New UVA head coach Tony Elliott on the best, worst Dabo Swinney ever gave him

Tony Elliott became the second key piece of Dabo Swinney’s Clemson coaching staff to leave in a weeklong span, as the offensive coordinator left to become the head coach at Virginia.

Elliott’s departure for Virginia came shortly after Brent Venables; Venables, the defensive coordinator, left Clemson to become Oklahoma’s head coach.

After the duo left Clemson, Swinney sang high praise for both, saying it’s been “really been an amazing journey” to watch Elliott, a Clemson alumnus, go from one of Swinney’s players to one of his coworkers. Swinney added that Elliott is “really special” and that he’s “so proud of him,” and Elliott was highly complimentary of his former boss too.

“He is like a father to me. Our relationship started in 2003 when he came to Clemson,” Elliott said of Swinney in his introductory press conference at Virginia. “He didn’t have a reason to believe in me, but I was a former walk-on, wasn’t a scholarship guy, asked to come back (after Rick Stockstill left Clemson and Swinney became head coach). There was some dudes coming back in that room from a receiver standpoint. But he saw something in me, and he believed in me, and he gave me an opportunity. From there, the bond has been strong ever since. He was a mentor — actually the worst advice he gave me was to not get into coaching. He tried to talk me out of it when I was trying to leave the engineering field.”

It certainly worked out for Elliott, who left engineering for coaching and eventually found his way back at Clemson, working alongside Swinney. Now, as the head coach at Virginia, Elliott is grateful for his mentor’s guidance.

“But in terms of moving forward, he’s always been in my corner, and he understands who I am,” Elliott said. He understands the right fit. He’s been the one that’s helped me to stay patient, to look for the right fit, to make sure that I get into a situation where there is alignment.”

Elliott, who received the 2017 Frank Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach, was a wide receiver for the Tigers from 2000-2003, and later returned to the program in 2011 as a running backs coach. Among the many running backs he helped produce was Travis Etienne, who blossomed into a consensus All-American in 2020, won back-to-back ACC Player of the year honors in 2018 and 2019 and is one of just 12 players in FBS history with 4,000 career rushing yards and 1,000 career receiving yards. Following his time with the running backs, he was promoted in 2015 to co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach, and in the 2020 season he became the lone offensive coordinator.

Since Elliott’s arrival in 2011, the Tigers amassed 10 straight 10-win seasons, six ACC titles and two national championships — the Tigers went 121-18 in his decade with the program. He helped build one of college football’s most dynamic offenses under eventual first-overall pick Trevor Lawrence, as Clemson in 2018 and 2019 were responsible for two of the 22 650-point seasons in college football history, before he took the job at Virginia.