
Tony Elliott
Tony Elliott went 26–29 as a head coach, 2022–2026, at Virginia. Wikipedia’s season articles record one season differently (2026, 4–2); by them his record is 26–28. Share
- Record
- 26–29 career
- Seasons
- 5
- Schools
- 1
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Nov 26, 1979
- Alma mater
- Clemson 2002
- Best season
- 2025 11–3, No. 16
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Virginia | 3–7 | T–6th | |||
| 2023 | Virginia | 3–9 | T–11th | |||
| 2024 | Virginia | 5–7 | T–10th | |||
| 2025 | Virginia | 11–3 | 1st | Gator Bowl W | 16 | |
| 2026 | Virginia | 4–3 (Wikipedia: 4–2) |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 11 | 4–7 | 36% |
| Against top-10 teams | 4 | 2–2 | 50% |
| Against rivals | 17 | 8–9 | 47% |
| Conference games | 36 | 15–21 | 42% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 1 | 1–0 | 100% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 24 | 12–12 | 50% |
| At home | 29 | 16–13 | 55% |
| On the road | 22 | 9–13 | 41% |
| At neutral sites | 4 | 1–3 | 25% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 23 | 15–8 | 65% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 32 | 11–21 | 34% |
His own 55 games on file, 2022–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mack Brown 2022–2024 | 1–2 | North Carolina | 3 | |
| Dave Doeren 2023–2026 | 1–2 | NC State | 3 | |
| Jeff Brohm 2023–2025 | 1–2 | Louisville | 3 |
Tony Elliott’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Dukeseries | 4 | 2–2 |
| North Carolinaseries | 4 | 2–2 |
| Louisvilleseries | 4 | 1–3 |
| NC Stateseries | 3 | 1–2 |
| Virginia Techseries | 3 | 1–2 |
| Richmondseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Coastal Carolinaseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| William & Maryseries | 2 | 2–0 |
National coaching awards
The awards- 2017 Clemson: Broyles Award
National title staffs
Every title staff- Won a national title on Clemson’s 2016 staff (co-offensive coordinator, running backs) · the staff · source
- Won a national title on Clemson’s 2018 staff (co-offensive coordinator, running backs) · the staff · source
The champions’ staffs from 1990 on, as the schools listed them that season: Staff lists: Drew Hoover’s how-many-rings (MIT), from the schools’ media guides and staff pages. Roles as the source words them.
How he was hired
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Other roles
- Team captain, Clemson 2003 (his playing career)
From each season’s Wikipedia article.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006–07 | South Carolina State | Wide receivers coach | |
| 2008–10 | Furman | Wide receivers coach | |
| 2011–14 | Clemson | Running backs coach | |
| 2015–19 | Clemson | Co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach | |
| 2020 | Clemson | Offensive coordinator and running backs coach | |
| 2021 | Clemson | Assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and tight ends coach | |
| 2022–present | Virginia | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Dabo SwinneyClemson
Assistants who became head coaches
- Dave PatenaudeNew Haven
Worked under (1)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dabo Swinney | Clemson | 2011–21 | 2011–14: running backs coach; 2015–19: co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach; 2020: offensive coordinator and running backs coach; 2021: assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and tight ends coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (1)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Patenaude | Virginia, 2023: analyst | New Haven |
Other assistants under him (3)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Desmond Kitchings | Virginia, 2022–26: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach | |
| John Rudzinski | Virginia, 2022–26: defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach | |
| Taylor Lamb | Virginia, 2022–26: quarterbacks coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Clemson | co-offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $95,000 | $800,000 USA Today | |
| 2016 | Clemson | co-offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $95,000 | $643,750 USA Today | |
| 2015 | Clemson | co-offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $95,000 | $419,076 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Elliott’s teams went for it on 25% of fourth downs and on 46% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 52% of plays and took 25.5 seconds a play, 2022–2026.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 10 g | 17 of 87 20% | 37% | 56% | 24.2 | −0.11 | |
| 2023 12 g | 20 of 108 19% | 41% | 52% | 25.7 | −0.02 | |
| 2024 12 g | 30 of 110 27% | 49% | 54% | 25.1 | −0.02 | |
| 2025 14 g | 31 of 109 28% | 49% | 50% | 25.5 | +0.10 | |
| 2026 7 g | 21 of 58 36% | 60% | 45% | 27.6 | +0.06 | |
| All 55 g | 119 of 472 25% | 46% | 52% | 25.5 | +0.01 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.