The millions from the big-money donors who funded UVA Football coach Tony Elliott’s transfer-portal spending spree in the offseason came with the expected strings attached.
The consensus on the over/under in wins that the money folks are expecting from Elliott in the fall is eight, and word is, it would be helpful if Virginia Tech at home in the season finale is one of the eight.
The obvious challenge here is that Elliott hasn’t yet led Virginia to even a 6-6 record in his three seasons at the helm.
His 2024 team, the best of the bunch to date, got out to a 4-1 start, but lost six of its last seven, including a blowout loss at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in the season finale, to finish 5-7.
Following the season, a single big-money donor reportedly committed $100 million that was, again, reportedly, to be budgeted over a 10-year period to jumpstart a competitive NIL regime for UVA Football.
We’re now learning that other big-money folks chipped in gobs more dollars, and that the group went on to decide to give Elliott free rein to spend in the 2024-2025 offseason as he saw fit.
The results were impressive – the 2025 transfer class ranked in the Top 20 nationally, with the big gets including two ace QBs, Chandler Morris and Daniel Kaelin, and top-tier O linemen Monroe Mills and Brady Wilson, all of whom, I am told, were seven-figure gets, and this was just at the top of the food chain.
ICYMI
- UVA Football: Tony Elliott acknowledges ‘impact’ of investments in NIL
- UVA Football: Transfer portal class gets nice grades from the recruiting services
The thinking from the money people in terms of being willing to go all-in on 2025 is, it’s time to decide the future for Tony Elliott, who is 11-23 through three seasons in Charlottesville.
Elliott is in Year 4 of a six-year deal, with a coach-friendly buyout that entitles him to everything he is owed contractually through the spring of 2028.
UVA Athletics isn’t in the same spot financially that, for instance, the folks down at Virginia Tech are, so, if it’s going to cost $8 million to buy him out, the money is obviously there.
The money folks are rightly reading that Elliott’s first two seasons were set back by the coach’s dumb decision, aided and abetted by Athletics Director Carla Williams, to tear down what he’d inherited from Bronco Mendenhall to start from scratch, then the obvious fallout from the Nov. 13 shooting.
I’d throw in the factor of the money folks holding out on giving Elliott more to work with as they tried to get a read on how the NIL game was going to play out as being at play here as well.
Elliott spent his first three years on Grounds cleaning up his own mess, dealing with unthinkable tragedy, and trying to piece together a roster with a trickle of the resources available to his ACC peers.
The huge budget he was given in the offseason removes the excuses, and raises expectations.
Eight.
Share
Chris Graham
