Cavalier Corner is the publication just for UVa sports fans!
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16 CAVALIER CORNER BY JEFF WHITE A long wait recently ended for Tony Elliott. He was named head foot- ball coach at the University of Virginia in early December. More than three months then passed before El- liott had the opportunity to lead his team through practice for the first time. Spring practice started on March 22 for the Cavaliers, who are coming off a season in which they finished 6-6. Bronco Mendenhall announced on Dec. 2 that he was stepping down after six seasons as Virginia's head coach, and Elliott was hired eight days later. Elliott is no rookie when it comes to spring football. He came to UVA from Clem- son, where he spent 11 seasons on head coach Dabo Swinney's staff, and he's also been an assistant at South Carolina State and Furman. Still, he said, this spring "is different, because I'm not going in with a ton of ex- pectations. Typically at Clemson, you would kind of get ahead of yourself, trying to figure out how the position battles from a compe- tition standpoint were going to play out. You had an idea of who you thought the leaders were. Here, you start with a clean slate." In Brennan Armstrong, Elliott knows he has one of the nation's top quarterbacks. At most other positions, however, the Wahoos' coaching staff will be trying to see "how it's going to work out," Elliott said, "to see how the players respond to the style of coaching, the different systems that we're installing on offense, defense and special teams." His main goals for the spring? "One, to get a lot of quality work in and stay healthy," Elliott said, "because numbers- wise, from that standpoint we're not where we need to be. So that's first and foremost." Next, Elliott said, he wants to lay the foundation for his system, with the instal- lation of all three phases, "and come out feeling good about where the guys are from a comprehensive standpoint." Finally, he said, "I want to establish a physical mindset, both offensively and defensively, in the trenches, because that's where it starts. We want to be able to estab- lish the line of scrimmage and run the foot- ball and be able to stop the run, be able to protect the quarterback, and then also be able to get after the quarterback." At Clemson, Elliott worked with the of- fense, "so I wasn't really concerned about the defense," he said, laughing. "Now I'm the head coach, and I want to have success on both sides of the ball. I want to be able to run the ball and stop the run. That's going to be difficult. "One side is going to have the advantage, but I want to be able to create a physical mindset in the trenches with the personnel we have." Four newcomers enrolled at UVA and joined the program in January: quarterback Davis Lane Jr. and linebacker Stevie Bracey, freshmen from Lynchburg, Va., and Atlanta, respectively; wide receiver Devin Chandler, a transfer from Wisconsin; and defensive end Jack Camper, a graduate transfer from Michigan State. Virginia has signed four other graduate SPRING OBJECTIVES Head Coach Tony Elliott Starts Laying The Foundation For His Program