Elliott ‘not surprised’ that UVA was picked 16th in ACC preseason football poll

The preseason ACC Football media poll is out, and it was a punch in the gut to see Virginia picked 16th in the now-17-team conference.

Only Stanford, which was 3-9 in its last season as a member of the Pac-12, is picked lower.

UVA Football coach Tony Elliott told reporters after practice on Wednesday that the news about the preseason poll didn’t come as a shock.

“Last time we stepped on the field in an ACC game, we did not we did not do our part, so, not surprised. Obviously, we got a lot of work to do. We believe that we can finish better than that,” Elliott said, referencing the humbling 55-17 loss to Virginia Tech in the 2023 season finale, which put a cap on a 3-9 finish in Elliott’s second year at the helm of the Virginia program.

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I might be the lone guy in the media that covers the UVA program on a regular basis that thinks the 2024 season can be the year that Elliott gets it all together – with depth and talent on the O and D lines and two experienced guys at QB.

The schedule lines up favorably at the outset – with a series of winnable games in the first five weeks, starting with Richmond at home on Aug. 31, ahead of a challenging, to say the least, stretch in October and November that includes road games at Clemson, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.

Elliott said he addressed the preseason poll with his team.

“Told the guys, don’t worry about what people are saying in the preseason. All that matters is what they’re saying at the end of the season. And today was the start of us making our case for that. So, all we can do is focus on what we can control, OK? And what we do to control is what we think, what we believe, and then come out here every single day with purpose to be able to bring that to life,” Elliott said.

I like the approach. Don’t hide from the bad stuff that people on the outside; address it head on, use it as motivation.

“Our plan is to go down in the submarine, so to speak, and just focus on what we can control, focus on our process,” Elliott said. “And then, we get 12 Saturdays. That’s what matters, we get 12 Saturdays, and every year, when you look at it, they get it wrong, right? There’s always teams that are picked to finish high that don’t finish high, there’s always teams that are picked to finish low that don’t finish low.

“So, we got 25 practices and 12 Saturdays, and then all the days in between, to do something about it,” Elliott said.