Tony Elliott Virginia Cavaliers — Photo courtesy of Ken Ruinard/USA TODAY NETWORK

Lots of Work to Do for New UVA Head Coach Tony Elliott

Elliott has plenty on his plate in his first few days as Virginia head coach

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Dec 11, 2021 8:27 PM EST

Tony Elliott will be formally introduced as the head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers football team in a press conference on Monday.

Before then, however, Elliott has quite the laundry list of urgent items to get done in his first few days in order to stabilize things in the Virginia football program.

Transfer Portal

Virginia has already had several players enter the transfer portal since the end of the season. If you include players who entered the portal during the season, the number is closer to 20. Some of the players, such as reserve quarterbacks Ira Armstead and Jacob Rodriguez, would have likely entered the transfer portal regardless of Bronco Mendenhall’s decision to step down at the end of the season. Others, such as starting offensive linemen Olusegun Oluwatimi and Bobby Haskins and linebacker Noah Taylor, are starters whose decisions to enter the transfer portal were likely motivated by Mendenhall’s resignation.

One of the first tasks for Tony Elliott in his new position is to essentially ‘stop the bleeding’ with players leaving the UVA football program. There are likely a number of players on the roster who are still seriously considering entering the transfer portal. Elliott should immediately have discussions with those players about their futures with the program and encourage them to stay on the team. Additionally, many of the players who have already entered their names into the transfer portal still have the option to return to Virginia. If Elliott is able to convince some of them to return, that would be a major victory in the early stages of Elliott’s tenure. Finally, Elliott can begin to look at the transfer portal from the other direction as well, looking to secure commitments from players who have entered the portal from other teams.

Coaching Staff

The players who are still considering transferring out of the UVA football program are likely waiting to see what happens with certain position coaches from Bronco Mendenhall’s coaching staff. It is entirely up to the discretion of Tony Elliott to determine his coaching staff at Virginia, but it is no secret that there are a few very popular members of Mendenhall’s coaching staff that the players would love to see retained. Offensive line coach Garett Tujague, wide receivers coach Marques Hagans, quarterbacks coach Jason Beck and others are coaches that Elliott should at least consider retaining from the current Virginia football coaching staff. Giving those coaches a chance to remain in their positions will likely go a long way for Elliott’s efforts to establish a sense of stability in the Virginia football program.

Early Signing Period

The NCAA Division I football early signing period begins on December 15th and runs for just three days through December 17th. UVA has already had multiple recruits decommit, including four-star offensive lineman Andrew Gentry, who decommitted from Virginia and committed to Michigan on Wednesday. Virginia has 14 commits in the class of 2022 expected to come to Charlottesville next fall, but all of them committed to play for Bronco Mendenhall and his coaching staff. Tony Elliott will need to reach out to each of those players in order to secure their commitments. The more recruits Elliott can get to sign with Virginia during the early signing period, the better.

There certainly is no such thing as a honeymoon period for the new marriage between Tony Elliott and the Virginia football program. The hard work starts right away.