Everything From Tony Elliott After Virginia's First Day of Fall Camp

Fall Camp is officially underway in Charlottesville.

The 2026 season began today for the Virginia Cavaliers, as they opened up practice today as they are just one month away from opening their season in week zero against NC State in a big conference game.

After practice wrapped up today, UVA head coach Tony Elliott spoke with the media and here is everything that he had to say.

1. On what he was looking for in his first practice...

"Yeah, so what I'm looking for is first just the core values, getting back to our practice standards. The coaches are focused on the install with the scheme and the fundamentals. I'm looking at the fundamentals of the practice, and the organization, the structure, the efficiency.

You know the guys are going to be excited on day one, right? And they couldn't sleep last night. It's like Christmas, right? So you want to get out there, you want to get moving. So, you want to get out there, you want to get moving, kind of see what they've retained from the workouts over the summer, and then also see if they can practice without pads on. So, really, that's what I was looking for.

And it is a benefit to have everybody in January that goes through spring ball. And then, with the modifications to just the rules over the years, it allows you now to have non-contact skill type practice. So you're able to at least go through your install, even though you can't do it against each other, you're getting more exposure to it. So that's less of the install that you have to do on day one.

So really, it's just getting back to being on the grass, working the huddle mechanics, the communication from the sideline. I'm listening and looking what's the body language? Not necessarily when we start practice, but those last 20 minutes of practice when we're in the fourth quarter, what's the body language? What's the conditioning level? Does it sound the same way as the beginning of practice? So, there are specific things that I'm looking for when I go out there on day one."

2. On injuries..

"Yeah Rico was. There. Rico's a summer three class guy so he comes running. I think he doesn't get out until about 3:15 p.m. so we had already started flex. Fobbs-White, Corey Costner, Isaiah Robinson are more just nagging things that we want to get ahead of so I end Anticipate by the time we get ready to play those guys. Well, at least Corey and Fobbs will be will be about ready to go. I-Rob (Isaiah Robinson) might be a little bit longer, but it was just a decision here over the last a couple of weeks to say, hey, do we want to chance it and come out the gate as hard as we can and risk you know games on the back end.

Or do we want to take a couple weeks and make sure that they're fully healthy so that uh that we're ready to go? Jim Harris, I know is coming back from surgery, using a green jersey, so we anticipate that at some point during camp, we'll get him back. We did have a couple of class guys like (Dakota) Twitty left for class, Jaquon Gibson left for class, Tyson Davis left for class, so we're kind of still in that summer three window of classes for another week or so. So some of those guys were in class. I'm trying to think of who else. I think I saw a list here. (McKale) Boley’s just modified, nothing major there, just being smart. I guess I can call him an old man now. He's been starting since he was a freshman. Talked about (Tim) Hamann was a that we found out when he got here that he needed a surgery.

So it's not a long term surgery, but he's recovering. He'll be about a month. (CJ) Spence is just a soft tissue. K-Rob (Kam Robinson) just being smart with Krob. (Kevin) Wigenton is still going through his appeal process with the NCAA. So he hasn't gotten the full clearance for the extra year, but he's allowed to be out there. And so we're kind of working him back into shape. (Omillio) Agard practiced, he's modified a little bit with the cast. And I talked about cautionary, it's really just precautionary trying to get them healthy for the season. I talked about (Corey) Costner is really just precautionary trying to get him healthy for the entire season."

3. On Kevin Wigenton...

"Well, kind of at the mercy of the NCAA. So he's at the process now, though I think he's gone through the waiver process. Now he has to make an appeal and hopefully the appeal will go faster."

4. On the defensive tackles...

"Yeah, excited to just look over there and see some big bodies. And I think most all of them are 300 pounds or more. So we got to do a great job of keeping them that way through camp and getting them to the season, kind of how they came into camp today. But depth is critical at that position. And it's something that I've been telling the defensive staff about for a while because I lived it for many years with all those D-linemen that you'd have to go against every day and practice, I can only imagine what that's like against an opposing team. So, for me, it's not necessarily a competition to see who's going to be the starter.

