Anonymous ACC coach calls Virginia 'a team you never really worry about playing'

Virginia has not found much success through three seasons under Tony Elliott. Other coaches in the conference aren’t expecting any in year four for him either, potentially meaning a change coming next offseason for the Cavaliers.

Athlon Sports’ preview of this upcoming season featured anonymous quotes from coaches in the leagues regarding the other programs, including UVA. For Virginia, simply put, those coaches think they’re in a bad spot, and on the verge of a coaching change whether in-season or after, in Charlottesville for this fall.

“These guys are in trouble, and most everyone expects there to be a staff change at the end of the season or earlier,” one said.

Virginia is 11-23 (.324), including 6-17 (.256) against the ACC, under Elliott. They didn’t play the final two games of his first season due to the death of three players in a shooting back in 2022. They also improved record-wise this past season, albeit still missing bowl eligibility after losing six of their last seven to finish at 5-7. Still, all in all, this has not been a good tenure to this point for the Cavaliers.

Part of those struggles, although the defense hasn’t been too much better, has been their lack of scoring on the offensive side of the ball. Elliott, formerly the offensive coordinator, as an assistant as well as assistant head coach, at Clemson, had quality offenses in his background from with the Tigers but, in turn, the Cavaliers have averaged just 21 points and 357.9 yards of offense per game. Now, not even one of the better transfer quarterbacks in the portal is expected to help much in that unless he’s better now being back at the power four level.

“They’ve never delivered on the offensive expectations Tony (Elliott) set coming from Clemson,” one said. “They’re sloppy on both sides of the ball, and we’ve seen some talented players come in, underperform and move on.”

“(Chandler Morris) is a big improvement at QB and could save it for them if he clicks,” another added. “The problem is they have a really thin line, and their running back left in the portal. There’s just not a lot of talent to put around him.”

Respectfully, these coaches don’t think much of or are seemingly too worried as of now about Virginia. That leaves the Cavaliers to prove them wrong or, worse, prove them right about where they are in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“This is a team you never really worry about playing. They lack discipline, and they have no real identity,” one said. “The parity in this league is increasing, and it will be really hard for this program to make a sharp turn up.”