UVA Football: Des Kitchings appears to be safe as OC, per Tony Elliott

UVA Football coach Tony Elliott doesn’t anticipate any changes to his staff, and since the obvious change that he needed to make was with his offensive coordinator, Des Kitchings, we can presume that Kitchings gets another year, for reasons known only to Elliott.

Elliott started his answer to a question on his staff, from Wednesday’s press conference to discuss the 2025 recruiting class, with a classic Tony Elliott word salad.

“I’ve been very, very critical of myself, first and foremost, starts with me, and then just evaluating from the standpoint of relationships, to ability to put the players in the right positions, do you consistently put them in an advantageous numbers situation or angle situation for them to be successful?”

I’m not even sure what Elliott means there, but we can presume, whatever he was trying to get at, he thinks Kitchings is consistently putting his offense in numbers and angle situations to be successful.

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ICYMI

• UVA Football: I have the perfect new offensive coordinator for Tony Elliott
• UVA Football: Tony Elliott knows what he needs to do with Des Kitchings
• UVA Football: Ugly Virginia Tech loss foretells a housecleaning that, news flash, isn’t coming
• Mailbag: What if UVA Football went with an option-based offense?

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The data would suggest otherwise.

Among the 133 teams in FBS, the UVA offense ranked 106th nationally in scoring (22.7 points per game), 94th in total offense (360.9 yards per game), 103rd in red zone offense (4.1 points per red zone trip), 117th in third-down conversions (34.3 percent), and 132nd in sacks allowed (47).

In the final three games, all losses – with a bowl bid on the line in all three – the offense averaged 249.0 yards and 12.7 points per game, with five passes intercepted and the O line allowing 16 sacks.

Kitchings was a reach when Elliott hired him in 2021, after two one-year stints as an offensive coordinator, at Vanderbilt and NC State, that ended with him being let go.

His first offense, in 2022, averaged 17.0 points and 344.1 yards per game; his 2023 offense averaged 368.8 yards and 23.3 points per game.

With two experienced QBs – Anthony Colandrea and Tony Muskett – returning, along with an experienced O line, and depth at the wideout, tight end and tailback positions – the 2024 offense regressed from last year.

But it sounds like Kitchings will be back for a fourth year.

The slight hedge there is that Elliott left open the possibility that “somebody could walk in and say, Hey, Coach, I got this opportunity that I want to look at, and again, I’m all about that, right?” the head coach said.

“I’m all about trying to develop the staff, and only thing I ask is just make sure that it’s a better situation, right, and not just a lateral move,” Elliott said. “But I don’t anticipate, I haven’t heard anything from any of my coaches. We’ll continue to evaluate, and again, we’re about a few days post season. But right now, I don’t anticipate any changes.”