Is UVA Football coach Tony Elliott on the hot seat? And more ‘Hoos news

Tony Elliott on the hot seat welcome to Street knowledge with Chris Graham 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 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 set up 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 and five or eight and four record so if Brent pryan year three of his regime had 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 or the other four or five wins four and a half to five wins wins I think the ESPN fpi had 4.6 wins the Vegas number I saw was 5.1 so let's put it right there at the at the five Mark 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 uh 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 not gonna be good um I've written about how the schedule sets up that I mean Virginia could be four and0 maybe even five and0 and that's like stretching it I I understand but there's there's five winnable games very winable games at the start of the Season what if they don't go Five-0 or 4- one what if that you know the winnable stretch of games ends with a two and three record what happen 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 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 compe three and non record but competitive there were games blown I I attribute at least three losses to special teams miscues three uh one- score games that um two had blocked punts for 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 a 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 and 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 his 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 dollar 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 or 8 million doar 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 Tony Elliott still undecided board Tony Elliott is still undecided at quarterback and no this is not good news Chris gram here talking UVA football going into training camp the word around the UVA football program was that Tony musket was the clear number one at quarterback the fifth year senior uh but now the word and this is coming straight from Tony Elliott himself is that he still has not decided on who his going quarterback's going to be between Tony musket and Anthony kandria and this is not good uh you know whatever reason you may have for for not naming a quarterback it's not good here's the quote from Elliott after practice on Monday you know I'm hopeful that as we get through this week in fairness to whoever it is at at least we have a week to prep as a starter but you know we're going to have to have some tough conversations with all of our Personnel over the next couple of days so training camp ended uh now Virginia is into gameweek phase even though the opener is August 31st we're still 10 days away a little bit of extra time to you know get the game plan together etc etc so it's down to musket who was the starter at the beginning of the season last year started six games he was in out the lineup with injuries Anthony candry the who has a true freshman stepped in and started six games um pretty much similar numbers um uh you know similar passer ratings completion percentages touchdown interception ratios uh you know they're they're in a lot of ways the same guy uh the uh ideally to me musk's the guy uh just from a succession standpoint musket a fifth year senior he's done with college after this year uh kandre is a sophomore has three years of ibility whether he uses one of those years this year uh and then you know Junior and Senior year the next two years or if he red shirts this year he still has three years left after this year um you know to me the worst case scenario here is they both shuttle in and out of the starting lineup there's no continuity to the offense and and you musket uh doesn't uh you know shine enough to keep kandre from burning the red shirt uh and so you waste a year of his eligibility um to get half a guy the hard thing to tell here is is it is the fact that there's no decision made because neither has distinguished himself and the choice comes down comes down to the lesser of two evils or is it just that they're both playing so good that you can't go wrong either way I don't think it's the ladder unfortunately um so you know going into the camp again musket was was the guy we were told was the guy um you know Elliot even I mean so I said worst casee scenario even worse he suggesting he might play both in fact the question was asked of him a depressed um Gaggle after practice uh on um Monday uh if he was going to do a 2qb you know system and he said he might and you know the old saying in football is if you have two quarterbacks you don't really have one um I hate to say it you know I'm the guy who's been positive about UVA football going into the season but it's starting to feel to me already that things are going off the rail with the Does UVA have a general manager season Alabama is paying its football general manager a lot of money which leads to the question does UVA football even have a general manager hey Chris Graham here so I saw a headline on espn.com uh earlier this week about Alabama giving its football general manager a record contract and that made me think you know I don't know that UVA football has a general manager I don't have have to ask about about this so I did what I do I sent a note to the folks in media relations and got the answer back quick answer no we don't have a general manager for the football program so let me tell you what the issue there might be then guy named Courtney Morgan is the general manager for Alabama football uh and the record contract that was referenced in that ESPN story is 825,000 a year for the next three years now the background on Morgan is he followed Kalin deor I'm not sure how to pronounce that name he's the new Alabama coach and I've not heard that name said out loud he was a coach at Washington last year was in the national championship game I just didn't pay attention uh dbor will go with uh the guy hired to replace Nick Sabin not easy easy job to have there uh he he brought Morgan with him to be his GM he had him as his GM out up at Washington for a couple of years um and this GM job let's let's explain what that is football general manager to col love what is it it's a roll up of uh recruiting director player Personnel director and budget director let's just you know all three of those roles um he's being credited Morgan is with assembling in Alabama what is now the second ranked recruiting class for the 2025 recruiting cycle uh and the work he's already done there has gotten him attention USC Southern Cal came a calling uh when um Morgan was originally contracted to Alabama he was making 500,000 a year after southern cal made a run at him Alabama up his pay from 500,000 a year to 825,000 a year for context on what that means uh UA's athletic director makes 1.09 million so about 270,000 more she runs the whole Athletics program Eva she does all that work and budgets and you know all that stuff for 27 Sports not one uh and so Alabama is playing pretty seriously here right um now this need we need us a football general manager Trend in the college game is still pretty new uh but more schools are seeing the value of having one person overseeing the increas Rec complicated player acquisition part of the business you know it used to be I was explaining to somebody today uh back when George Welsh was coached let's go back to just you know to the good old days um you had to recruit high schools that's what you recruited you know there there was no transfer portal there were guys transferring at the college level but there was no portal and you had a year to sit out transfers were were just an afterthought I mean you might pick up a transfer here and there but you know you you weren't working the transfer route you were focused you had your player personel director focused recruiting director focused right there on the on the high school game you didn't have nil you have to worry about budgets uh and so you you you had a recruiting coordinator he's probably also your one of your assistant coaches and all he did was he oversaw what the other assistant coaches did each assistant coach on the staff has assigned a region uh to be responsible for in recruiting and uh you know the the Coordinator would just make sure everybody was doing their job right and and he probably had his own area to cover as well well you know in this day and age now you've got high school recruiting you've got the transfer portal which is a 247 365 everybody's a free agent every year um until until the powers that be in the NCAA figure out a way to to change that situation it's pretty easy to do just require schools to or allow schools to sign guys contracts uh whether they be 1 two three or four years um but but all you know all those pieces uh being disperate as they are uh it's it's just wise to have someone in charge of uh over making sure that there there's cohesion to everything that you do there right um and it's the model is the NFL general manager you know and the NFL the head coach isn't responsible for recruiting the players signing the players drafting the players he's part of that process but it's just a part You' got other people doing you know other parts of that job college game is now evolving to that stage more schools like Alabama are doing this Texas Tech has a guy making 800,000 a year doing this job uh and they're not the only other school doing it so uh people who read our coverage of UVA athletics often ask me to you know identify areas where UVA athletics is coming up short this is one of them it's another area where UVA athletics is behind its peers