University of Virginia Head Coach Tony Elliott had his final press conference ahead of the WVU game today. Here is look at some of the things had to say about the matchup.
When asked about what he remembers about playing for Coach Rodriguez at Clemson:
“Rich Rod is intense, very intense, very demanding. Um, fast pace, man. Coach you coached you hard. Loved you just as hard.”
When asked about what elements still exist in Coach Rodriguez offense from Clemson:
“The the tempo piece of it, you know, I think he was ahead of his ahead of all of the other guys from a tempo standpoint. I just remember it was spot the ball and that back on the 25 second play clock we had
to have the ball snap by 19. So we had 6 seconds to get the ball get the ball off once it was made ready for play. So they still go fast run the ball, you know, attack mobile quarterback that’s still very very similar to our style back when uh when I played at Clemson.”
When asked what kind of challenges Michael Hawkins poses with his speed:
“Yeah, he’s a threat at any at any second to to change the game and score. And so you got to do a great job of being assignment sound. They’re going to really challenge you from a preparation standpoint with the schemes that they do to make you play assignment sound football. And if you misfit something, it’s not like he’s going to go for five or seven, he’s going to go for 70.”
When asked about the type of pressure that the WVU defense will bring:
“He’s going to show you some things that that maybe you haven’t seen before to really stress your preparation and ability to adjust in game. You know they’re going to go from being a 3-4 type of defense to being a a five man front playing man coverage and then they’re going to you know show pressure, drop out, play exotic coverages on the back end. So you got to do a really really good job and the challenge for us this week is we now have five days. the last two games we’ve had at least two weeks to prepare for for that game. So now we have to transition to the normal rhythm of getting ready for a game.”
Did you know that Rich Rod coached Tony Elliott at Clemson? Let me know in the comments of any of these quotes surprised you.
