Tony Elliott shares new mantra for Virginia’s 2026 season: ‘A-B-C-1-2-3’

In 2025, Virginia’s mantra was TLC to CLT, which translates to "team, leadership and commitment will bring the Cavaliers to Charlotte for the ACC Championship game."

It worked.

The Cavaliers won 11 games (a school record) and beat an SEC opponent in a major bowl game. Virginia was a few plays away from the College Football Playoff. Now, the Cavaliers enter a year in which “prove it” might be even more relevant than last year. Coach Tony Elliott has reached the next level of his vision for the program — sustaining success.

“And this year, strategically, it started with ABC,” Elliott said on the MacLain and Gramlich Show. “Keep it simple, right? We're not reinventing the wheel because of what happened last season. We're actually doubling down on just the simple things, and then it's A-B-C-1-2-3, and I know it sounds corny, but there's only been two ACC championships in school history, and that's what the 1-2-3 is for. We want to be the third, right?

That last number is especially relevant. Virginia came close to capturing that third title last year before losing to underdog Duke in overtime. Over 50 players on this roster were there that frigid night at Bank of America Stadium. They watched another team celebrate frivolously.

The 2026 Cavaliers are a hungry bunch, eager to capture an ever-elusive trophy.

“But in order to do that, we have to keep it simple, right?” Elliott said. “We have to stay humble. We got to focus on the little things, because that's what produces success. And really, last year was the product of work put in two years before.”

In 2023 and 2024, Elliott’s teams steadily improved — but faced a difficult schedule. Ever since the ACC’s latest expansion, there has been an increasingly large gap between “easy schedules” and “hard schedules.”

For example, Virginia only has to face two teams expected to finish in the top half of the ACC this season (SMU and Cal), while Virginia Tech has to play all of those teams except Louisville (Hokies play Miami, SMU, Virginia, Clemson, Cal, Pitt and Georgia Tech).

However, once the games start, a schedule is just a schedule. Elliott knows that anything can happen in the ACC. He said that he wants his team to feed their focus and starve any distractions.

“I think it just starts with what is our approach, and so so for us, it's the why of the program, and and the why of the program is to help build champion men,” Elliott said. “It’s the pursuit of each one of us chasing excellence in everything that we do, and so with that, there's an expectation for the success to come, but then there's also a humility to know that you're not entitled to it. It has to be earned.”

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