Evaluating how Tony Elliott has handled off-field tragedy at Virginia, rebuild

Tony Elliott walked into a tough situation when he took over at Virginia in 2022, but he couldn’t have imagine the difficulties that were to come. While rebuilding a team that had missed out on a bowl game each of the past two seasons seemed like his toughest task, he would soon find out that was far from the case.

Near the end of his first year on Nov. 13, 2022, three members of the football team were fatally shot and two others injured. Devin Chandler, D’Sean Perry and Lavell Davis Jr. all tragically passed a way far too soon as a community was left to mourn.

The result of the season no long mattered. Instead, Elliott now faced the job of comforting a heartbroken team that had lost three of the friends. In the face of that crushing reality, he showed determination in guiding them forward.

“He’s said, ‘If my journey here gets me fired next year because we didn’t win enough, I’ll know that it was still a worthwhile thing because I was supposed to be here in this moment to help these guys,'” ESPN’s David Hale said on the On3 Andy Staples podcast. “If that had happened anywhere it would have been earth-shattering. This was a team that had a lot of problems and holes that needed to be filled and then it didn’t matter at all.”

Virginia went on to finish 3-7 in Tony Elliott’s first year. The Cavaliers did not play another game after the shooting occurred to give their players and coaches time to grieve from the tragic events.

They returned in 2023 looking to start fresh. Virginia would fail to win more than three games once again, though showed slight improvements offensively. But while the record might not have showed how much better it got, Hale believes they made quite a stride.

“Year 1 was already sort of a lost cause and then that happens,” he said. “So last year was really the first time that you had a chance to build something and you’re building it under this cloud. The record is not gonna make anybody feel good, but you could tune into the games and say ‘This is a much better football team than the one we saw before.'”

The Cavaliers now get ready to enter their third season under Elliott hoping to take another step forward. They bring back quarterback Anthony Colandrea and, bonded by what they went through almost two years ago, will aim to keep getting stronger.