What Virginia coach Tony Elliott said about Riley Leonard, Notre Dame football

The Virginia Cavaliers will be playing at Notre Dame Stadium with heavy hearts on Saturday. Today is the two-year anniversary of a shooting that took the lives of three UVA football players.

Head coach Tony Elliott keeps Nov. 13, 2022 in mind in every day. He always will.

“It’s always going to be a part of what we do,” he said. “There’s never going to be a time where we’re not conscious of it, aware of it, but at the same time, too, in order for us to progress forward, we have to create normal here and being sensitive that not everybody was a part of that.”

Part of that process is notching ranked wins like the one UVA just got over then-No. 18 Pitt and preparing to play teams like the No. 8 Fighting Irish immediately thereafter to try to notch another. Here is what Elliott said about Notre Dame and getting his Cavs ready for a big road trip.

On playing on the road against a ranked opponent at a venue Virginia has not had success against for the second week in a row

“The message is the same. The process is the same from a preparation standpoint. Hopefully the guys have confidence after last week that they know what they need to do to prepare, but just excited about the opportunity.

“There hasn’t been any success. I told the guys today we haven’t won against Notre Dame. We’ve set out all season to be a different team doing different things, and to be different you have to do different. So all we can ask for is an opportunity but it’s going to take our best game and it’s going to take just a commitment to the process.”

On having experience game planning against Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard when he was at Duke

“He looks like a different guy, to be honest with you. Just watching him, he’s very efficient throwing the ball, very decisive when he pulls it down to run. He looks very similar but also making good decisions to protect himself at times. So I don’t know if past experience really [matters] because he’s got a different supporting cast, different offensive line in front of him, but just excited for the match-up and the challenge.”

On what makes Leonard a good runner

“He’s big. He’s a big guy. You can see it on film. You can tell he’s 6’3″, 220 pounds, and he’s very confident as a runner, decisive. He’s not afraid of contact, and he likes to fall forward, and that’s what makes him a good runner.”

On being undefeated coming out of bye weeks, just like Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman

“It’s a combination of things. It starts with you’re able to take a deep breath and kind of step back and evaluate yourself for the first couple of days of the bye week. So you get to pick up on tendencies that while you’re in the hustle and the bustle you may overlook, not overlook, but you get going, and you step back evaluate yourself and I think you get to develop some of your younger guys in practice. 

“The biggest thing that I think has helped us is it allows us to kind of get guys back. It allows us to have guys with a little bit of extra time to rest and in the North Carolina game we know what the situation with the offensive line was and the bye week gave us a chance to get all those guys back. 

“I think the break has always been good for these young men. They go so hard with a combination of what they have to balance, the academics and the athletics here, that weekend, and I err on the side of giving them time. I want them to be able to refresh. And I think the bye week this week, this past bye week was big for us from a recommittal standpoint. 

“I think when I look at how the season has progressed, the summer we were in the building. We were always together. Fall camp, we were always together. Then you get into the grind of the season, they have their lives back a little bit. So you don’t quite have as much time together organically. You have to force it. And I think that’s what helped us is we had a little bit more time to just be together and recommit, and man, look at each other in the eye and say how do we want to finish and what are we really doing here. 

“So I don’t know if there’s a secret sauce, but I think the time helps our bodies and then it just gives us a chance to get a good game plan together and then also have a better idea of what we’re tipping and giving away to the opposing teams.”

On former Notre Dame RB/WR Chris Tyree coming on strong for the Cavaliers

“I believe so. I think he feels healthy. Before he was battling kind of an ab strain. I think he feels healthy and confident, and he’s had some success. So I think that’s going to be even more so down the stretch.

“And we had some things that we wanted to get to in the passing game, but again it was going to require us from a protection standpoint to do some things and then the way that they were playing, it wasn’t the right protection on those deals so we didn’t get to them. But I anticipate that going forward you’ll see him involved in the game plan more.”

On Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts in comparison to Virginia safety Jonas Sanker

“They’re both extremely fast. Extremely intelligent. They play downhill when they need to, so it’s going to be fun to kind of watch the match-up, not necessarily focusing on that match-up but you get to see those two guys high-caliber players go against each other.”