Is UVA Football coach Tony Elliott on the hot seat?

it's Tony Elliott on the hot seat hey Chris Graham here from Augusta free press and the short answer is it's at least warm and maybe getting warmer I think it's fair to speculate how the big season that a lot of folks seem to think is in store for Virginia Tech just down the road might factor into the thinking around Tony Elliott in Virginia and I think you know when you look around I've been reading a lot about uh some Buzz around Tech being a sleeper pick to contend in the ACC this year some uh uh analyst even suggesting Tech could sneak into the ACC Championship game picture and that means nine 10 wins I mean that's you know to get into the ACC Championship game now you know it's a one conference setup again no divisions uh top two teams overall get into that championship game so we're not talking about a coastal team getting in with a seven and5 or eight and four record so if Brent pryan year three of his regime has Tech on the doorstep of an ACC title game it's hard not to imagine the people who pay the bills at Eva saying wait a second our guys in year three and what are we getting for our dollars the media vote preseason ACC football poll has Virginia uh preseason 16 in the 17 Team league I've seen uh projections from the computers which and the Vegas people who you know they make money by using their computers to try to get you to bet one way the other four or five wins four and a half to five wins I think the ESPN fbii had 4.6 wins the Vegas number I saw was 5.1 so let's put it right there at the at the five markets um I'm pretty much the only media type out there who thinks that a bowl is possible this year a bowl is just six wins so um not much more than what the the computer seem to be projecting but even simple bow eligibility uh would pay on comparison to nine or 10 wins in Tech in their year three with their new coach Elliots in year three at Virginia if if tech down there is you know competing for a chance to play either Clemson or Florida State most likely maybe Miami who knows uh in an ACC Championship game and that would you know then say hey you're you win that game you're in the playoff right um six and six isn't quite the same as that and then that's if things go well I mean the schedule uh is is nice at the beginning of the season for Virginia and then the second half really starting with game six and then and then the second half is just it's not easy it's um I've written about how the schedule sets up that I mean Virginia could be 4-0 maybe even 5-0 and that's like stretching it I I understand but the there's there's five winnable games very winnable games at the start of the Season what if they don't go 5-0 or four- one what if that you know the winnable stretch of games ends with a two and3 record what happens then um you know that those last seven games that Virginia could could and I think likely will be an underdog in all seven of those games at least where we're sitting right now and that's even I think even with a 5-0 start they still Underdog in those last seven games against that schedule um if you're two and three even three and two you know you could be looking at a two or three win season here um one thing I've been running consistently is that Virginia is not the kind of school that cuts bait with a coach after year three um but the word we got here at AFP over the weekend is that uh there's rumbling among the donors and uh it it's uh a lot about the 5517 loss to Tech to end last season you know Virginia was competive three and non- record but competitive there were games blown I I attribute at least three losses to special teams misc three uh one score games that um two had blocked punts return for touchdowns one had a a penalty on a missed field goal at the end of regulation that set up a a chip shot field goal that NC State made um if you win couple of those games you're on the threshold of a bowl last year um but instead you know they weren't and then they got blown out that 5517 was not indicative of how much of a thorough beat down that's a you 38 Point win but tech oh my God that game was not close from the start um so what we're hearing is that the magic numers five that's what the computers seem to think is possible I mean 4.6 to 5.1 in the computers right um and I'm just going to quibble on that five wins is still not B eligibility and if tech down the road is uh you know nine wins 10 wins I don't know that even five does it I I think getting into a cold weather bowl and that's only six wins but I think you know getting to six wins is going to be essential for Tony Elliott and his staff um and I think a big part of that is not just what Tech's doing down the road but that $80 million football op Center that opened earlier uh I guess right before the summer in June um the money that is being put into this program is demanding wins people who who uh put the $80 million together to build that facility um didn't write big checks to see Virginia not win games the the kind of people who write big checks are not the kind of people who have access to money because they make bad decisions with their money um they're not paying for Virginia to have uh great academic facilities for its football team they're paying for that to be a selling point to get a better football team um we all know money drives the decisions the biggest issue for Ev Athletics is 20,000 empty seats every Saturday I guess there's at least a Friday game this year too so every Friday or Saturday bottom line the bottom line impact on that is obvious uh Virginia makes about 75 million dollars Less in ticket sales for football per year compared to Virginia Tech um that number is probably going to be a bigger discrepancy this year with tech expected to you know to to be a ACC Contender so I mean you know that's that's seven or8 million at least maybe more this year when uh as we reported last week Tony Bennett basketball coach was told he's not going to be able to fill a couple open staff positions because of budget cuts that's where this comes down to it's it's not just for football it's for everything across the board