The competition is I want every one of them to be a starter because I want to rotate and play them like they're all starters. And I think we saw that last year, right, when we had some additional depth. I mean, Jah (Jahmeer Carter) was able to play the whole season, even though he's playing only 20, 25 snaps as opposed to the 60 snaps a game he was playing the year before. But, man, he's more productive. He's got all conference nominations and then he's healthy and now he's got a shot to play in the NFL. So I like the depth. Now it's up to those guys to figure out who actually runs out there first. But my expectation is that we have six of them that can roll and we're going to need them. I think Britt's, Anthony Britton's in the best spot that he's been in, he's moving very well.

Jason (Hammond) is healthy, excited about Darion (Henry-Young). And what he brings, Kervins Choute. Today was the first time I've had a chance to really see him in action because he got here this summer. But he's been just a pleasant addition around the locker room, great energy, unbelievable young man. Jonathan Allen, want to see him come on and then you got a Sichan (John). I've been raving about Sichan, he came in about 311, he's in the best shape that he's ever been in, so I'm excited. And then you got young bull (Bull Richardson). Bull Richardson is in the mix. So my hope is that the competition is all day, every day. And KD (Kevin Downing) has to wait all the way up until game time to say who's actually running out there first, but they're all ready to play and play starter caliber snaps."

5. On Ethan Minter...

"He's critical because he's first, a defender of our culture. He understands exactly what we're all about here as an organization. He believes in it, he lives it every single day, and he's got the respect of the guys in the locker room. So he helps those other guys understand exactly what Virginia football is all about. So you can't put a value or a price on that. And then what I've seen is he's starting to move more like a DB, right? So he's a quarterback by trade and he's first time he backpedaled was when he got here as a first year. And now you're starting to see that man actually speaking to Ethan, I wasn't paying attention and I was like walking through, I had my back turned or walk through and he backpedaled into me and I was like, man, that was Ethan, that felt like a linebacker. So he's built his body back up after that. The after the surgeries, but from day one, he's just been a student of the game. And he's able to run meetings without the coaches present because he has that kind of understanding of what we're doing.

So, just truly, truly appreciative of who he is and how he embraces the other guys. You know, I mean, you're talking about competition and you're talking about guys that are extremely talented that are coming in to compete with you at your spot, but he's welcomed them with open arms, understands that he will have a role on his team and that'll be too determined. And I anticipate that. He's going to scrap and battle. And when it's all said and done, man, he's going to be a hard guy to dethrone."

6. On high expectations for the program and Justin Speros...

"So the first part of that, there's multiple layers to that because it's what you pray for, right? So, every one of these young men prayed to be in a position where there are expectations. And so, they've also been the young men that have elevated the floor and created those expectations, right? So now you got to embrace them. And the way that you embrace them is you just stay true to who you are, right? You minimize the distractions, you don't pay attention to it, and you don't look in the rearview mirror.

You focus on what's ahead and you make every day your best day. And so today we came in, and obviously you walk in the room and everybody's excited, they're cheering, it's day one, it's like Christmas. And I said, hey, just stop, take a second, be present where your feet are. Catalogue what you're feeling. Because we got to replicate that every single day. So, day 15 of camp has to have the same energy as day one.

And that's how you handle the expectations, right? You don't sit there and fear them or focus on them. You just show up every day and try to be your best. And as a program, I've been talking about this moment from day one. And I know a lot of people thought I was crazy, right? Even the folks that were joining the staff are like, Man, what are you talking about? We haven't done anything. How are you talking about handling success?

Well, that's the hardest part. Everybody's going to be hungry to go going to be hungry to go chase success. It's when you've had success, right? How do you maintain that hunger? And that's handling success. And so what you do is you double down on what you believe in, right? You have the humility to identify the areas where you got to improve, but you don't let the outside dictate the way that you think. And so that's the message to the guys. It's more of the same of what we've done. So after practice, my message was hey, I walked through the dining facility on the way out to practice and I saw two cups in an area where there weren't supposed to be two cups. Put the cups up, right? That's how we handle success. That's how you handle expectations, right?

