<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2nPSwM_0vOjbvVb00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2nPSwM_0vOjbvVb00" width="906" height="474" >Virginia head coach Tony Elliott spoke to the media after beating Wake Forest 31-30 moving to 2-0 on the year. WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Earlier this week <a href="https://247sports.com/college/virginia/">Virginia</a> football coach <a href="https://247sports.com/Coach/tony-elliott-1265/">Tony Elliott</a> said this <a href="https://247sports.com/college/wake-forest/">Wake Forest</a> game would a 'great test' from a program standpoint. The Cavaliers passed. Virginia entered the fourth quarter trailing by 13 points to Wake Forest but continued to fight. UVA quarterback Anthony Colandrea shrugged off two picks in the game to lead the 'Hoos back, throwing a 24-yard touchdown to <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/trell-harris-46115347/">Trell Harris</a> to trim the Deacons' lad to seven. The defense than followed that up with a key stop on fourth down with a sack by Trey McDonald. The 'Hoos rallied with a 12-play drive that ended with a touchdown run by <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/grady-brosterhous-46143472/">Grady Brosterhous</a> to give UVA the first lead of the game 31-30 with two minutes to go. UVa entered the fourth quarter trailing the Demon Deacons by 13 points, but the deficit didn't deter them.<a href="https://247sports.com/Player/malcolm-greene-46055228/">Malcolm Greene</a> forced a fumble and <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/antonio-clary-46037873/">Antonio Clary</a> recovered to seal the win for the Cavaliers. UVa is 2-0 for the first time in Elliott's three seasons as coach with the 'Hoos winning their first ACC opener since 2020. After the game Elliott called this a 'program win.'"I got the utmost respect for Coach Clawson, and I've had a chance over the last three years to get to know him on a more personal level. When you look at what he's done with the Wake Forest program, man, he's built one of the best programs, in my opinion, in the ACC - when you talk about in totality," explained Elliott. "And so I felt like it was an opportunity to see where we were relative to this because he's been there for a while, and he's kind of built the program to where it is. So I felt like it was a program win from that perspective. " And It's one of our team goals, right? Our second team goal is to win the ACC opener. And as a staff, we hadn't done that prior to tonight. And then it was an opportunity for a Virginia team to start 2-0 - that's only happened two times, other than than this year, since 2013 right? So there was so many opportunities for us to to kind of take the next step.. so that's why I said it was a program win for us." Here is everything Elliott had to say after the comeback win. Talked a lot about competitive stamina and the importance of playing four quarters and closing games out.. did y0u see it tonight, how do you define it? Competitive stamina for us, the way we did define it, is competing to a standard regardless of the circumstance. And we knew there was a ton of opportunity from a program standpoint, but that shouldn't be the main motivation for us. It's just truly an appreciation to compete. And then who cares what the circumstances are? Who cares what the score is at halftime? If you're trailing or leading in the fourth quarter, it doesn't matter. You want to compete to a standard every time you have an opportunity to take the field. And hopefully the guys you know are starting to see the fruits of their labor, because they've been working extremely hard. That's a group of guys in that locker room that believe. They believe in each other, and they play for the love of each other, and it was just awesome to see those guys have success.And again to be successful at the level that we want to be successful, you got to win games in the fourth quarter, right? I told them at halftime, the least important thing is to score at halftime, get the game to the fourth quarter, and then go win the game in the fourth quarter. And you know what? They did it. We didn't start the second half the way that we wanted to on defense - defensively, we gave up 10 points right out the gate, and then we have a turnover and a three-and-out. So definitely not the way that we wanted... So the question is, are you going to quit competing? Or you're going to say, 'you know what, regardless of what the circumstances are, the next time I have an opportunity to go out there, I'm going to work towards the standard.What flipped there less than 11 minutes to play when you guys turned it around? To be honest with you, it's going to sound like cliche or simple, but belief, man. The guys believed, right? They believe when we get into the fourth quarter, we're going to go win the fourth quarter. And that's really what it boils down to - how strong is your belief?Because if your belief is strong, then your actions will follow suit. And so what you saw is guys putting their love for their teammates into action, and then it just spread throughout the team - and that's what good football teams do in the fourth quarter. They feed off of each other, but it starts with just an attitude or belief. With Kam Robinson and Corey Thomas injured, Trey McDonald and Malcom Greene came up with big stops in the end. What does it say for your depth, bench? First of all, shout out to T-Mac - we call him T-Mac - got his first career sack... super excited for him. And then Malcolm forced the the turnover there, and Clary recovered it. And I told them at halftime, all right, look, this game is going to come down to somebody making a play. And you know what? It may be somebody that only played one snap in the first half, or it could be somebody that might be your first snap in the game, but you got to be ready to make a play. And you know, both of those guys were ready, and they do an unbelievable job of preparing. Trey had some great reps during fall camp with James [Jackson] being out for a little while, and it came into play tonight. And obviously we don't know the extent of Kam Robinson's injury. He got looked at. They brought him in. They checked him out. He was going to warm up and try to go in the second half. I saw him running around, and then they shut him down.And on the injury note Corey Thomas, we're still waiting to hear.. something in the midsection. We're going to do some more tests before we fully know.But just being ready, right? Being ready and preparing like a starter, and both of those guys do.... and just so happy for them to have success when their number was called. Thoughts on the 'tush push' with Grady Brosterhous in the