The FSU Seminoles picked up a 38-7 win over the Virginia Cavaliers on Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium. It was an impressive performance from the Seminoles, who fired up their fans with the win and are now 3-2.
While FSU cruised to victory, Virginia had the better start to the game, taking a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. However, FSU flipped the game in the second quarter, scoring 17 points to take control before blowing it open in the third quarter.
Here is what Virginia head coach Tony Elliott had to say after the game about their inability to regain momentum once FSU got going.
Yeah, we knew it was going to be a hard-fought battle, and I thought that we missed some opportunities. And when we needed to fully flip the momentum, we couldn't.
We missed some tackles, missed some plays on offense, a couple of dropped balls. And before you know it, the momentum had fully changed, and we couldn't get it flipped.
Elliott also talked about Ashton Daniels' big game, Beau Pribula's tough day running the ball, and more. Here is everything Elliott had to say after Virginia lost to FSU.
On what made it hard to regain momentum after FSU took it
Yeah, we knew it was going to be a hard-fought battle, and I thought that we missed some opportunities. And when we needed to fully flip the momentum, we couldn't. We missed some tackles, missed some plays on offense, a couple of dropped balls. And before you know it, the momentum had fully changed, and we couldn't get it flipped.
On his decision to decline a holding penalty in the 2nd quarter
Yeah, that was there two-minute situation there at the end, right? Third and 20. If I go back, I give them two downs, they could run off more clock, timeout situation, third and 20.
You know, you would hope that you got them behind the chains, that you can find a way to keep it. So roll the dice and didn't want to give them an extra down so that we would have more time in case we got the ball back to go score on offense.
On how Virginia's offensive line played vs. FSU
I mean, everybody's got ownership in it, starting with me. It starts with me, I got to do a better job of making sure they're prepared and ready to play, make sure that they fully understand the plan and are ready to go execute it.
So, and I love my guys. I'm going to go back to work. I mean, it's a great group of young men. It's a tough day at the office. We're going to own it, take accountability for it. We don't have a long time to hang our head about it. We got to go back to work on Monday because we got a good Syracuse team coming into the house.
We'll fix the problems that we got, but everybody's got ownership. And, you know, the challenge is just for all of us to take the accountability necessary so that we can go work on it and fix it. And there's also a lot of pictures of them doing good, too. So we got to make sure that we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and think that everything is lost.
On once again giving up explosive plays to a mobile quarterback
Yeah, I think a lot of it is we got to do a better job of wrapping when we tackle to get ball carriers on the ground. There were several explosive plays that came after we had contact on the ball carriers.
So we got to do a good job. We all gotta strain a little bit harder to make sure that we prepare them better, coach them better, and then challenge them to go out and execute to the best of their ability.
On the drops they had
I told them coming into this game that it's not going to be five or seven plays that determine the outcome of this game. It's going to be two. When you're playing a team like Florida State, and I don't care what people say, that's a talented roster, and I think we saw that today.
They put it all together. When you're playing a talented team like that at home in a hostile environment, it's going to come down to two plays. Maybe one of those drops would have been one of the two plays that swung momentum in our favor to help us be on the other side of this.
On Beau Pribula not having success running the ball
I think it was a function of kind of how the game started flowing. I thought there were a couple of times where he tried to pull it down to get started, but they got him on the ground before he could really impact the game with his legs. Now you're trying to stay ahead of the chains but also produce some chunk plays, so your run game wasn't as effective or even your primary thought, especially when you're chasing points there in the latter part of the game.
On their first drive to start the second half
I think you make it a one-score game, and then hopefully defense will play complementary football and you've got a chance to maybe field goal at worst or get the ball back, and now you have a chance to tie the ballgame up early in the third quarter. That was a play that I think all of us want back, but at the end of the day we didn't execute. They out-executed us in that situation, and we've got to live with the result that we got.
On if they have enough depth along the defensive line
Early in the game, I thought we were getting to him pretty good. I thought there were some situations where we were fitting the run the right way. We've just got to wrap up and we've got to finish. We've got what we've got. I like what we've got. We've just got to go back to work, and they'll respond.
On his team's body language
I think there in the second quarter. I really challenged the guys from that standpoint just to control what they can control, and not let the circumstances and the situation dictate the way that they respond. We all got to be better in that aspect because the reality is body language influences the way that you think, and the way that you think influences the way that you go out and talk and act and respond.
I've got to do a better job, again it starts with me. That's on me to fix, and I'll go to work and I'll get it fixed.
On if they considered going to backup quarterback Eli Holstein
We were battling, and things were kind of going haywire left and right. There was conversation about it, but with the challenges that they were posing and the things that were happening, we were just trying to figure out how to fix it. I don't know if at that time it was the best situation, and it might have been, but I don't know if that would have been fair to him either if we’re struggling to protect, putting another quarterback in the game.
On punter Daniel Sparks
I thought he was phenomenal. I thought I really challenged him, and I thought he kicked the heck out of the ball. Really kind of kept us in the game a couple of times.
Pinned him down on the two-yard line, and not many times is a team going to go 98 yards. It just happened today. We had a crucial penalty on that drive, and that kind of seemed to rear its head a little bit.
We give up, and that's an explosive play that usually leads to points. I thought we had some critical mistakes that we've got to get better at, and we've got to own, and we will. Hopefully, again, we can grow and learn as a team from all of this.
On what made Ashton Daniels so difficult to defend
He's a big 225-pound guy that can run behind his pads, and then if you misfit a gap there, then he shows he can take it the distance. We knew that his legs would potentially be a problem, and we were hoping that we would be able to keep him in the pocket and not let him extend plays. A couple of times, we lost contain and let him get on the edge, and he was able to extend the play. Unfortunately, we misfit the run there on the long one, and he took it the distance.
On if they have enough leadership
Well, first it starts with me, so I've got to do a better job from a leadership standpoint, and I will. But I believe so. I believe we've got young men in there that care, that want to do well. They'll come in Monday wanting to fix it. They'll be looking for answers, and my job is to make sure that I give them the right answers.
First, it starts with me making sure that I come up with the right answers for them, and I'll bust my tail between now and Monday to make sure that I do. I love my team. I told the team down there, I've had my butt kicked worse than that down here in Tallahassee before, and you know what? I still ended up okay and winning a lot of football games and responding.
Part of it is sometimes you've got to come face-to-face with the consequences. I think this was a new frontier for this team. It's the first time that they've come down here with this staff and this group, and so a lot of teaching and growing that I have to have as a head coach because it's my first time coming down here as a head coach, as a staff, and then as a team.
But I love my guys. I wouldn't want to go to battle with anybody else. We're going to get it fixed, and we're going to figure out how to win on the road.
It's kind of crazy because the first couple of years, that's all we could do was win on the road. We couldn't win at home. Then the last couple of years, we've been able to win at home, and now we're struggling on the road.
But hey, that's part of it. I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy, and I've got a great group of young men in there that work their butt off every single day. It was a rough day at the office for all of us, and we're going to take accountability from it.
We're not going to point no fingers. We're not going to lay blame anywhere other than the things that we didn't control, that we said we were going to try and control, and we're going to go back to work and have a great week of practice and show back up on next Saturday and see can we get this bad taste out of our mouth.
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This article originally appeared on FSU Wire: What Virginia head coach Tony Elliott said after losing to FSU
