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FEBRUARY 2022 11 "It accelerated things a little bit," El- liott said. "I had my mind set on how the transition was going to go, the timing of everything. I was anticipating a very happy ending for Bronco and his staff being a part of that." With the bowl game called off, UVA's players scattered, and "there's confusion, and there's more adversity," Elliott said. "I'm dealing with a little bit more triage than I anticipated." Even so, his assessment of the program's potential hasn't changed. "I knew there were going to be some challenges," Elliott said. "Now I can confirm some things, and then as I come in every single day, there's other things that are showing up on the radar, but they may not be of the utmost importance at this time. "I focus in on the things that I need to focus on, but then log that in the back of my mind. At a later date, this is going to be something that we need to address, but it's not in the immediate." Elliott came to UVA after 11 seasons as an assistant on head coach Dabo Swinney's staff at Clemson, which won two national titles during that span. Elliott was the Tigers' co-offensive coordinator for seven seasons before handling the job himself in 2021, when he was also assistant head coach. "I have patiently waited for this op- portunity, and I'm ready," Elliott said at his introductory press conference on Dec. 13. "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 uni- versity that had world-class academics. I wanted to be able to recruit the best and the brightest student-athletes. … There is no better place for me than UVA. And there is no better time than now." UVA's president, Jim Ryan, and its athlet- ics director, Carla Williams, spoke before Elliott at the press conference. "It's not always the case that I believe headlines," Ryan said, "but in this case I saw a headline that said Tony is the perfect fit for UVA, and I believe that to be true. " My vision for UVA is to become 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 do so while achieving excellence in education, leadership and service. " FRALIN FAMILY HEAD FOOTBALL COACH TONY ELLIOTT Clemson either led or ranked No. 2 in the ACC in total offense in five of Elliott's seven seasons as co-offensive coordinator, and his 2018 and 2019 units were responsible for two of the 22 650-point seasons in major college football history. (Photo by Matt Riley/courtesy UVA)