Elliott on first day of UVA spring practice: ‘Man, it was a lot of fun’

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tuesday was the opening day of Virginia’s spring football practice, but more importantly it was the first day that Tony Elliott could actually “coach” football since he was named the Cavaliers’ new head man on Dec. 10.

“It’s kind of like, ‘What am I supposed to be doing this period?’” Elliott grinned after UVA’s morning practice. “Am I spending enough time on the defensive side? I felt myself gravitate towards the offense. I think I coached every position today.”

While he has been on the job for several months now, on this day, Elliott felt like a head coach, something he had never experienced before. For the past dozen seasons or so, he has been an offensive coordinator for Clemson.

Virginia will scatter 15 practices over the spring, concluding with the annual Spring Game on April 23. Until then, the Cavaliers’ new staff will be busy installing new systems.

“The biggest thing for me was just trying to coach where I could, but then manage practice and tried to look for things to improve from a process standpoint, from an organizational standpoint, from a timing standpoint, so I got a lot of notes. We’ll cover them as a staff in our staff meeting tomorrow, but man, it was fun … a lot of fun.”

We will have daily stories on Elliott’s first impressions of his team and Virginia football every day for the rest of the week, including interviews with quarterback Brennan Armstrong, wide receiver Lavel Davis Jr., Elliott and wide receivers coach Marques Hagans, plus a report on UVA’s Pro Day on Wednesday.