By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Head coach Tony Elliott has been quick to take responsibility for Virginia’s one-sided loss at Florida State. He did so in his press conference after the game Saturday night at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla., and then again when the Cavaliers reconvened Monday at the Hardie Center.
To his team, “the first thing I wanted to address is that the ownership starts with me,” Elliott told reporters Tuesday during his weekly press conference.
“I had them ready to start the game and play well early. I didn't have them ready to finish the game, and that's on me. And I let them know that I let them down and I'll be better. So just understand that this starts with Coach Elliott. And so I'm not going to blame anybody. I'm not going to blame any players.”
His players, however, know they could have done more in Tallahassee.
“I would just say that we already had this conversation as a leadership group that we’ve got to step up as leaders,” fifth-year offensive tackle McKale Boley said Tuesday. “I feel like we’ve got to do a better job of leading this team and preparing the team. My coach, he's going to come in here and say that he's got to have the team prepared. But we were prepared. It’s on the leadership to make sure the guys are locked in and focused on the game.”
As they near the midpoint of the regular season, the Wahoos are 3-2 overall and 1-1 in ACC play. In each of their losses—38-27 to West Virginia and 38-7 to Florida State—the Hoos led early but were unable to regain momentum when their opponent struck back.
“I think the biggest thing is handling success,” Elliott said. “And so when you do have success early in the game, you’ve still got to go back to [having] a 0-0 mindset. And I think also this group from a leadership standpoint is still figuring out who's going to be the guy. I think there was a little bit of kind of looking around to see who's going to go make a play instead of just going to make the play."
The Hoos have looked decisive and confident early in games, "and we’ve just got to maintain that mindset," Elliott said. "So I’ve got to do a better job of not just having them ready to start the game, but handle the adversity in-game to be able to persevere and just keep playing one play at a time.”
Against WVU, Virginia gave up 17 straight points in the second half before scoring a late touchdown. Against FSU, Virginia allowed 38 unanswered points after scoring the game’s first TD.
“We didn't play well enough to be able to win that game,” Elliott said of his team’s most recent loss, “and then the longer it went on, the worse it kind of got. We weren't able to stop the bleeding, but we came [back to Charlottesville] and hopefully we did a little surgery. We sewed up the wounds and we can go back to being who we are and what we're capable of.”
Game 6 - 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 #GoHoos 🔶⚔️🔷 https://t.co/F1A5GJN5BP
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) October 5, 2026
Next up for UVA is its annual Homecomings game. At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Virginia takes on Syracuse (2-2, 1-1) at Scott Stadium.
“We’ve got a ton of football left,” Elliott said, “and if we play how we're capable of playing, I think we can win every game on our schedule. And if that were to happen, I think we would love the result in the end. So that's what our focus is.”
On the trip home from Tallahassee, team members began processing the loss to FSU “and trying to figure out what happened, what we’ve got to do,” Elliott said. “And then by the time they showed up in here on Monday, they were eager to go back to work, because they do understand that the only way that you're going to get better is to go back to work and take ownership of the things that you can control. And that's what I’ve got to do a better job of, helping them understand what it is that they control and can control it so that we can go out and put together four quarters. You’ve seen at times what this team is capable of, and so my job is to make sure that I'm leading the right way so that we can reach our potential week in and week out and ... play to a standard for 60 minutes and not just the first quarter or the fourth quarter or half of the second quarter.”
No one in the program is panicking, Elliott said, but he understands that he’s in “a what-have-you-done-for me-lately business. We're only as good as our last performance. So we're going to own it, and we’re going to go get better. But the beautiful thing is, Lord willing, we wake up on Saturday morning and we’ve got an opportunity to change that and go back to work.”
The coaching staff’s job is to provide the players with answers, Elliott said, “and then once they get the answers, they’ve got to go take it and they’ve got to go do it. And that's what I believe will happen with this football team.”