Column: Elliott moving the needle already in Charlottesville

Some 48 days ago, I put the finishing touches on a column I expected to run any minute now. Anthony Poindexter was about to become UVa’s new coach and I did my best to frame the moment, with a backdrop of how the ground swell was ready to surge.

Now, with UVa’s actual coaching staff finalized and spring ball steadily drawing closer, it’s easy to see that despite the search ending differently, Tony Elliott’s immediate impact has caused a similar reaction among players, fans, and alums alike.

There’s no way to miss the enthusiasm that seemed to spring up in some circles in the days after Bronco Mendenhall’s shocking resignation. Conventional wisdom among certain fans and a large contingent of football alums was that UVa should hire Poindexter. In the aforementioned column that never saw the light of day, I wrote about the “uncomfortable truths” of that potential decision, most notably his somewhat limited time overseeing others and calling plays.

“At the same time,” I wrote then, “if one does an ‘exit interview’ style evaluation of Mendenhall’s tenure, it’s fair to point to the lack of fan engagement, the issues with in-state recruiting, and the overall lack of passion as criticisms which demand action.”

I expected those to be boxes that Poindexter would check off. The universe took a different path and yet, Elliott’s subsequent weeks have been focused on those very things.

“Action” is clearly in motion.

His tenure at Clemson certainly gives reason to think Elliott’s got a good chance of being successful in Charlottesville. His activity on the recruiting trail and his engagement with alums does, too. In fact, when UVa announced its spring game would be April 23, it was hard to miss the phalanx of former players hyping the event.

From Tiki Barber to Micah Kiser, from Quin Blanding to Shannon Taylor, from Brent Urban to Thomas Jones, the buy in was on a different level. If there remain those holdouts who are upset about the way the searched ended, their number seems to be dwindling.

Whereas many of Elliott’s mantras and ideals feel reminiscent of Mendenhall, the delivery is very different. So too is the vehicle. There’s no getting around how accessible Elliott is and how much he “feels” like a football coach. That familiarity will serve him well, both on the field and in terms of building a positive culture within McCue, as well as on the path to replacing McCue.

“There isn’t another candidate out there who would have delivered what he can,” I wrote of Dex. And yet, here I stand a month and a half later thinking I was clearly wrong on this front: Elliott’s already moving the needle in the ways that he must.

Spring ball will include a lot of work. It has to. There are new systems to install, new terminology to get down, new coaches to build relationships with, and big-time contributors that must be replaced (especially in the trenches).

The Cavaliers took some steps toward that end this past weekend, landing a number of commitments including Mac Hollensteiner, a 6-foot-6, 310-pound grad transfer lineman from Georgetown who was among the best players available in the market.

The biggest “get” this offseason is, of course, Brennan Armstrong. And No. 5’s decision to return for another year of college football says plenty not just about what he wants for himself but certainly what he sees in Elliott and the program he’s laying the foundation for so far.

“I think it’s huge,” Elliott told VirginiaSports.com’s own Jeff White recently. “It just shows his commitment and belief in the University of Virginia, the football program, his trust in myself as the chosen leader. It shows that he has an objective, that there’s something that he wants to get accomplished, whether it’s on the field, personally from a developmental standpoint, or from a team standpoint. It just sends a message that he’s got some things that are important to him. And he values this place so much that he believes he can accomplish those things here, with one more year.”

With Armstrong back and joined by a myriad of wide receivers, there’s a lot of optimism about what the offense might look like in 2022. But even bigger than that are the changes that go into all of the ways the program is built.

All told, there’s an enthusiasm building about Elliott among the program's stakeholders that is both impossible to ignore and encouraging to see. He and his staff have already been more active in Virginia high schools, as one source said last week, than the Hoos have hit been the last five years. The former players see in him someone like them, even if he’s not a former All-American who wore their colors.

What is ahead will be decided by a lot of various factors, of course, but what’s building right now feels like a great start.

The foundation is being laid. And many fans seem overcome with excitement about what’s coming, thankful to have gotten in on the ground floor.