Virginia Football coach Tony Elliott, when he took the job two Decembers ago, made a public case out of doing a better job of recruiting in-state.
Early signing day, on Wednesday, has come and gone, and Virginia has four kids from the state from the prep Class of 2024, and none from the Top 10.
Work still to do.
Elliott’s signing day press conference on Wednesday gave him the opportunity to sell fans and UVA Athletics donors the excuses as to why he isn’t getting done what he has said is a priority.
“Virginia is a priority inside out,” Elliott said at Wednesday’s presser.
See, I’m not putting words in his mouth there.
“I want to do it with guys in-state,” Elliott continued, “and I feel like we made a run at all the top players in the state, and we got in a race with some of them and came down to the final two, and then some we weren’t able to get into the race because they had already had established relationships. I think for us, the biggest thing is making sure that the guys that we do have, right, they have a great experience. And so far, the guys that that are from Virginia are having a good experience here, and I think that resonates with the coaches.”
Apparently not enough to get those coaches to send more of their kids to the University of Virginia, so, there’s that.
Georgia got the #1 and #3 2024 recruits out of the state, per the rankings from 247Sports, Salem linebacker Chris Cole and Fairfax linebacker Kristopher Cole.
It was an all-SEC Top 5 (two to Georgia, one each to South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee), then the bottom half of the Top 10 saw Virginia Tech land two recruits – Green Run (Virginia Beach) wideout Keylen Adams and Frank W. Cox (Virginia Beach) edge rusher Gerard Johnson.
Virginia’s top-rated in-state recruit is Episcopal (Vienna, Va.) tight end John Rogers, a three-star prospect who ranked 13th, per 247Sports, in the Class of 2024 among in-state prospects.
Elliott was able to get a late pick-up with Kameron Courtney, a former Indiana commit who reopened his recruiting after IU fired head coach Tom Allen last month, committing on Tuesday.
Courtney, listed as an athlete, from Freedom (Woodbridge), was ranked 20th in Virginia in the Class of 2024.
Two of the pick-ups from the transfer portal – Notre Dame grad transfer wideout Chris Tyree (Thomas Dale, Chester) and Harvard grad transfer (Lafayette, Williamsburg) – are Virginia natives coming back home to finish out the last year of their college careers.
Elliott feels the guys coming back to finish things out “is going to help us because they see they kind of create some interest with especially the younger high school guys that may not have had a connection to Virginia, but now they see some of these older guys that were high-profile coming back.”
Sounds like wishful thinking, but that’s where we are with this.
As Elliott continued the recruiting apologia, he conjured up “stigmas and some stereotypes about UVA that may have been warranted or unwarranted, right.”
Virginia, for the record, was in an Orange Bowl four years ago – two Decembers before Elliott was hired, just to be clear on this.
The “stigmas” and “stereotypes” about Virginia Football get more traction because the program has won just three games each of the past two seasons.
Warranted, or unwarranted.
Let’s go with unwarranted.
Back to the problems with recruiting.
Warning: word salad to follow.
“The players that fit what we’re looking for, we’ve got to recruit them hard, provide them every opportunity to come, and when they do come, have success, but then also make sure that we’re delivering on the deliverables, that they’re having a great experience, we’re making sure that they’re progressing academically, they’re developing football-wise, and as we do those things, I think the relationships will continue to improve,” Elliott said.
Two years in, and Elliott is still at square zero with recruiting in-state.
But it’s very much a priority.
We know because Elliott tells us so.
He concluded this part of the presser thusly:
“I want to sign as many guys from the state of Virginia as we possibly can, and I know the staff and myself are making a run at all the top players, and it’s just going to take us, you know, more time, but I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
Dear goodness.
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Chris Graham
