Opening Statement
“I think we’re excited to get back home and play a ranked opponent who is playing really good in Virginia. Definitely a team that has played really good football through five games. They’re
talented. They’ve been battle-tested. They’ve gotten better each and every year. Our last two years against them, we’ve had to come from behind in both games to find a way to win. This team is playing very sharp and very crisp. We’ll have our work cut out for us. We definitely have to improve in some key areas, work hard to get better this week, get guys as healthy as we can, get ready to go out and try to find a way to win. But I do think our guys did a great job of working hard, playing tough, playing to the end, showing grit and toughness in the last game. As we say behind closed doors, we’re going to have to do that every game, especially in conference games, if you want to find a way to win. That’s just how football works. We have to continue to improve on some things, but show toughness every game until the very end and hope that we’re winning when the game is over.”
(On Virginia Quarterback Chandler Morris)
“He’s played very well. He has the ability to run and he scored numerous touchdowns with his feet and extended plays. Those guys are hard to defend. We will have our work cut out for us. We will have to take away their passing game and do as good of a job as we can with that. They’ll mix in some downhill runs. Him getting on the edge in the perimeter has gotten them some key touchdowns in key situations. He can extend and make a play as well. He’s played football at a lot of different places. His dad was a coach, so he’s smart. We’ll have to play really good on defense in order to find a way to stop him and the offense.”
(On key areas he wants to improve on)
“There’s a lot. I think we’ve got to make sure we try to clean up these penalties that we’ve been getting, especially 15-yarders. On both sides of the ball, we’ve got to make sure we’re not getting as many holding calls as we’ve gotten, which has been something that has got to get clean – that’s one. I think we’ve got to find ways to run the football. If that means being a little more creative in what we’re doing, [then] whatever we’ve got to do, but no matter what, we have got to do a good job there. I think we can play better up front, I think we can block better, and I think we’ve got to be able to react to movement up front, and blitzes, and people playing downhill a little bit better. We’ve got to work hard this week to make sure we do that. Defensively, I knew we would be tested, and I think we gave up some big pass plays over our head. [It’s] really in man-to-man coverage where we’ve got to do a good job of staying on top, and we talk about it all the time, but we just have not been run by like we were the last game a couple times. But, we improved and did a really good job in the second half. I think special teams has been pretty solid – we’ve had multiple penalties on special teams, so that can’t happen – but I think there are some small areas that we have got to really clean up and sharpen up in order to be more efficient playing the game.”
(On Miller Moss’ play)
“I think Miller is an accurate passer. He can deliver the ball on time if we’re spacing things out for him and getting guys in the right spots. I think certain guys are good at play action, certain guys are good at pushing up the field. I don’t want to give you all the secrets, but I think if you get guys open quickly for him, he can put the ball on them very accurately and do good things. We’ve just got to continue to work through a few things and make sure that we’re doing what he does best while continuing to develop some other things and sharpen it up. He played tough. He hung in there, and he did what he had to do as a quarterback, which is the most important thing, and that is to just keep playing. You’re going to make a mistake every now and then – of course he locked in on a receiver on the interception, which we had a guy underneath that he could have easily thrown to, but it happened. He has got to have a little more patience early on in the pocket and sit in there and stand firm. There’s a lot of little things, but it falls on the whole team even when we’re doing well and not doing as well. Yes, he can sharpen things up and we will work hard this week to do that, but he got in a good rhythm in the second half and did a good job.”
