There’s literally one report on the interwebs, from three weeks ago, putting UVA Football coach Tony Elliott on a list of possible hires for the open job at Arkansas.
I don’t see it, but I can understand – and honestly, we should all be flattered, that our program is in a place where our coach is thought of as a candidate for an SEC job.
Elliott, of course, has only had one winning season in his four years at Virginia – this season – but, in his defense, the school only this year got into the big-boy football business, so it’s hard to put the onus for the 11-23 record in his first three years totally on him.
Finally given a budget to work with, Elliott has Virginia at 9-2, and a win on Saturday away from a berth in the ACC Championship Game, and then a win there away from a spot in the College Football Playoff.
That escalated quickly, indeed.
I’m assuming that he’s due for a lengthy and lucrative extension – Elliott’s current contract runs two more years, and is set to pay him $3.9 million next year, and $4.05 million in 2027.
For context there: the guy down the road, James Franklin, just got hired at Virginia Tech on a five-year deal that will pay him an average of $8.2 million annually.
ICYMI
Elliott is going to get a raise, and he’s going to get more years – at least three more, to get him through the end of the 2030 season.
Arkansas was paying Sam Pittman, the coach that it fired mid-season, $6.8 million this year.
This is the school that hired John Calipari away from Kentucky with a contract that paid him $8 million last year.
They got Walmart money paying the bills down there at Arkansas.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean they get everybody they want.
For instance, there’s an assumption that they wanted James Franklin, and he took the Virginia Tech job, with a contract structured to pay the bulk of what he’s going to get there in the final two years of the deal, in large part because Tech doesn’t have the money right now – they’re just ramping up their efforts to compete in the Power 4 football arms race; they’re only about a decade behind down there in Southwest Virginia.
ICYMI
Arkansas Football is way down in the pecking order in the SEC, which puts on the marquee names like Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee.
At best, Arkansas gets a coach to move them into the neighborhood of Vanderbilt and Ole Miss – the latter maybe on its way back down to the bottom-feeders, depending on what Lane Kiffin does, and we all know, he gone.
But they are going to try, again – they lured Bret Bielema from Wisconsin a few years back with their Walmart money, and they’re going to get, you know, somebody, probably as early as early to mid-week next week.
Will it be Tony Elliott?
Maybe.
Doubtful, but maybe.
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Chris Graham
