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Watch: Tony Elliott Welcomes New Staff Members to UVA Football

Elliott officially welcomed Des Kitchings, Kevin Downing, Keith Gaither, and Chris Slade to his Virginia football coaching staff

Matt Newton

Tony Elliott made his first round of hires to his on-field Virginia football coaching staff this week. In the past few days, UVA's new head football coach posted a few videos to social media officially welcoming Des Kitchings, Kevin Downing, Keith Gaither, and Chris Slade. 

On Tuesday, Elliott officially announced the hiring of Desmond Kitchings, who served as the running backs coach for the Atlanta Falcons this season, as Virginia's offensive coordinator. "He comes to us with a wealth of experience - ACC experience, SEC experience, and also NFL experience," Elliott said of Kitchings. "He's a great recruiter, great communicator, outstanding football coach, but he's an even better person." 

On Wednesday, Elliott posted a video formally welcoming Navy defensive line coach Kevin Downing to the UVA football coaching staff. "You guys are gonna love him and his family," Elliott said of Downing in the video. "He is a great teacher, a great developer, outstanding recruiter, but even better person." 

Finally, Elliott confirmed two more hirings on Thursday, welcoming Army assistant coach Keith Gaither and former UVA football star linebacker Chris Slade to the defensive side of the coaching staff. "He can coach any position on the field, so I'm so excited that our guys on defense are going to be mentored by a man like Keith Gaither," Elliott said of Gaither, who will serve in a role coaching the UVA defense after spending the last several seasons as a wide receivers coach. Gaither has experience coaching defensive backs as well. 

"I got to experience having an opportunity, as a former player, to coach at my alma mater, so this was a really really cool hire for me to have an opportunity to bring Chris Slade back to Charlottesville ," Elliott said. "He's genuine, humble, but very very passionate about the orange and blue." 

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

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