Almost a month after Tony Elliott was hired as Virginia’s new football coach, what the defense might look like in 2022 remains a mystery.

Elliott has announced four defensive assistants to his staff, but has yet to name a coordinator. None of those four additions—Clint Sintim, Kevin Downing, Keith Gaither and Chris Slade—has an assigned position.

Sintim was the lone position coach on defense from the previous staff retained by Elliott. The former UVa linebacker was Bronco Mendenhall’s defensive line coach for two seasons, but had spent five years coaching linebackers and D-ends at Delaware and Richmond before returning to his alma mater. Downing coached the same two positions (defensive ends and outside linebackers) for the last three seasons at Navy.

Gaither began his coaching career 25 years ago as a defensive backs coach, but had been coaching wide receivers since 2009, including the last two seasons at Army. So it was a surprise when Elliott revealed on Thursday that Gaither would be returning to the defensive side of the ball in an unspecified role at UVa.

And then there’s Slade, the former UVa All-American defensive end who, 30 years after leaving for the NFL, remains the program's all-time leader with 40 sacks. Slade has never coached at the college level before—he spent the last nine years as head coach at Pace Academy in Atlanta.

Once it’s completed, the new staff will be tasked with fixing a defense that got progressively worse in each of the last three seasons under previous coordinator Nick Howell. In 2018, the Hoos ranked 20th nationally in total defense (330.5 ypg) and 21st in scoring defense (20.1 ppg); last fall, the unit bottomed out at 121st in total defense (466.0 ypg) and 104th in scoring (31.8 ppg).

Until a coordinator is in place, there will be more questions than answers regarding UVa’s defense entering 2022. With Elliott’s background on the offensive side, his defensive coordinator is likely to be afforded plenty of autonomy in shaping the unit, from scheme on the field to alignment of the coaching staff.

Those decisions will also influence who the staff targets to reinforce the defensive side, both in recruiting and the transfer portal. Other than a few notable exceptions, the current roster is light on game-proven experience on all three levels of the unit. With that said, here is what the new coaching staff has to work with on defense as they arrive in Charlottesville.

(Players who are currently in the transfer portal but haven’t committed to new schools are included. So are players who still have their bonus COVID year of eligibility remaining, but haven’t announced future plans. All 2021 snap counts are courtesy of PFF College.)