Swinney Wants Elliott to be an Old Head Coach, not just a Head Coach

Tony Elliott’s Relationship with Dabo Swinney Has Changed Over the Years

Jim Dedmon / USA TODAY Sports

CHARLOTTE — Over the years, Tony Elliott’s relationship with Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has changed somewhat.

At first, when Swinney came to Clemson as Tommy Bowden’s receiver’s coach in 2003, the relationship became a father-son relationship. When Swinney came on that spring, the two instantly connected. Both shared similar paths to become college athletes and both suffered through personal adversity as children that shaped them into the men they became.

“I was coming off of three years of playing for Rick Stockstill. Then there was a transition, and I was asked to come back, and I already graduated from Clemson with an engineering degree,” Virginia’s new head coach recalled Thursday during Day 2 of ACC Football Kickoff from the Westin Charlotte in Charlotte, N.C. “There was a lot of uncertainty because I was a walk-on. I didn’t know what was going to happen, and here comes Coach Swinney. We had similarities in our background. Our values that we had already aligned.”

Swinney was Elliott’s position coach at Clemson in 2003. Years later, when Elliott joined Swinney’s coaching staff, it transitioned into a mentor / colleague relationship.

“I aligned with a lot that he was doing at Clemson,” Elliott said. “I also valued his opinion on a lot of things. I would seek advice to him. A couple of things he told me is he wanted me to be an old head coach, not just a head coach, which means that you go somewhere where it’s the right fit.”

Elliott said he learned a lot about how to build a culture and what protecting and establishing a culture will do for a program if he wants to sustain it. He watched as Swinney built Clemson into a national power, but also into a program that graduated its players and guided them to become leaders and businessmen in their communities long after their glory days on the football field.

“I learned a lot of things about just how to run the day to day, and that's what's so awesome about Coach Swinney, is he is very inclusive. He includes a lot of people,” Elliott said. Sometimes people use that as a knock, but to me that’s one of his greatest assets. He values people and incorporates people, and he allows people to develop. He was instrumental in helping me develop, but he also taught me that, hey, you don't have to be in a rush.”

Swinney taught Elliott to enjoy the moment, be present where his feet were as he prepared, and then look for confirmation. The objective is to be an old head coach, not just a head coach.

After years of being courted by multiple schools, Elliott finally settled on Virginia last December. Now he hopes to do what his old head coach taught him. Don’t just become a head coach but become an old one.

“There’s a lot of similarities between where I was coming from and UVA,” Elliott said. “It’s a college-oriented town. It’s in the ACC, and I believe that this is the best conference in college football.

“I’ve experienced it at the highest level, so I knew I had a chance to compete for championships. Then the last thing is I wanted to be somewhere where I could build what I believe is the model program that shows you can win at the highest level, but you don’t have to compromise anything from a character standpoint, an academic standpoint and player development standpoint.”