Tony Elliott won a grand total of 11 games in his first three years as the UVA Football coach, but you could cut him some slack for the three-win seasons in Years 1 and 2 – Year 1 was a rebuild interrupted by the awful Nov. 13, 2022, murders of three of his players, which, in turn, put Year 2 into a different, more subdued, light for all involved.
Year 3, I dunno – Elliott had a starting QB in place going in, in the form of Anthony Colandrea, and a favorable schedule that allowed the ‘Hoos to get out to a 4-1 start.
Virginia, you may remember, had a lead with two minutes to go at home over a Louisville that would go on to win nine games with a chance to get to 5-1.
The Cardinals rallied, won, and UVA spiraled, losing six of its last seven to finish 5-7, with the 2024 season coming to a conclusive thud in another blowout loss to a not-good Virginia Tech team down in Blacksburg.
The offseason began with Colandrea hitting the transfer portal, threatening to upset the rebuild at a critical time, but the money people came through, giving Elliott a Middle East oil magnate’s NIL budget that he has used well – stocking up at QB, the O and D lines, at wideout and in the defensive secondary, at tailback, and keeping in-house everybody else you would have wanted him to.
ICYMI
- UVA Football: Tony Elliott acknowledges ‘impact’ of investments in NIL
- UVA Football: Elliott able to upgrade QB room with Morris, Kaelin
- UVA Football: Elliott poaches Colorado’s leading rusher from portal
- UVA Football: ‘Hoos land Jayden Thomas, Notre Dame wideout, from the portal
- UVA Football: Elliott adds talent, depth, experience to O line from the transfer portal
- UVA Football: ‘Hoos land grad transfer from national champ Ohio State to D line
- UVA Football: ‘Hoos add more depth to secondary with two CB portal pickups
I don’t know that the national football writers have zoned in on where Elliott has things going into the summer quite yet, but those of us who follow UVA Athletics on the daily are well aware that this is the deepest and most talented roster we’ve seen in these parts in a while, certainly since the 2019 team that made it to the ACC Championship Game and gave a Top 10 Florida outfit everything it could handle in the Orange Bowl.
The early-season schedule is, again, favorable – three very winnable home games in the first four weeks, with a visit to a rebuilding NC State in Week 2 the only road game in that stretch, then Florida State at home and at Louisville before the first bye week in mid-October.
I’m going to put it out there now: 5-1 is doable, 6-0 is (I can’t believe I’m thinking this, much less putting it on the record) possible, and 4-2 is the floor.
The second-half schedule has road games at UNC, Cal and Duke, none of which are scary, and home games with Washington State, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech.
No Clemson. No Notre Dame.
One non-conference road game.
Toughest conference game being the one in Chapel Hill, against a washed-up NFL coach being led around by a college-age girlfriend 50 years his junior.
Elliott has no excuse, with that embarrassingly oversized NIL budget, and the ridiculously light schedule, not to win eight games this season – and if he’s already at eight by the time Virginia Tech comes to town on Nov. 29 for the regular-season finale, he’d better get to nine.
Anything less, and the money people who set him up to succeed are going to find another guy who can take their millions and translate them into wins.
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Chris Graham
