More than 40 former Virginia players gathered at the McCue Center to watch the introduction of the school’s new football coach on Monday. For most of those alumni, it was the first chance to meet Tony Elliott and get a sense of who he was and his vision for building the program.
But as athletics director Carla Williams used words like humble and hardworking, genuine and high character to describe Elliott, Chris Slade stood in the audience and nodded in agreement.
Slade, a two-time first-team All-American and the program’s all-time leader in sacks, spent the last nine seasons as head football coach at Pace Academy in Atlanta. His 2015 state title team was anchored by a pair of offensive linemen, Andrew Thomas and Jamaree Salyer, who eventually wound up at Georgia. But Clemson, where Elliott spent 11 years on Dabo Swinney’s staff including the last seven as offensive coordinator, was also pushing for both players as high schoolers.
“So Tony and I spent a lot of long hours and time spent together during that recruiting process,” recalled Slade, who flew to Charlottesville to be on-hand on Monday. “It’s funny because they won the national championship against Alabama [in January 2017]; the very next day, he’s in my school.”
“I've had some guys in my school that I'm like, ‘Dude, can you get out?’” Slade continued. “But he’s one of the guys that I'm happy for. What you see on that stage, that’s really him.”
Long regarded as a head-coach-in waiting thanks to his contributions to Clemson’s two national titles, Elliott was announced as UVa’s new coach on Friday after a weeklong search for Bronco Mendenhall’s successor. He arrived in Charlottesville on Sunday, and on Monday afternoon sat before an audience of current and former players, staff members and donors, to discuss why it was the job that lured him away from his alma mater.
“I wanted to be part of a university and athletic department that would not compromise its values to win,” Elliott said as part of his opening remarks. “There is no better place for me than UVa. And there is no better time than now.”
Ahmad Hawkins was another of those former players gathered on the turf practice field on a sunny December afternoon to listen to hear what Elliott had to say. Hawkins had read about Elliott’s backstory. About how Elliott was a “lost child” after his mother was killed in a car accident when he was just nine. How he went from walk-on to team captain as a receiver at Clemson. How he went from an industrial engineer at a Michelin tire plant back to the gridiron, where he ascended to the 2017 Broyles Award winner at his alma mater.
Hawkins has remained close to his college program in various roles, including serving as in-stadium analyst at home games this fall. He always appreciated that when Mendenhall first arrived six years ago, one of his first moves was to reach out to Hall-of-Fame former UVa coach George Welsh. Hawkins respected that Elliott did the same with Mendenhall, who will step down at Virginia following the Fenway Bowl later this month.
On Monday, Hawkins noted the way Elliott addressed questions about UVa’s aging football facilities, telling the crowd that “we’re not gonna make any excuses” and saying his priority is establishing a culture before any new football facility is constructed.
“Everything is genuine; nothing’s fake. Nothing's for cameras or just to stroke his ego,” Hawkins said. “He earned my respect just the way that he interviewed with Carla and the conversations they had. Knowing that Carla is brutally honest and she said they had those tough conversations, and he understands the expectations here and he still took the job and he's excited for it.”
Elliott also faces the immediate challenge of assembling a team for next season. Since Mendenhall announced his decision to step away almost two weeks ago, UVa has seen a half-dozen 2022 recruits decommit, with four already flipping to other schools; almost a dozen current players have entered the transfer portal.
Based on what he had heard from Slade, his old college teammate, former UVa quarterback Shawn Moore was sold on Elliott before even meeting the new coach. Moore met with Elliott briefly Monday morning, before the formal introduction. After listening to the coach’s message, Moore came away hoping the program could build off the momentum of Elliott's positive first impression.
"We need to keep the core kids together,” said Moore. “We’re not gonna keep them all; some are gonna want to leave. But we’ve got to do our best to keep keep the nucleus together.”
“He said it a number of times. You keep hearing the word: ‘Recruiting. Recruiting. Recruiting,’” the former Heisman Trophy finalist added. “That’s gonna be a huge part of who he is and, I think, a huge part of who he hires. They have to be able to recruit.”
“We’re going to make the state a priority,” said Elliott on Monday, acknowledging one of the biggest complaints among fans regarding Mendenhall’s six-year tenure at UVa. Many fans—and former players—hoped those woes had been solved when speculation ran rampant last week, early in the search for a new coach, that former Virginia safety Anthony Poindexter was in line for the job.
The co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Penn State, Poindexter ultimately chose to return to Happy Valley.
“Dex is one of my closest friends. And in my opinion, he didn't think he was ready,” said Moore, who now works as an associate director of development for the athletics department. “We all were super excited about having him and everyone was showing their support, just from terms of calling and reaching out to our offices.”
“But it was Dex’s decision,” he continued. “It was his own decision. I respect it. And you have to respect a guy's decision when he says I'm not ready to take that next step yet.”
Hawkins was among the football alumni outspoken in support of Poindexter before the search shifted to Elliott. Once the hire was official, those alumni spoke out to commend Williams for her decision. Hawkins believes fans still disappointed that Poindexter didn’t get the job should do the same.
“People think that we're just trying to overdo it to compensate for how disappointed we was for Dex. But no, it's just life,” he explained. “You hear some news, you process it. It's just in today's age, you could process in front of everybody.”
Slade sees Elliott as “the perfect fit” at UVa: a coach who was being genuine as he talked about embracing the legacies and traditions of the football program, and of building a team that will target high-character players who will embrace the rigors of being both a student and athlete at the university.
“I was excited because I think we got the right guy,” Slade said. “Dex was a sexy pic, and I would happy if we'd gotten Dex too. I said I wish we could have got both. But I'm very happy about getting Tony. He’s gonna be great.”
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