It's the little things. So, a little bit different messaging because you do have to acknowledge that it's there, but then you quickly try to redirect the focus to a what do we control? And that's the way that we think.

And then, in terms of Justin Speros, he was a rock star as a student assistant when I was at Clemson. And so, when I had an opportunity, you know, I was nervous he wasn't going to leave South Florida to come join me, but definitely wanted to do everything I could to get him to come be a part of this organization because I knew that he had a ton of potential and upside. And he's a guy that just loves to work, right? He's always looking for work. There's no job that's too small. Sometimes I have to tell him to go home because he's got a lovely wife at home that he needs to spend time with.

But in terms of, and this is his dream. This is what he's dreamed about doing. Just like coaches dream about coaching, he's always wanted to be kind of in the front office personnel. And then he's very humble. He's going to learn. He knows that he doesn't know everything, but he's going to work his tail off. So there was nobody better in my mind. So when I got the news that Tyler Jones was going to go to Stanford, I was like, hey, I got my guy. Now I just needed everybody else in the organization to see the same thing. And little did I know that they saw the same thing. So it was a pretty easy transition for us."

7. On Jekail Middlebrook...

"I think what surprised surprises you is the way he carries himself. He's just unassuming, kind of flies below the radar a little bit. But then when he steps on the grass, he's just steady, he just makes plays, he just finds a way, right? And this is kind of where evaluations can be very important tricky, right? Because you see tape and I saw some really good things on tape, but until you get them and you get to work with them, you don't really realize what you had. And so this was one that I'm like, man, I knew there was something there, but man, he's got even more than what I was anticipating. So just excited about him, but his demeanor is, man, he's always got a smile.

He doesn't say two words. You can't coach him hard enough, right? He loves to be coached, his body language is always the way it needs to be.It's just like, man, is there anything that I can get on you about that needs to be fixed? So I think he's comfortable in who he is. He knows what his skill set is, and he plays to that."

8. On embracing the alumni...

"My message would be: we need you, right? We can't get to where we're going without you, right? The only way you're going to get to where you're going is you got to know where you came from, right? And expectations, right? I'm not worried about, but I want the expectations of the former players. I want these guys to know it, right? I want the guys that are on this team now to know what it means for all the guys that have wore the V-Sabre before. Like, I embrace those expectations and I want the guys to be fully aware of that because it is a brotherhood. And this is home.

This is not, as I said from day one, and this will never be the Tony Elliott football program. This is Virginia football and we're all a part of it. And so, man, I want these guys to know who their big brothers are because you know what? They know the experience at the University of Virginia better than I do right? Because I didn't sleep in the dorms on grounds, I didn't go to the classes on grounds, they did, right? They also know what life after football is as a Virginia alum. So all of that, man, we need as we build this program.

So this is home, we need you, you're welcome here. Only thing I'm going to ask you for is just, man, your time. And the time that I want is for you to invest in these young men because they need you. They need positive voices in their ears as they're navigating just this crazy time in college football."

9. On the wide receiver competition...

" It's going to be both, we'll push, they got to push. What I want to see is just consistency, right? I want the quarterbacks to have confidence because they know that X guy is going to show up the same way every single day. And that's really what it's going to take is the talent is there. Now it's just a function of who's going to be the most consistent to create separation amongst the peers.

So we're going to push. And man, I was getting on de-de today, Da’Shawn Martin, because again, he's a guy that we believe has a ton of potential and upside. You just got to be consistent. Two plays down there, running a corner ball down in the red zone. It's like, man, hey, that's a quarterback's best friend. In the red zone is a corner ball. And that's what he's looking for. Man, you got to run to win. And he agreed.

So I'm pushing there. But I need him to push, and I believe he will, right? He took the coaching the way he's supposed to, and the reps after that were better. So I think for those guys, they got to push if they want to separate.

