CHARLOTTE — Tony Elliott’s relationship with Dabo Swinney has changed over the years, but the Virginia coach has always sought out advice from someone he viewed as a sometimes father figure and now mentor.
That’s why when Swinney told him the Virginia job was the right opportunity for him, he listened.
“I told him he needs to take the job,” Swinney said Wednesday. “I told him this is the right one. I felt like he was a great fit for Virginia, and I felt like Virginia was a great fit for Tony and his family. He has turned down several head jobs over the last few years, but I felt like Virginia was the right fit for him.”
Of course, it wasn’t as easy as that. Since 2015, Elliott has known that he wanted to make the transition, but he also knew that he needed to find the right place. It took going through an experience with another school the previous year and getting close to a possible transition for Elliott to determine that he was ready for the next step.
He just needed to decide between Virginia and Duke.
What really solidified Charlottesville as a landing spot for Elliott and his family was not the initial conversations he had with Virginia athletic director Carla Williams, but rather the follow-up ones.
“I’m about relationships. I was looking for alignment. That was the number one thing I was looking for,” Elliott said Thursday. “We were able to have a couple of conversations off the record that solidified that UVA was the right place for me. It already fits the profile, what I was looking for because you guys know that academics for me is the most important thing. I was a ballplayer just like these guys, and I had dreams of playing in the NFL, but it was my aunt’s persistent and consistent messaging to me about my education. Now my life and the lives of my children has changed because of education.”
It started there.
“The alignment was established through those off-the-record conversations, and then there’s a lot of similarities between where I was coming from and UVA,” he said. “ It’s a college-oriented town. It’s in the ACC, and I believe that this is the best conference in college football. I’ve experienced it at the highest level, so I knew I had a chance to compete for championships.
“Then the last thing is I wanted to be somewhere where I could build what I believe is the model program that shows you can win at the highest level but you don’t have to compromise anything from a character standpoint, an academic standpoint and player development standpoint.”
Elliott, of course, learned what it takes to build a model program from Swinney. He also learned what it takes to build, protect, establish and sustain a culture.
“I’m very, very blessed to learn from what I believe is the best in the business, from a total package standpoint in Coach Swinney,” Elliott said.
