Elliott hopes Wahoos take on a honey badger’s intensity at Miami

By Jerry Ratcliffe

After stunning No. 10 North Carolina last Saturday night, the program’s biggest road upset since national polls were created, Virginia coach Tony Elliott wondered how his team would handle the success.

While he won’t really know until his 2-5 Cavaliers kick off at 18-point favorite Miami (5-2) at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ACC Network), Elliott feels like his team will carry the right attitude heading to Florida.

When he met with the Cavaliers earlier this week, he had prepared a question to feel out what his team was collectively thinking.

“What now?” Elliott asked. “And their response was ‘We’ve got to go back to work. We can’t be thinking about what happened Saturday night.’”

That’s exactly what Elliott wanted to hear.

Assistant coach Chris Slade (defensive ends) followed up with that mindset when he told the team that the win over the Tar Heels was a “blue-dot game, meaning on your phone you have a lot of blue dots from text messages after a win. But after a loss, there’s not many blue dots. Maybe mom, maybe your wife or child (if you’re a coach or a 34-year-old kicker).”

Elliott responds to those on Sunday, but after that refocuses on the next challenge, as in Miami, which is coming off a win at home against Clemson.

While this Hurricane team is considered an upgrade from last season, Elliott and the Cavaliers still remember the frustration of letting Miami off the hook in Charlottesville last season.

Virginia lost a 14-12 decision in four overtimes, when Miami quarterback Jake Garcia scored in the fourth OT on a 2-yard run. UVA settled for a field goal in all three of its red-zone trips.

One of the Cavaliers sent Elliott a video this week to portray what kind of sacrifice it takes to win, and it revolves around what a honey badger has to endure to obtain honey for its diet.

“The honey badger, he has to go ‘face-in’ to the tree to get the honey,” Elliott explained. “Now the rest of his body has the fur coat to absorb the [bee] stings, but his face is vulnerable.

“The message was, the taste of honey is worth the pain. So we’ve got to focus on the pain, the pain of discipline, or you have the pain of regret. Hopefully these guys will learn and grow in handling success. If you want to continue on this road, you’ve got to pay the price. Nothing comes easy.”