At the end of the day, I don't mind playing them all if they're all kind of in the same category. And if somebody wants to separate, then that's going to be the pushing that they have to do. I'm going to try and push them all to be consistent enough for the quarterbacks to have confidence to go out and play at a high level."

10. On being a strong third down offense and defense again...

"Yeah, you start day one with situational football. And today was more base down, right? So it's the first day out the gate, base down, but then we had some field zone. So we worked some red zone on day one because studies, just studying ourselves over the last couple years, that's an area where you probably don't work as much as you do have those scenarios come up in a game. So we started earlier in camp introducing red zone. And then as we get the pads on, then we'll get into our third down. So I believe day three, we'll start introducing our third down situation, starting with short yardage and working our way back to long.

And then we'll really hit those situations in our scrimmages, both as the flow of the scrimmage goes on and then some scripted situations in third down. And then we'll always be talking situational football. This is a great time of year where we have them captive to be able to just sit down as an organization and understand what third down, offense and third down defense Offense and third down defense is really, really all about as opposed to, okay, this is just a play. Well, it's more than a play, as you said, it's the situational awareness and what is the opposing offense trying to do to your defense on third down. So we'll talk a lot about that throughout the course of a fall camp."

11. On Omillio Agard...

"Yeah, so what stands out to me about Omillio is, man, he can flip that switch. You know, you meet him around the building. And he can flip that switch.

You meet him around the building. He's as pleasant a young man as you're going to meet. Very respectful, very, very humble. When he walks across those white lines now, he flips a switch and he becomes what you want in a defensive back. And I saw quickly the suddenness and the burst. And then unfortunately, a play where he gets hit and falls wrong on his wrist and then now he's out. But today he was running around. He brings a ton of energy. He's a student of the game. So when I'm in here asking questions about situational football, he sits about second row, two seats in, and he's answering the questions. He's got a ton of ability. He's a good teammate. He's a competitor.

So Jacobie (Henderson) made a good play on the other side. And then here comes Omillio running by Beau (Pribula), talking trash to Beau. So he's talking trash. He's got the right mindset."

12. On Beau Pribula's leadership...

"Yeah, so started with getting us fired up and ready to go with how we start or how we end our stretching session with our who's jacks and just body language and command in the huddle, trying to drive the guys. I saw good body language even when a guy may not have made a play for him, which is a part of leadership. I think that sometimes people overlook those type of things in a quarterback. You want to see good body language from a quarterback when his receiver doesn't make a play that should be made. So those little things that you see and today a lot of the guys got reps.

So Eli (Holstein) got reps, Cole (Geer) got reps. And I thought he did a good job of just been cheering those guys on, supporting those guys. That's important. Those are all, to me, really, really good leadership signs of really, really good leadership."

13. On working on causing more turnovers...

" Great question. I think in practice is putting an emphasis on it. And so when we have our competitive stuff, guys always finishing around the ball and trying to punch the ball out. Once we get our pads on, we'll do some more specific ball security type drills for the offense to protect it and the defense to take it away. Putting a high level of emphasis and rewarding those instances and practices where you do have a turnover in a way that's positive for the program. And I don't know if you change anything about the defense other than when you have a chance to come down with the ball, right? And I think there were some opportunities that we saw where if we, man, we catch a ball here and there, it makes a big difference in your turnover margin.

But I thought we did a good job as a team improving with our turnover margin last year in terms of taking care of the ball a little bit better. And then also, we actually got some more balls."

14. On having an experienced punter and kicker this season...

"Man, huge. It's huge. Now, we were picking at Sparky (Daniel Sparks) because we said we think he's like a 10th year senior now. It seems like Sparky's been here forever. But you know the caliber of player that you got at both positions.

Both of them can be all conference level. And so it takes a little bit of pressure off of the offense and the defense to have to be perfect, right? So you can be a little bit more aggressive. And then being a little bit more aggressive can maybe result in some more turnovers, right? Which really, really impact the game. But not having to start over in that aspect is critical."

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