Tony Elliott Wants Virginia Football to be the “Model Program in College Football”

Best quotes from Tony Elliott’s introductory press conference as Virginia head football coach

Matt Newton | Dec 14, 2021

In his first public appearance as Virginia’s head football coach, Tony Elliott delivered some memorable soundbites. Here are the best quotes from Tony Elliott’s introductory press conference on Monday afternoon.

On what drew him to Virginia

“I have patiently waited for this opportunity, and I'm ready. Over the past 11 years, I've seen the establishment of a championship culture, what it looks like, and I'm prepared for this moment. I chose UVA because I wanted to lead a program that was partnered with a university that had world-class academics. I wanted to be able to recruit the best and the brightest student-athletes.

I wanted to compete in the best conference in college athletics. I wanted to be a part of an alignment with Ms. Carla and President Ryan that shared a vision that was similar to mine, which is centered around the holistic development of the student-athlete. And lastly, I wanted to be part of a university and athletic department that would not compromise its values to win.

There is no better place for me than UVA. And there is no better time than now.”

On his vision for the Virginia football program

“My vision for the UVA football program is to become the model in college football, the model program in college football. My goal is to contribute to changing the narrative in college football and demonstrate that you can win at the highest level and you can do so while achieving excellence in education, leadership and service.

I know the business of college football will judge me based on the results on the scoreboard, and I am passionate about producing positive results, but more importantly I know that I'll ultimately be judged by the positive impact that I make on the lives of the players and the staff that I am so humbled to lead.

To all the former players, I look forward to embracing your legacies and your traditions as we build a program that acts and we field the team that is fit. It's time to go to work. Go Hoos.”

On potentially retaining some of the current Virginia football coaching staff

“So I'm going to take my time, and as I told the staff, they'll have an opportunity to be evaluated as we go forward. I'm going to get feedback from the players, and I've already talked to some, and they've given me their impressions of the coaches on the staff. I'm going to continue to meet with Coach Bronco and just get a full understanding of the structure and the challenges and some of the things that he's faced as I build the staff.”

On his plan for Virginia’s offensive and defensive identity

“I want to score and I want to stop people.

So my background is a two-back, no-huddle spread. That's my background. But if you've watched over the years, been very multiple, and I think you have to adapt your system to the personnel that you have.

Every year each team has its own identity, so we'll base out of that and go from there. I'm anxious to watch, and I told the guys last night, the offense that they run here, man, it's always been intriguing to me, so it's going to be fun to be able to watch these guys practice and prepare.

Defensively I want to be known as a controlled, aggressive defense, meaning that we're aggressive, but we're under control, we’ll surround, we get 11 hats to the football, very good at disguising our coverages. We can be multiple, find ways to disrupt the decision maker and then stop the run.”

On his recruiting strategy

“I think recruiting starts in your own locker room. That's where we're going to start. We're going to build a culture that recruits itself. So we're going to have an inside-out mentality, meaning that we're recruiting the person first and the player second. So we're going to have to do a great job of evaluation and identifying those guys that fit the profile on both ends, from an academic standpoint and an athletic standpoint.

We're going to work. We're going to make the state a priority. We understand that the Commonwealth has a ton of talent. Now, not every individual will be the profile that we're looking for, but we're going to have relationships in the state, and I'm about relationships and recruiting. I know times have changed coming from a situation where we were all over the place, but I still believe that you can have relationships, and at the end of the day that's what recruiting is to me.”

On his family’s input for accepting the Virginia job

“I'm going to get some brownie points. Happy wife, happy life. But for us, it's about family, and for me, growing up in the circumstances that I did, football was where I found a lot of my solace in terms of a family.

Now that I'm a father and a husband, that's the most important thing to me. Yes, I sit here as a head coach, but I'm dad, and that's my biggest job is to be dad and to be husband. If they didn't give me the thumbs up, it's not happening. Just general impressions, obviously coming from Clemson, very similar feel. You can just feel the passion for the place, and I think that was important to me.

But we've got three Chick-Fil-A's, I believe, in Charlottesville, right? There's three of them and a Target. Target was important. Target was almost a deal-breaker. Ain't that right, Ace?”

On the Early Signing period

“Yes, I did have a chance to evaluate and had a chance to speak with those individuals last night, and I thought we had a good -- just a good meeting, and able to kind of outline who I am and what my plan and vision is going forward.

The challenging part was the dead period started, and I wasn't able to see those guys face to face, so my message was, hey, just gotta trust that I'm going to do everything I can to build a staff that you can be proud of for those guys, and we've just got to continue to work through communication up through signing day to try and hold those guys together.”

On observing the team as it prepares for the Fenway Bowl

“So first of all, Coach Mendenhall has been very gracious to welcome me in and open himself up to as much access as I want, and I have to say this: I know I'm not the smartest man in my house with Dr. Elliott, but I pride myself on being smart, but I had a chance to sit down with Bronco yesterday, and oh, my gosh, unbelievable. Unbelievable. He encouraged me, I've got to go dust off some books and get to reading. But that's just a great compliment to him. I'm very appreciative of his willingness to help me in this transition.

As much as he'll let me be around, I don't want to be a distraction. Just as I said to the team, this is Coach Bronco's team until the end of the bowl, but I wanted you to hear who I am, what my vision is, so I'll be a fly on the wall, try to stay out of the way, and whatever he'll let me have access to, I'll take advantage of it, so it could be film, it could be observing practice, but that's my plan.”

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