m trying to win the game. We’ve got to do whatever we can and try and illustrate to these guys that we’re winning the game. Not as many situations as from the first game. I corrected myself, and I delegated the note taking to somebody to bring me the notes so I could be more focused in the game. I was trying to do too much in the first game, first time out, and just thinking I’m superman, so I had to humble myself a little bit and realized that I’ve got to get myself in a better position to help the team.
We had a couple of substitution issues with multiple numbers on the field. We should have been flagged for it twice. One was a teachable moment. We had somebody sub themselves. So we subbed somebody; we subbed Perris for Wicks. Then Nick Jackson needs a blow so he subs himself. Well, his backup is [Stevie] Bracey, so now we’ve got two No. 2s on the field. That’s something that we’ve got to learn and get better from. But situationally, I don’t know if there’s anything like the first game where I felt like I needed to do something different. I think this was a game where you’re just trying to figure out what can you do to try and help these guys.
But defensively, though, situationally, challenging those guys, man, we’ve got to take advantage of field position. Man, this is two weeks in a row where we’ve had them backed up inside the five and we miss a tackle. That was the difference in the game if you watch it. When we threw the quick game, 31 tackled us. He got us on the ground. They throw a ball, spot screen at the line of scrimmage it’s 2nd-and-9, we make that tackle, three-yard gain, we’re sitting at 3rd-and-6 backed up. That’s great field position. We miss a tackle, we pop it out. So those are the things situationally, right, okay, hey, in that case right there, just come to balance. Know where your help is. If you watch the angle – that’s what I asked Fentrell: Where’s your help? Help is back inside. What angle did you take? I took an inside angle. See, situationally and just those are the things that we’re going to get better from going through this experience on both sides of the ball.
Q. Who’s taking notes for you?
TONY ELLIOTT: Oh, Coach [Carroll] McCray. So [Director of Player Development] Coach McCray is taking my notes for me for the drives, and illustrated what I wanted to know, just trying to keep me to be able to speak big picture with the guys, so he’s taking my notes, and he’ll come to me during different timeouts, TV timeouts, things of that nature, just to help me out.
LOL