So, to clarify, Elliott was going to make a decision this morning. Its no longer morning, there hasn’t been a leak lamenting how there was a snag and Elliott turned UVA down, and instead there’s a flight from Clemson back to Cville this afternoon?
I’m cautiously optimistic.
Will Ratcliffe just retweet his older Tony Elliot Done Deal article and just change the date?
Yeah if you stink it up here, you just get apathy and empty stadium. At these lower tier SEC schools, the stadiums are still crowded and you get objects and threats hurled at you after losing to bama for the umpteenth time.
I agree. If we land TE and are in consideration with Gattis then those are two high profile, experienced Offensive Coordinators and I think that Carla really had a great game plan and focus and did a VERY good job in this process! Plus the funding being made available/liquidated in order to compete and improve our program may be even *more important than who we got as a coach.
If Michigan and their academic rigors can be successful then UVA can definitely take the next step as well!
Cheers!
Whats the right amount of time to give the new coach? 5 year contract?
Honestly, I’m still surprised either Gattis or Elliott were interested in being UVA’s HC. Like, Venables is going to Oklahoma. While Elliott might be coming here. Not really comparable.
I’m guessing 6. 2 until new building is done and then a full cycle with all the arrows in his quiver.
LOL - you found the silver lining of having an fair weather fan base for a coach. Nobody in the crowds to throw stuff at you!
Honestly I’m not surprised. UVA is a sleeper program across the board for EVERYTHING. We were able to land TB b/c we were in a prime area in the ACC.
We won the Coastal a couple of years ago with Bronco maximizing everything he had, and we were close to going 10-2 this year (or 4-8), so again still some foundational pieces. Now if we are getting really serious, building new buildings, donors opening up wallets then we can compete and perhaps rule the coastal with the right coaching as Bronco was *close to doing.
Right - imagine what Bronco could have done if he got recruiting right.
One quiet reason for possibly coming to UVA as well: our absolutely tissue-paper soft schedule next year. You’re basically working with a net. In a normal year, if player losses are worse than expected and the transition goes badly for whatever reason, you might be looking at a 2-10 season that gets the new HCs relationship with the fans off to a bad start. In fact, that’s kind of the expectation.
But with next year’s schedule, everything could go wrong and you might still go 6-6 and get the team into a crappy bowl game, giving you a lot more goodwill with donors, fans and the local media.
Venables has been considered a big time HC candidate for way longer than Elliott. I don’t even think he’s a great fit for Big12 football where offensive minded guys seemed to thrive but might be better for SEC, we’ll see, tons of pressure in that job.
Also… lets say you’re viewing UVA as a stepping stone to a bigger job in, say, 4-5 years. Wouldn’t you rather have year 1 of your UVA resume be 6-6 rather than 2-10 when applying for that OSU job or whatever?
You also don’t see many African American head coaches at SEC schools …
My new pet theory is that Carla was feeding various folks in the athletic department different false information about the Dex process to identify who was leaking. Using some counter-intelligence strategies to get them to out themselves.
I want to make clear there is ZERO evidence that is the case, and it is made up. But I like it.
Like intentionally misspelling your name in different ways in different places to see who is selling data to who?
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Yeah, or maybe if UVA came through with a new football ops building while he was here like they promised. Directly ties to our success (or lack there of) in recruiting.
Wait, what?
Well maybe not Notre Dame but BYU, Tech, Pittsburgh are all games we *could have won with a semi decent defense of which we had 2 years previous. So we could have gone 9-3 this year and won the coastal again.