UVa coaches drawn by opportunity to work with Elliott
One of Curome Cox’s career goals is to be a college defensive coordinator, be it at the Power 5 or Group of 5 level. After two seasons as defensive backs coach at Air Force, that goal was in his grasp.
The Falcons’ defensive coordinator, John Rudzinski, was leaving for the same position at Virginia. Longtime Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun approached Cox about the vacancy. But instead of taking the job, Cox elected to follow Rudzinski to Charlottesville, becoming UVa’s new defensive backs coach at defensive passing game coordinator in January.
Cox had his reasons for passing up the opportunity at Air Force. Making the move to Virginia allowed Cox, who attended Gonzaga College High School in Washington D.C. before playing collegiately at Maryland, and his family to get closer to home. He also had a lot of respect for the university and its brand: “It’s strictly really, really doing it the right way,” as Cox described it.
And there was one other major factor: Getting to work with new UVa head coach Tony Elliott.
“When I had a chance to be around Coach Elliott up close, hear his vision, and I truly believe that he has the same views and the same passion that I do, and I was like, ‘Wow,’” Cox recently recalled. “It’s all about growing. Doesn’t matter how long I’ve been coaching, I always want to keep growing and I thought he’d be a great guy to help me grow into that next person I want to be.”
Hired in December, Elliott is early in the first full recruiting cycle of his UVa tenure. But the first-time head coach, who had previously been offensive coordinator at Clemson, has already proven his ability to attract people to the McCue Center with the way he assembled his initial staff.
“When I watched Coach Elliott from afar,” said Kevin Downing, the Wahoos’ new defensive tackles coach, “I knew that if I was fortunate enough to join his staff, that I was gonna jump to the opportunity because of who he was as a man.”
Downing first crosses paths with Elliott more than 15 years ago when both were early in their coaching careers, Downing at Winston-Salem State and Elliott at South Carolina State. New UVa running backs coach Keith Gaither was on that Winston-Salem State staff as well. Downing remembers being impressed by Elliott’s humility and his strength as a recruiter. They crossed paths again after Elliott jumped to Furman.
“He was just a really, really good guy,” Downing recalled. “He was very intentional. He was really authentic. That’s something that I like.”
Downing, who spent the past three seasons as a defensive assistant at the Naval Academy, was paying attention as Elliott helped Clemson win six ACC titles and two national championships. So was Gaither, who had been Army’s wide receivers coach the past two years.
“It was an easy decision for me,” Gaither said of joining Elliott’s staff. “I had to get my wife on board.”
“When I came up to visit the place and he said, ‘How would this salary be?’ I said, ‘Coach, you’re offering me way too much money,’” Gaither added. “I was taking the job no matter what. An opportunity to coach in the ACC, an opportunity to work with Coach Elliott. It was a great opportunity. I was not gonna pass it up.”
New offensive coordinator Des Kitchings also has a history with Elliott, one that began with a shared cell phone number. Kitchings, who spent last season with the Atlanta Falcons, admitted when he was hired that Elliott was one of a very few coaches who could have lured him back from the NFL.
But not everyone on the UVa staff goes way back with the Hoos’ new big whistle. Elliott retained three coaches from the previous Virginia staff: wide receivers coach Marques Hagans, offensive line coach Garett Tujague and linebackers coach Clint Sintim. Elliott had some fun with Tujague when offering him the job on Christmas Eve, the o-line coach recalled during an appearance on the CavsCorner Podcast:
Elliott is now the third head coach Hagans has worked under at UVa. The previous two, Bronco Mendenhall and Mike London, had defensive backgrounds. During spring practices, Elliott was often spotted joining Hagans in coaching wide receiver drills.
“You get a lot more frequent visits in the offensive staff meetings now,” Hagans joked about having an offensive-minded head coach.
"Coach Elliott’s resume speaks for himself,” he added, “so to have him come in and offer advice or, even in practice when he’s saying things to the receivers, it comes from a place with a lot of knowledge and experience, and just finding ways to help our group and help our team perform better.”
The Wahoos wrapped up Elliott’s first spring as head coach with last month’s Blue-White Game at Scott Stadium. The scrimmage provided a brief glimpse at the pro-style offense that Kitchings and his staff, which also includes first-year quarterbacks coach Taylor Lamb, has built this offseason, as well as the multiple-front defense being installed by Rudzinski and the defensive staff.
Following the Blue-White Game, Elliott was asked about getting to collaborate for the first time with his new staff.
“It's been awesome, “he replied, “and just confirmation of the relationship and what I thought about all these guys. It brings me peace that I see the confirmation, what I believed in these guys, I’m starting to see it manifest on the field and in the relationships with the players. I’ve got some really, really good guys, first and foremost, and some really, really good football coaches, and it’s good to see.”
The defensive staff includes one more newcomer: defensive ends coach Chris Slade, the former two-time All-American as a player at Virginia. Like many of his colleagues, Slade has a history with his new boss. Elliott used to recruit Pace Academy, the Atlanta high school where Slade spent the last nine years as head coach.
“He’s exactly what he was when I met him 10 years ago,” Slade said, “in terms of the way he handles people, how humble he is. His approach, his beliefs.”
Slade made a point to be in Charlottesville the day Elliott was introduced as UVa’s new head coach in December, though he didn’t anticipate winding up on the Hoos’ staff. That offer came a few weeks later.
“I didn’t come back to UVa because it’s UVa and it’s comfortable, and I know everything and I know everybody,” Slade admitted. “I came back here because I felt like he was the right guy for me to come back here and work for. It just so happens it happens to be UVa, so it all worked out great. I think I would have followed that guy anywhere besides Blacksburg.”
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