Virginia head coach Tony Elliott previews the UVA game at Syracuse.
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00:00 Yeah, I figured that question was coming.
00:01 I didn't know if it was going to be the lead question,
00:04 considering the experiences that I've been a part of going up
00:07 to Syracuse.
00:10 Definitely, they create a home-field advantage.
00:13 They do a great job.
00:16 Regardless of the size of the crowd,
00:18 they find a way to make it loud in there.
00:21 The guys, in my experience, they always play tough at home.
00:25 You got to go in, and you got to take it from them.
00:28 So my plan is to show the guys the dome,
00:32 because I asked a lot of the guys on the team
00:34 if anybody had been there, and there were very few hands
00:37 that have gone up.
00:37 So I think it'd be important to get them there,
00:40 kind of learn from Illinois.
00:43 The schedule was a little bit different,
00:44 but I wanted to make sure that we have some time for those guys
00:47 to go in, see it, see the locker room, walk around
00:51 the field, see the new ceiling that they put in for guys that
00:55 are going to be catching balls and lights.
00:58 So we're definitely going to get there early so those guys can
01:00 see the carrier dome.
01:03 We're obviously going to chase the storyline all the way
01:06 to Coach and I and Coach Beck, and then
01:08 they go in against their former pupils.
01:10 From a football standpoint, is there any value
01:13 to having players and coaches who know them?
01:16 Did you change the schedule all to sit for a half hour,
01:19 or is that overrated?
01:21 To be honest with you, I'm not--
01:23 I haven't been following the storyline.
01:25 I don't know what the storyline is.
01:26 The only challenge that I had to my guys,
01:28 because they do have relationships
01:30 with those individuals, is let's not make it bigger
01:34 than what it needs to be.
01:35 It's all about the game.
01:37 Let's focus on what we can control.
01:39 But I'm not adjusting the schedule.
01:41 I'm not trying to get any additional information
01:45 or do anything different.
01:47 Because the key is we've got to get into a routine.
01:49 And I think as we go forward, the guys
01:53 will become better at understanding the battle
01:55 rhythm that it takes to be successful.
01:57 So I'm not adjusting anything, changing anything,
02:00 doing anything different, other than the short week
02:03 causes me to possibly change up just a little bit,
02:05 because you lose a whole day of preparation.
02:08 But more importantly, you lose a whole day of rest.
02:10 Because for me, it's all about the game week.
02:13 And so if we're playing a day earlier,
02:15 then that means that Sunday we lost.
02:18 So in essence, today is, I guess, physically Tuesday.
02:22 It's really Tuesday.
02:23 From my mind, it's Wednesday.
02:24 We just finished our Wednesday practice.
02:26 And tomorrow is Thursday, and then we travel.
02:29 So that's been a change in the schedule,
02:31 more so than anything, and being mindful of the guys
02:34 and how many snaps that they play.
02:35 And you play on Saturday, and then you turn around
02:38 and you've got to do some type of practice on Sunday.
02:40 That's a little bit different for them.
02:42 So your cues on the defensive side
02:44 are pretty creative and deceptive
02:46 when it comes to their blitzes.
02:47 What's the biggest challenge when you face something
02:49 like that?
02:51 So my message to the guys on offense
02:54 is, one, we got to be poised.
02:56 Two, we got to be disciplined.
02:58 And then we got to make sure that we capitalize
03:01 when we can capitalize.
03:02 Because if you win a 10-play drive with what
03:05 they do on defense, you can see 10 different fronts.
03:08 You can see 10 different fronts.
03:09 You can see a different assortment of blitzes.
03:11 Man, they got guys all over the place.
03:13 And so they're going to have to really--
03:15 our guys are really going to have to trust their training
03:18 and communicate.
03:19 And they're going to make it difficult to communicate,
03:21 because of how loud it gets in there.
03:23 And so it's always a challenge.
03:25 They do a great job.
03:26 And they're good coaches.
03:28 And what they do is they give their guys a chance.
03:30 Because if you look at their roster defensively,
03:33 they got a lot of young guys.
03:34 And they got guys that they're developing.
03:36 And so the guys may not be the size that they want them.
03:39 So then they have to put them in positions
03:41 to make plays while they're trying to develop them.
03:43 So they're, I would say, all over the place.
03:46 They have a rhyme and reason.
03:47 It's hard for you on this side to figure out
03:50 what that rhyme and reason is.
03:51 But our guys are just going to have to be disciplined.
03:53 Because they're going to see odd fronts.
03:55 They're going to see bare fronts.
03:56 They're going to see okey fronts.
03:57 They're going to see four-down fronts.
03:59 They're going to see all the different variations
04:00 through your stack.
04:01 They do it all.
04:02 I don't know how they have enough time to coach all of it,
04:04 to be honest with you.