WATCH: Tony Elliott Talks Marques Hagans' Departure, Promotion of Adam Mims

Virginia head football coach Tony Elliott commented on the coaching change the Cavaliers made at wide receivers coach

Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

In Tony Elliott's National Signing Day press conference last week, the Virginia head football coach was asked about the departure of Marques Hagans, who left his post as UVA's wide receivers coach after 12 seasons to go to Penn State, and the promotion of Adam Mims to replace Hagans as Virginia's wide receiver coach. 

Hear what Elliott had to say about Marques Hagans and Adam Mims in the video below and read along with the transcript underneath the video. 

"First and foremost, excited, for Marques and his new opportunity and very, very grateful for his service to the institution and also the impact that he made in the community. He and his wife Lauren were instrumental for years not just in Virginia football but in the Charlottesville area. So, very very appreciative of an opportunity to be around them. I became a better person being around Marques and just the quality individual that he is and the way that he lives his life."

"The conversation is probably similar to the conversations that I had when I was at Clemson for 11 years. Obviously, he's been here for a long time and he's seen a lot of different things and experienced a lot of different things. The biggest conversation for him was it was about an opportunity to grow outside of this environment, to accept a new challenge. So that was the crux of the conversation. I definitely did not want to see Marques leave and I was excited about the opportunity for us to work together going forward, but I also understood where he was coming from and he has an opportunity to be reunited with a person that's very, very close to him. So, there were a lot of factors and he went through it the right way and processed it the right way. And at the end of the day, you trust that he believed this was the best decision for him and his career moving forward. But, definitely did not want to see him go, but at the same time too, I understood where he was at because I was there at my alma mater for 11 years and you want to see if you can grow, so this is an opportunity to do that."

"And to replace him, I thought about it long and hard. And obviously, Adam [Mims] played for me and I coached him, but he also had a year to work alongside Marques as well and so he had relationships with the guys that were on the roster. He was part of the process of recruiting the guys that we brought in alongside Marques. So for me, with that position, and the transition, it made the most sense to stay in house. As opposed to, looking at the offensive line situation, I had guys in house, but also I had a lot of youth at that position, so it was a little bit of a different approach for the offensive line. But for the receiver position, it was familiarity with Adam, having coached him, but also he had been around the guys and been a part of what Marques had done for a year to help ease that transition."

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