Elliott Looks Forward to Seeing More of Bennett

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Now that he’s longer coaching basketball at the University of Virginia, Tony Bennett might have time to take in a Cavalier football practice this fall. Tony Elliott would love to have him as a guest.

Bennett, who retired last week after 15 seasons as head of the UVA men’s team, discussed his decision Friday morning at John Paul Jones Arena. Elliott is in his third season as Virginia’s head football coach, and his team was leaving for Greenville, S.C., early Friday afternoon, but he made time to attend Bennett’s press conference at JPJ.

“He’s an unbelievable basketball coach and even better human being,” Elliott told reporters Tuesday at the Hardie Football Operations Center. “He’s been very, very supportive, inspirational and available for me. I appreciate that. He’s going to go down as one of the best to ever do it. He’s a legendary type guy. So regardless of what we had going on, I was going to make sure that I had a chance to support him. He does it the right way, and I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for … him taking a stand.”

Bennett, who guided the Wahoos to the NCAA title in 2019, decided to retire largely because of his growing disenchantment with recent changes in the landscape of college athletics.

“You’re not going to find many people, especially in the business of college athletics, that are going to step up and take a stand for what they believe,” Elliott said. “You may not agree with it, but the fact that he’ll stand for what he believes and the humility and the transparency and honesty to say, ‘Hey, it’s time for me to step away because I don’t feel like I can give everything that I have,’ man, that’s powerful. I’ll never forget that. I’ll always respect that. He said he might come out to the football practice now. Never been to a football practice. I welcome that, because I believe he’s going to stay here locally. He’s entrenched in the community and in the institution.”

KEY GAME: The Cavaliers’ second bye weekend is on the horizon, but first they’ll host North Carolina at Scott Stadium. At noon Saturday, Virginia (4-3, 2-2) meets UNC (3-4, 0-3) in what’s known as “the South’s Oldest Rivalry.” The schools have met 128 times in football, with Carolina holding a 65-59-4 record.

Five regular-season games remain for UVA, which has already surpassed its 2022 and ’23 win totals. The Hoos have dropped back-to-back games, but many of the goals they set before the season remain attainable, and Ellliott has driven home that point to his players.

“Just keep playing,” he said. “Recommit to the process. Don’t be primarily outcome-driven. Focus on the process and get back to the basics and go play football. There is a lot of football left, five games. We’ve got some great opportunities versus some really good teams in the league. There will be shakeup with a lot of matchups getting ready to happen down the stretch.

“You never know. We’re sitting here 2-2 in the ACC and we’ve got a chance to finish 6-2 if we take care of business. Still playing for everything that we started the season playing for, so the focus is to really learn from this past weekend and focus on things we can control, get better.”

The Tar Heels are among UVA’s biggest rivals, and they’re “a football team fighting for their season as well,” Elliott said. “They’re coming off a bye week. So we’ve got a lot of things still to help create some motivation if we needed that, but my challenge is for these guys to be internally motivated, to go focus on the next game that’s in front of them. Regardless of what happened the Saturday before, you still got to reset and go back to work.”

Virginia is coming off a 48-31 road loss to Clemson. The Tigers moved up to No. 9 in this week’s Associated Press poll.

COLLECTIVE EFFORT: The Cavaliers have played four games this season at 61,500-seat Scott Stadium, where the average announced attendance has been 38,284.

Asked Tuesday what he’d tell UVA fans, Elliott said, “I know we’re doing everything we possibly can to put the best product on the field. These guys work extremely hard. They’ve shown improvement over the last couple years. I know the athletic department is doing everything they can. There has been a lot of improvements to the stadium, game-day atmosphere. There is a lot to be excited about.

“My biggest message would be, we’re in this thing together. It takes all of us. Hopefully we’ve shown that we’re going to work as hard as we can to do our part, and hopefully they can see that the athletic department is working as hard as they can and that we need them. We need folks to be in the stands to create an environment for the guys and also make it tough on opponents.”

As the Cavaliers build their program, Elliott said, the “fan base is just as much a part of the program as myself and the players that are here in this building. We’re all in this thing together. We do it for [the fans] and we want to show the progress we’re making. We’re striving for perfection, even though we know it can’t be attained. We’re going to play hard and put on the best show we possibly can.”

PLAY IT AGAIN: For the third week in a row, UVA will face an elite tailback. Isaac Brown rushed for 146 yards in Louisville’s Oct. 12 win at Scott Stadium, and Clemson’s Phil Mafah ran for 78 yards last weekend at Death Valley.

Now comes UNC’s Omarion Hampton, who leads the ACC with 901 rushing yards. He’s averaging 5.8 yards per carry and 128.7 per game and has rushed for seven touchdowns.

“He’s a different back,” Virginia safety Corey Thomas Jr. said. “It’s almost like we’re combining the last two backs that we’ve seen.”

Virginia’s defense, stout against the run early in the season, has had multiple breakdowns recently.

Elliott said the “biggest thing is just eye discipline and fitting your gaps and being where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there. With Mr. Hampton, he’s the best in the league and one of the best in the country. He’s big, physical, has great contact balance, very decisive when he runs. He doesn’t give you an opportunity to get him before he gets going, because when he takes that ball, he hits full speed very quickly. Trusts his eyes and trusts the scheme and he understands.”

A 6-foot, 220-pound junior, Hampton has rushed for more than 100 yards in six of Carolina’s seven games this season. You can’t hit this guy high,” Elliott said. “You’ve got to hit him low and be forceful when you hit him, he’s not going to go down easily on first contact.”

Hampton rushed for 1,504 yards last season. Only one player in UNC history has rushed for more in a season: Don McCauley, who ran for 1,720 yards in 1970.

Asked about slowing down Hampton, UVA defensive end Kam Butler said it “all comes down to gang-tackling him and getting his legs, going down a level, not hitting the kid high,” Butler said, “because if you hit him high, you’re just gonna bounce right off of him.”

GROWING INTO THE JOB: Turnovers were a problem for UVA quarterback Anthony Colandrea last season, when he started six games as a freshman, but he’s taking much better care of the ball this fall.

Through seven games, he’s completed 140 of 220 passes for 1,649 yards and 11 touchdowns, with only four interceptions.

“I think he’s improving every single week and taking pride in that,” Elliott said. “Not that he didn’t before. But now that he’s having success, he’s taking care of the football, it’s something that he’s finding a little bit more excitement in.

“Again, it’s a delicate balance because you don’t want to lose the moxie and the ‘it’ factor that makes him such a special player. Also, we know the margin for error is very, very, very small. It’s a game of inches, so you’ve just got to be careful. So just super proud that he hasn’t put the ball in jeopardy, and we’re going to need him to continue with that level of precision.”

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