Photo courtesy of Adam Hagy/USA TODAY Sports
The Case for Tony Elliott as Virginia Football’s Next Head Coach
Shortly after reports surfaced that Virginia’s negotiations with Anthony Poindexter for the UVA football head coaching job had fallen through and Poindexter would be remaining on the Penn State coaching staff, Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott reportedly boarded a plane with his family to Charlottesville on Wednesday afternoon.
With Elliott now a leading candidate for the Virginia football head coaching job, let’s take a look at Elliott’s coaching résumé and what he would bring to the UVA football program if hired.
Elliott’s coaching career began in 2006 as a wide receivers coach at South Carolina State. After two seasons with the Bulldogs and three seasons as the wide receivers coach at Furman, Elliott returned to his alma mater Clemson in 2011.
What followed was an unprecedented run of success for the Clemson football program. After not having a single ten-win season from 1990 to 2010, the Tigers went on to win 10 games in each of the next 10 seasons with Dabo Swinney at the helm and talented coordinators like Elliott and Brent Venables coaching the team.
Elliott was the running backs coach from 2011 to 2014, before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2015. In his seven seasons as the offensive coordinator and primary play-caller at Clemson, the Tiger offense has had the following statistical rankings:
2015: 16th in scoring offense, 11th in total offense
2016: 14th in scoring offense, 12th in total offense
2017: 32nd in scoring offense, 38th in total offense
2018: 4th in scoring offense, 3rd in total offense
2019: 4th in scoring offense, 5th in total offense
2020: 4th in scoring offense, 10th in total offense
2021: 78th in scoring offense, 95th in total offense
From 2015-2020, Clemson went to the College Football Playoff in each season and made an appearance in the National Championship Game in four of those seasons. The Tigers won five ACC Championships and two National Championships in that period.
Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment of Tony Elliott’s time in Clemson was when his offense put up 44 points on No. 1 Alabama in a crushing 44-16 victory in the 2019 National Championship Game.
Elliott was also the recipient of the 2017 Frank Broyles Award for the top assistant coach in college football.
If Elliott is hired as Virginia’s head coach, it would be his first time being the head coach of a college football program. However, when it comes to familiarity with winning at the highest levels of competition in college football, there are not many coaches in the country who can match Elliott’s résumé. Experience winning football games, and especially big football games, is something the Virginia football program needs desperately.
Some may point to the incredible offensive talent Elliott has been blessed with during his time at Clemson and suggest that those players are more responsible for the Tigers’ high level of offensive production than Elloitt’s coaching. It is true that the players make the plays and Clemson has been spoiled with gifted athletes with names like Trevor Lawrence, Deshaun Watson, Travis Etienne, and others. But, coaching and play calling are even more crucial to success in college football than in the NFL and Clemson’s 88-10 record with Elliott as the offensive coordinator speaks for itself.
Additionally, Elliott has a reputation as an excellent recruiter and should be given a substantial amount of credit for getting those talented recruits to commit to Clemson and then developing them into superstar-caliber college football players.
Clemson’s offense fell off quite a bit this season following the departure of Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne, and a number of other skilled players. The Tiger offense was young and inexperienced and injuries to the offensive line severely crippled Clemson’s offensive production this season. Still, Clemson managed to go 9-3, including back-to-back strong performances against Wake Forest (48-27 W) and South Carolina (30-0) to end the regular season and the Tigers have a chance for an 11th-consecutive 10-win season if they can beat Iowa State in the Cheez-It Bowl on December 29th.
Elliott has had several head coaching opportunities offered to him in the past few years, including positions at major football programs like Auburn and Tennessee. Elliott has remained loyal and clearly loves being a coach at Clemson, but it seems only a matter of time until he accepts his first head coaching gig.
While there have been no confirmed details about the negotiations between Elliott and Virginia, it would seem that there are three options at this point for Elliott: (1) accept the head coaching job at Virginia, (2) accept the head coaching job at Duke, who has had Elliott as its top candidate since the program parted ways with 14-year head coach David Cutcliffe, or (3) remain as the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Clemson.
We will have more updates on the Virginia football head coaching search as they are made available.
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