fourth quarter? We had three shots at it early in the first half, and we came up short. The situation there, we were going to go tush push, and then if we didn't get it, regroup, run some time off the clock. But we were going to do it on one of the fourth downs. When I called time out, and we were going to do it, but then we realized it was a little bit further than we wanted to. But Grady he's had that role the last two years, and it's been beneficial for us, and so I'm just grateful that he responded, because we had an opportunity in the first game, and we didn't convert. So it was the call that was on the sheet and you were in that zone, and it was time to go with it.Malachi Fields made plays but on the final touchdown drive, he drew the pass interference, had those catches. If he doesn't make those catches good chance you don't win the game How has he elevated his game?I think he got a little bit overshadowed last year because of Malik's [Washington] production, but he still was one of the better guys in the ACC. The challenges offseason was for him to go be... make his stake at the best in the league, and he's played unbelievable the last two weeks, and made some huge plays. And another career high for him, I think he had 11 for 148 that's a career high for him.That's just guys giving everything that they have for the team. So super, super proud of Malachi. On Tyler Neville and his huge role in this game and how does having a productive tight end help It just balances out the field. And with the emergence of Trell [Harris], and then you got Malachi, and [Chris] Tyree's gonna get going - like, we can't forget about Tyree - he's gonna get going.. and now you have a tight end. So then when you go out in 10 personnel sets, if they want to roll coverage over the top of Malachi, they're going to be short on one of those three. The area we got to improve is we got to be more effective running the football. I think that was...and I know Des [Kitchings] tried to get to the run, but it's hard when you're handing it off, and you're not getting quite the push that you need, and you're losing a yard, you're gaining one, you can't stay on schedule. And then when we did have effective runs, man, we offset it with a self imposed penalty. So I think the addition of the tight end, those receivers on the outside, and then when we fully get the run game established, I think it creates stress on defenses. And, you know, super proud of Jack Witmer.Let's talk about Jack Witmer. He was a guy that came to UVA as a tight end, and now he started two games in the ACC at left tackle - and we're not talking about him, right? That means he's done his job.So, man, super proud of Jack filling in for McKale Boley, and hopefully Boley will be back here here pretty soon - hoping he'll be ready to go this week - but just shout out to Jack because that came in huge, especially versus that defensive front.And also want to give some love to the guys up front. Man, they they've been challenged, and they came up with six sacks, which is something that we didn't do last year, getting to the quarterback. Hopefully this will continue to build our confidence because we're going to need those guys putting pressure on the opposing quarterbacks for us to be successful.The whole team showed fight, but Anthony Colandrea, after that first pick the very next drive, responded with a touchdown. How much have you seen his growth, and what did you see from him on the sideline? Yeah, so with AC, he showed up with that. I'm not going to try and take credit saying that we pushed a button. He just showed up with that tenacity and that toughness and that grit and the competitiveness.Where the growth is being able to channel it and transition a little bit quicker - not getting caught up so much and in that aspect of being able to lock in play after play. He had a 77% completion percentage - that's back to back weeks where he's had very high completion percentages. And then he responded to two interceptions there in the game... he didn't blink. I mean, he didn't blink. But I can't say that that's anything we've done coaching wise. That's AC. You spoke about the second half not getting started the way you wanted to - speak a little bit about the mentality of the team on the sideline after that quarter? And I think the mentality was there, coming out of half, like the guys were very engaged, but sometimes things don't manifest the way that you want - not every possession you want, every drive to end in a score. But that's probably unrealistic. And so the key is, how do you respond? And so the guys, man, there was energy on the sideline, a lot of encouragement. Guys weren't turning on each other. They weren't fussing at each other. They were emphatically encouraging each other... 'hey, we're going to go make a play, we're going to get it to the fourth and we're going to find a way to win the game. Six sacks, a lot of them came from the second and third level, was that due to what you felt would work against the slow mesh? You got to do whatever you possibly can to disrupt the mesh. And again hats off to coach Clawson in that system, because they've created their own niche in college football. They're really, really good at it. I mean, it's the darnedest thing - that quarterback is inching inch an inch and closer to the line, and you still can't get to them. But, man, they play hard. They're very well coached, but we had to do whatever we possibly could, because the key is just to be able to create some knock back.... and pressures are more so designed to create some one-on-ones. If you can maybe pull them off the double teams a little bit quicker then you can create some edges and when you create some edges, then you can maybe create some penetration. Want the latest news on Virginia delivered right to your email? <a href="https://247sports.com/college/virginia/distribution/signup/">Subscribe to the Wahoos247 newsletter here</a>. It is free and a great way to get daily updates on Virginia football, basketball, baseball, recruiting, and more delivered straight to your inbox.</div></body>

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'That's a program win:' Everything Virginia head coach Tony Elliott said after win over Wake Forest

Virginia head coach Tony Elliott spoke to the media after beating Wake Forest 31-30 moving to 2-0 on the year. WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Earlier this week Virginia football coach Tony Elliott said this Wake Forest game would a 'great test' from a program standpoint. The Cavaliers passed. Virginia entered the...

'That's a program win:' Everything Virginia head coach Tony Elliott said after win over Wake Forest

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