Elliott: 'Everybody likes' backup quarterback, backup offensive coordinator

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On the film evaluation from the Georgia Tech game:

"It was a strange game. It's one of the first where I've been a part of where you got something completely different than what you were expecting. We went back and we had peaked at Central Florida, they played a little bit of odd but nothing like what we saw. I think more of is going to come because I think that Iowa State has done a really really good job with that three-safety package. You've seen us do a little bit defensively in the past with Isaiah (Simmons) and some of those guys. Wasn't expecting, so we had to make some adjustments and then it was almost felt like he was playing option football-- you only got eight possessions in the game. They were going to make us be patient, put together drives, run the football."

On seeing that same look this weekend from the Wolfpack:

"If you look at NC State, that's what they're playing. They're basically a 3-3-5 defense so I think that, obviously, you've got to run the ball. Structurally, you'll have to see how they're going to sit with their corners when they play that-- and they're dropping eight into coverage. So you've got to run the football. Then you got to try and find some windows where there's a lot of underneath coverage guys. So going forward each week, we'll have a plan for it. But again going into that game, what we'd seen out of Georgia Tech has been for down."

On the lack of explosive plays:

"I think it's been it's been a crazy start to the season, you're playing Georgia, the best defense in the country, and you know that you're not gonna be able to run it, and then we get in a situation where we have been on the run, and we try to throw the ball and see, can we stay aggressive? Then you come out, you play South Carolina State and obviously, we were just trying to find a rhythm. We're trying to be balanced there. Then you get into this game and obviously, we had to run the ball, to win the game. I think the explosives will come over time as we continue to find that cohesion upfront. The backs can improve as well with some of their tracking and their discipline and again (Will) Shipley's a freshman. Kobe's (Pace) is not a freshman but he hasn't played a ton. So it's gonna take a little bit of time just for all those nuances to come together. But once it does, I'm excited about what, what the potential could be."

On if this reminds him of the 2014 game against Louisville when Deshaun Watson didn’t play well:

"Everybody likes the backup quarterback or maybe even the backup offensive coordinator, whoever that may be,  but it's football and guys are gonna have to learn. We're in a situation where we got some youth that at positions that we've got to grow up, and the only way they can grow up is to go play. As coaches, we got to do a great job of just nurturing-- one thing about these guys are playing hard. They're trying to play physical, we've just technically got to get a little bit better and those are things that are going to come with experience."