Hoos Seeking Late-Game Improvement

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — At the end of the final practice of training camp last month, University of Virginia head coach Tony Elliott delivered a painful reminder to his team.

“We know what it takes to get the game to the fourth quarter,” Elliott said, “but that’s not enough.”

UVA finished 3-9 in 2023, its second season under Elliott. Had the Cavaliers performed better late in games, their record might well have been significantly better. Fourth-quarter collapses against JMU, Maryland and Louisville led to defeats for the Wahoos, and then there was the Boston College game.

In Chestnut Hill, Mass., the score was 24-24 with four minutes left, but BC made key plays late and pulled out a 27-24 victory. Of the Cavaliers’ losses last season, five were by seven points or fewer.

At his weekly press conference Tuesday at the new Hardie Football Operations Center, Elliott said the coaching staff emphasizes the importance of starting games fast, playing well late in the “middle eight”—the final four minutes of the second quarter and the first four minutes of the third quarter—and then finishing strong in the fourth quarter.

“The biggest thing is, it’s a mindset,” Elliott said. “It’s a mindset, and then capturing those moments in practice. So if you were at practice today, it was a big emphasis in the last few periods of practice to emphasize the fourth quarter, making them mindful that this is where it’s not just we put our four fingers up in the air and we play a video; it’s a mindset.

“It’s a mentality and an understanding that this is where we have to have our best focus, our best attention to detail. That’s difficult because you’ve been playing now for probably two hours and 45 minutes. You’re 60 plays into the game, your body is starting to hurt, you kind of can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The fans have been there for a while so you might not be maybe not getting as much energy from the environment. You have to create that yourself. So it’s a mindset more so than anything, and that’s been a big point of emphasis for us, transitioning that mindset, so that when we get to the fourth quarter, that’s when we’re at our best.”

In their season opener last weekend at Scott Stadium, the Cavaliers didn’t dominate in the fourth quarter, but they didn’t need to. They led Richmond 34-10 and ended up winning 34-13. Their league games are likely to be closer, starting Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Of the Hoos’ past 12 conference games, nine have been decided by seven points or fewer.

In the ACC opener for both teams, Virginia meets Wake Forest (1-0) at 7 p.m. in a game to air on ESPN2. Like UVA, Wake kicked off the season against an FCS opponent, defeating North Carolina A&T 45-13 in Winston-Salem.

The Demon Deacons, under longtime head coach Dave Clawson, have enjoyed success with a slow-mesh offense in which the quarterback has the option of handing off, passing or keeping the ball himself.

It’s an unconventional system at which Elliott, who worked on the offensive side as an assistant coach, marvels.

“Coaching running backs, it’s like, how do you train the running back to be so slow, because they literally skip and walk,” Elliott said. “I’ve never seen anything like it, but they’re phenomenal at it. And they’ve perfected it. But you’ve got to be able to have the run accounted for and then you have to make sure that you’re disciplined to stay in position so you don’t give them the big windows on the back end when the quarterback pulls it back to throw it.

“Really, you want to force the quarterback to become a runner. That’s probably the option that you want the most because the backs, they do a really good job, they’re slow, slow, [but] once they get the ball, pump, they’re gone. And they can find the creases. They hide in between those big offensive linemen, you can’t find them, and they spit out.”

An opponent that runs the triple option might necessitate more drastic changes defensively, but the Deacons “do force you to be assignment-sound like [against] an option offense,” Elliott said.

Wake’s weapons include tailback Demond Claiborne, a 5-foot-10, 200-pound junior who carried 17 times for 135 yards and one touchdown against North Carolina A&T. Claiborne, a former UVA recruiting target, starred at King William High School outside Richmond.

“He’s very, very patient and explosive,” Elliott said, “and he runs bigger than his listed size. So he’s a violent guy. He’s got really, really good feet, explosive. And then he can finish runs. They do a good job out of the backfield too of getting those guys involved and getting the ball out of the backfield.”

BIG OPPORTUNITY: A win Saturday night would improve UVA to 2-0 for only the third time in the past decade. The Hoos haven’t won their ACC opener since 2020, when they defeated Duke 38-20, so a victory over Wake would be meaningful for his program, said Elliott, who has immense respect for his counterpart.

Under Clawson, the Deacons won seven games in 2016 and 2018, eight games in 2017, 2019 and 2022, and 11 games in 2021.

“So for us I think it’s a program type of game,” Elliott said, “because we get to evaluate where we are. They play extremely hard. They’re very, very well-coached. The guys have a lot of confidence. They understand the identity of who they are, and those are all things that we’re trying to establish here.”

The Cavaliers want to “treat every game like it’s the most important game,” Elliott said, “but also we understand the importance of winning the ACC opener, and it would be awesome for us to be able to play our best game on the road against a very good football team. I think when you watch [the Deacons] on tape, they’re much better than where a lot of people have predicted them within our league. They return a lot of veteran guys on their defensive front and their offensive front. I know they’re working out the quarterback situation with a couple of older guys, but the older guys are experienced. This is a very experienced football team. They play complementary football in all three phases. It will be a good test from a program standpoint, in addition to being the ACC opener.”

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Asked to assess the play of Virginia’s defensive linemen against Richmond, Elliott said, “I thought they pushed the pocket better interior-wise, and we were getting close [to the quarterback], but not close enough. So we’re going to have to be much more disruptive. We’ve got to find a way to get to the quarterback when they do drop back.”

The lack of a productive pass rush hurt the Cavaliers in 2023. Elliott saw progress in that area against the Spiders but said he’s “still challenging the guys on the defensive front. And then this week, the game is going to be won in the trenches. Just flat-out it’s going to be won in the trenches, because in order to slow down their rushing attack offensively, you’ve got to create a new line of scrimmage. Their objective is to kind of create a stalemate at the line of scrimmage … They want to create a stalemate with no penetration and let the quarterback make the decision, and the back hides and spits out wherever he can find a crease.”

IDEAL FIT: Dakota Twitty, who had two receptions for 17 yards against Richmond, appears to have found a home at tight end for Virginia. He switched to that position from wide receiver during spring practice this year, largely because the Cavaliers were extremely short-handed there.

“We went into it saying, ‘We’ll give this a look this spring and kind of see where it goes, but this isn’t necessarily a permanent move. If you want to go back out to wideout, you can,’ ” Elliott said.

A 6-foot-4, 239-pound junior, Twitty proved to be quick study at his new position and decided to stay there. He’s in a rotation at tight end with Tyler Neville, Sackett Woo and Sage Ennis.

“I’m excited for him,” Elliott said. “He’s just the epitome of perseverance in the way that he battled to be in that position.”

Injuries slowed Twitty for most of his first two years in the Hoos’ program, but he’s healthy now and brings “a different skill set to that room,” Elliott said, “which we like. It gives us versatility at the tight end position, because we have four guys that we can roll in there. They’ve all got a little different skill set. We can be in 12 personnel and have the effectiveness in the run game with certain guys in there, and then from 12 personnel we can also spread out and create the matchups that we want.

“I’m excited for Twitty. He is just only going to get better the more time he spends at the position.”

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