UVA Athletics: Tyler Jones named GM for football, women’s basketball

UVA Athletics has finally named a general manager for its football program – Tyler Jones, who has been on Grounds as the deputy athletics director for external operations for the past two years.

Jones will be the GM for football and women’s basketball, and he will serve in a job with the title CAP manager for football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball.

As CAP manager, Jones, an Eastern Michigan alum, will be responsible for roster budgets and funding components, including scholarships, revenue sharing and other student-athlete benefits, and will manage CAP compliance and work directly with the Cav Futures marketing agency and UVA’s NIL partners.

Another new title for Jones listed in the press release announcing all of this: chief strategy officer.

Sounds like Jones will be running a lot of the show over there at the McCue Center.

“Tyler has done an outstanding job navigating this changing landscape while managing our front office efforts over the last year. We’re prioritizing a sensible structure that honors our efforts to be as fiscally responsible as possible while giving us the best chance to compete for championships,” his boss, Carla Williams, said in a statement.

Reading between the lines, with Williams talking about the “sensible structure”: men’s basketball and baseball don’t seem to be getting separate GMs.

Griff Aldrich, a former corporate lawyer before getting into college coaching, has been serving as the de facto GM for men’s basketball under the new head coach, Ryan Odom, and things seem to have been going swimmingly.

Chris Pollard, the new baseball coach, brought with him from Duke two guys with the title recruiting coordinator, Derek Simmons and Eric Tyler, along with a third guy, John Natoli, whose job title is director of player development.

That would seem to cover the administrative needs there.

Football is the operation with the most to manage, with 105 players and 45 paid staffers.

The focus is obviously there, with Jones getting help with the elevation of Justin Speros, a Clemson alum who was hired by Elliott to work first as director of scouting, then as director of recruiting, to be the assistant football GM.

The press release telling us about all of this also noted that Scott Pioli will continue in his consulting role. Pioli is a five-time NFL Executive of the Year and three-time Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots.

Pioli, per the release, will have an enhanced role within the department and will serve as Executive Consultant – Front Office & Operations.

“Scott has been an amazing resource and an invaluable asset,” Williams said. “Justin continues to show why he is one of the rising stars in our industry. We’re excited to formalize this team and our front office.”