There times in this game in which Virginia looked like it was not going to be competitive. Then the Cavaliers won anyway. It was about belief, and complimentary football.

Coach Tony Elliott prasied his group of young men. Here are the important notes from the head coach's press conference:

On the hard-fought comeback

"At halftime, I saw a group that still wanted to win a football game," Elliott said. "You know, we had some uncharacteristic discipline [issues]. There were three big penalties that allowed that drive to continue to go when we [were going to get] off the field. Pretty much in all three of those situations, we're getting ready to be off the field, and so that could easily turn into momentum in our direction because we're off the field, [offense has a] short field, ability to go score score points."

Elliott has consistently stood his ground about the idea that solutions are made through motivation, never yelling or punishing.

"It wasn't it wasn't an ass chewing. It was really just 'all right, fellas, here's what we haven't done, right? These are mistakes that we've made, right?' The things we need to clean up schematically, and then bottom line is, do we want to win a football game or not? And we got to make a choice, and and really it comes down to the core values of the program that that have been established over the last four years."

"Now this is a different football team, and half of those guys have only been here for eight months, right? So that's where I got to continue to do a better job of making sure they understand what the core values are. But I just I just say, boys, it doesn't matter what the adjustments are, right? The scheme is not going to win the game. It's just going to be: Do you make the decision to go out there and fight for your brothers, right, and play clean football to our standards, to what we're capable of? And if we do that for for for 30 minutes, I believe we'll be pleased with the result, and that's what they did."

Leaders emerging?

Elliott told the media that Fisher Camac was "really intent on leading," particularly as Virginia trailed. Kam Robinson was also credited, along with Noah Josey and Beau Pribula.

Virginia needed a win. Here's how it got one

The defense held strong, even when Syracuse executed long drives. The "bend, don't break" mindset was present. Elliott was pleased with their effort.

"It was the defense's ability to stand up there and not give up more points, and special teams kept us there, and we were able to to stay ahead of the chains better," Elliott said. "And that put us in a position where we could take the shot as opposed to in the first half we just you know got a little bit out of sync and got behind the got behind the chains."

Momentum can change in one second, as Elliott mentioned. The defense and special teams did just enough to keep the team afloat as the offense got into gear.

On Anthony Britton

In a strange turn of events, Virginia's tackle leader Saturday was Anthony Britton — a defensive tackle. Elliott took a moment to shout out his ascending lineman:

"He's playing faster, right?" Elliott said. "I think he's playing with a ton of with a ton of confidence. He's absorbing the the workload with some of the injuries that we that we've had at the position, and he just continues to to get to get better. So it's it's it's awesome to see him kind of start to to step into the type of player that that that he can can be. I think I think he still got more before he reaches his ceiling, and I've challenged him, and I've said this to to him several times."

"I think he can be one of the best in the in the league, you know, when he wants to. And now you're starting to see that that it's all coming together for him. So just just happy for for him."