(On how the comeback can strengthen the team going forward)
“I do think that (coming back) is the strength of our team and has been. We talk about it; it’s communicated quite a bit about what we believe the game is about and how it’s supposed to be played. You’re going to get the ball 10 to 12 times a game and what you do with it will determine whether you win or lose. So, you’re going to have some good moments and some that aren’t as good and that’s going to happen when you go against good teams. You like to say that we’re going to dominate and win every rep and out coach and out play them, but they got good coaches and good players too. So you just have to find a way to do it a little bit more than they do and realize that there will be a little bit of a back and forth, there will be some momentum swings. But you can’t give in and you got to play to the end you got to compete and play hard, stick together you can’t point fingers. You just got to play till the end and hope, like I said, at the end the scoreboard is in our favor. But as soon as you give in, or second guess, or doubt, or start to get angry and upset too much instead of locking in and focusing in, you’re not going to win the game. So I credit our team and our coaches. We definitely had the mental toughness to just keep playing. We’ve shown it before last year in a couple games. We’ve had multiple games in the history here that we’ve been down and you just got to play till the end. So, I think our guys understand that pretty well and you hope we continue to have that same mental toughness because sometimes it’s hard and it’s not easy, but you got to communicate it and look each other in the eye and let each other know that we’re going to play this thing till the end and keep on playing. And hopefully the momentum swings to your side.”
(On His awareness of the weekly polls)
“Well, I haven’t looked at it a whole lot. Of course, who you play and their record and all that and how you finished the year before; all that factors into it. And, it is what it is. I think that in the end, for us, we’ll be judged how we do at the end of the season. And there’ll be some judgement passed in between then which is normal, common, and ok. But you got to play to the end; not just the game but the end of the season. You have to be able to handle wins and losses. You look at the [2024-25 Ohio State Buckeyes], they had 2 losses. So yes, you don’t want to lose and you’re going to work hard to not let it happen, but if it does, you got to be able to circle the wagons and improve and dig down deep and find a way to win the next one. At the same time, when you do win, if you let off the gas or if you think you don’t have to really grind it out this week, you’re not going to win the next week. So all those things can happen, and you have to mentally talk and communicate “hey, understand that this is where we’re at” and just hope that we can win one game at a time. We got a really good opponent that is hot and is coming into our stadium and they’ve played us extremely tight the last 2 years and they had a lead on us in the 4th quarter both times. So, they know how to play football and they know how to coach and right now they are playing very confidently and we got to be as efficient as we can and come into this game swinging and see if we can pull it out after 4 quarters.”
(On Chris Bell’s performance)
“Well, he did step up and he showed toughness, and he showed stamina, he played hard to the end. We had a lot of snaps compared to them, I think we had [85], they had [55]. That’s a lot of plays to go full speed and he’s getting pressed the entire time. There were a couple of times where, man you have got to find a way to make that play, but after that he stepped up and made a ton of plays. I just think at the receiver position, we have some other receivers, we need to be able spell them a little bit and keep them sharp. But at the same time when you’re in there, you have to know; I have to go full speed, I have to be physical, I have to run my route hard and I don’t know when that ball is coming to me, but it is, and I have to be ready to make that happen. He definitely stepped up and made a ton of plays for us. The passing game got going when we had to throw the ball more in the second half and that’s why you have to be able to do both, you have to be able to run the ball and you have to be able to pass the ball. You never know when you’re going to need one-or-the-other, so it was good to kind of get that going at the end. He definitely made some strong catches, he has a strong body, he can body them off and bring the pass in, then he can get yards after the catch. So just like him and Caullin, and even some of the receivers that are coming on, all of them are going to have to play a role and make some key catches. If teams are taking away the run, which easily they can at this level, in the NFL you see it all the time if a team wants to stop the run, they can stop the run. You have to be able to throw the ball, once again there are other situations, where you have to mix in the run and pop off some yards. But Chris did a really good job.”
(Virginia’s defense compared to last year)
“They are very similar in style and structure. They have done a good job on defense over the years, at times. They have good players, you can see they believe in what they are doing, and they feel comfortable in the package. They have an offense that helps them, that controls the ball, they have a running quarterback, who can run and throw it and score points. All that ties together, when their offense is playing well, it’s going to make the defense look better. They are playing very good as a team, extremely well, very efficient, not hurting themselves, making a lot of big plays on both sides of the ball. Right now they are a dangerous team”
