HOUR 3 | Segment 2 - Tony Elliott shares Virginia's goals and explains how he adapts to the transfer portal.

What this episode covers

Transcript Host 1: Well, it is time, Diesel, to get to the Virginia Cavaliers, right? I'm sorry, that was your segment to bring in. Virginia. Tony Elliott, I tell you what, one of the more fun interviews we have done today, right? Host 2: Yeah, Tony Elliott was fantastic. We had him on earlier today. Virginia Cavaliers had themselves a big season in 2025, Cole. I think, you know, a lot of people, a lot of Clemson fans especially, you know, Dabo Swinney, because Tony Elliott came out of the Dabo Swinney tree, looked at Tony Elliott as a coach that they knew was a high-quality individual and somebody that would create a good football team over time. I don't know that a lot of people thought in year number four, when things started off so rough for Tony Elliott in Virginia, that he would be coaching an 11-win football team and that he would be bringing back, Cole, 15 starters in the 2026 season. But I think high expectations for Virginia this season. They also, Cole, are bringing in Bo Pribula from Missouri, a quarterback that we had high hopes for last year. We had a great chance to sit down and talk with Tony Elliott and his starting linebacker, Kam Robinson, earlier today. This is fascinating stuff, and we, of course, bring it back locally and ask Dabo Swinney a question towards the end of this. So let's, let's play that audio now. Interviewer: We're live here at ACC Kickoff, Radio Row in Charlotte at the Hilton Uptown with Coach Tony Elliott, the head football coach at Virginia. Coach, how are you, man? Tony Elliott: I'm doing well. How are you doing? Interviewer: Doing fantastic. We appreciate you hopping on with us. Before we get into your roster, I want to talk about last season, 11 and 3. I know you've already turned the page on last season, but you and your staff, at your previous stop, were very good at managing expectations. How do you manage expectations now after a big season like you guys had a year ago? Tony Elliott: I think it started with laying the foundation. So, four years ago, I was talking about managing success even when we hadn't had any success, right? So, so planting that seed in the minds of the individuals in the organization because I believe that we would get to a point to where, you know, we were having some success as a program. So that's where it started. And then also reminding the guys that none of that stuff carries over, right? Like everybody's got to go live in the house that they built. Like we can't, we can't move back into last season's house. Like people are coming to Scott Stadium in '26 to see what this team is about. So, so that's really where we're going to start. And then I got to do a great job of trying to insulate the program and put the blinders up and deflect all of the expectations and all those things to me so that everybody else can just focus and work. Interviewer: Coach, 15 experienced starters on your roster this year, seven of them coming off of other rosters and joining you at Virginia. Fans like to make a lot about bringing a whole hodgepodge group of guys together who have never played together and how difficult that is. Can you talk about really how difficult that is, or whether or not players in this modern era, since they've come up in it, are adept at getting on the same page quickly? Tony Elliott: I think as each year goes by, the latter part of what you just said, I think the players are a little bit more, you know, adept to it. I think the older folks, we got to, we got to learn to adapt so that we don't become extinct. I think they're a little bit more prepared to evolve in the evolving landscape than maybe the folks that have been in it for a long time. It is challenging though, because you are bringing guys from backgrounds that you may not know, right? Because the process happens so fast, where in the old traditional model, you recruited a guy for two, maybe three years. You knew a lot about him. Like, you knew all the people in his family, you ki ...

Distinct summary based on available episode metadata or transcript content.