Why Josh Ahern is among toughest players Elliott has ever been around

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Having coached Clemson through its decade of dominance in ACC football before taking over Virginia’s football program, Tony Elliott came across some pretty tough hombres. None tougher than Josh Ahern.

“One of the toughest kids I’ve ever been around,” Elliott said Tuesday. “He’s probably going to get mad at me for sharing this, but I’m going to share it anyway.”

Ahern isn’t the most imposing player on Virginia’s roster, nor the most menacing at 6-foot-3, 263 pounds. He’s a fifth-year linebacker from Lake Braddock High School in Burke. Nobody will question Ahern’s intestinal fortitude.

“Underneath his [hand] cast he had like an inch, inch-and-a-half-long pins stuck into the bone,” Elliott said, but that’s not all. “Any time he did anything with that hand and had any contact, it was digging in.

“When [doctors] went in to take them out, the pins were bent. That just goes to show you how much pain he was playing through.”

Say what?

It is difficult to imagine what Ahern endured in his day-to-day life off the football field, let alone on the gridiron under those circumstances, yet still has played in nine of Virginia’s 11 games this season, posting 27 tackles (17 solos), 3.5 tackles for loss, two passes broken up and an interception.

“He never complained,” Elliott said. “You basically had to take his helmet to keep him out. Just goes to show how much he loves his teammates, loves this program.”

Elliott and defensive coordinator John Rudzinski have used Ahern as an example many times in terms of the sacrifice it takes to play football.

“Hopefully that creates inspiration for his teammates. That man, he’s putting it on the line,” Elliott said. “We talk about in football you’re going to play hurt. Never going to ask you to play injured. Playing injured meaning medically they tell you, you cannot go. 

“There will be times you have to play through some pain, and he’s played through a lot of pain, so he has a very high pain tolerance and threshold. I can imagine what it’s like when he goes home. Probably not showing [the pain] in front of us, but he’s hurting. I’m extremely grateful.”

Elliott pointed out that Ahern went through offseason surgery so that he could come back and play this fifth season with his teammates — things, the coach said, that don’t get talked about, that people don’t see. The coaches know, and they have incredible appreciation and respect for a player who has fought through the injury, the pain, because they love their teammates and the program and laying a foundation for the future.

The bent pins taken out of Ahern’s hand are now in the possession of Rudzinski, who asked for ownership once removed. Ahern gladly passed them on to his defensive coach.

“Yeah, if you know Rud, you would know Rud would like something like that,” Elliott smiled.

What’s Rud going to do with them?

“You’ll have to ask Rud on that one,” Elliott said.

We did, and weren’t surprised by Rud’s answer. He’s a tough military guy, a former linebacker himself at the Air Force Academy, where he coached until joining Elliott’s staff.

“Josh, just the toughness to have gone through an experience like that … and as a father, as a coach, I mean there was no more sacrifice that young man made, playing through that type of pain,” said Rudzinski of his souvenirs. “It serves as a reminder, the discipline it takes, the sacrifice it takes to be part of this game and the blessing we get to be around these great young men.”

Rudzinski plans to keep those bent pins to use as inspiration to future players, future teams, showing them the example, the sacrifice Ahern made to play football.

“There’s no doubt about that,” Coach Rud said of the inspiration angle. “You think about what that young man has gone through. There will be bumps and bruises for the years to come, and it’s a great example of what we can persevere, and what we’re willing to suffer bigger than ourselves.”