Elliott pays tribute to Clemson and UVa with custom shoes, seeks to build model program

Elliott shows off one side of his left shoe Thursday.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Jul 21 14:48:02 GMT-04:00 2022

CHARLOTTE, NC – Virginia head coach Tony Elliott walked into the ACC Kickoff Thursday sporting a colorful yet meaningful pair of shoes. He was all smiles and it's obvious he’s where he’s supposed to be, and it’s even more obvious that his new players love him.

Now he’s ready to build a model program in Charlottesville.

Elliott was hired at Virginia last December, but the call from the Cavaliers wasn’t his first opportunity. He’s had other job offers but he was waiting on the right fit.

“I think you've followed my career, and we've had a very good relationship over the years, and we went through this starting in 2015 every year with the calls coming and the opportunities,” Elliott told TigerNet. “I think there were some programming that I was a part of with the Champions Forum that humbled me and showed me that I wasn't ready to be a head coach.

“So in 2015 was when I really started to say, okay, I want to make this transition, but I knew there were things that I wanted to do. Going through the experience with another school the previous year and getting close to possibly transition is when I knew I was really ready to be a head coach, but I just needed to find the right place.”

Virginia Athletic Director Carla Williams provided that opportunity.

“With Virginia, everybody knows it came down to Duke and Virginia from a decision standpoint, and I think for me it was really solidified with the -- not the initial conversations with Carla, but it was the follow-up conversations with Carla because you know me, that I'm very intentional,” Elliott said. “I'm about relationship. I was looking for alignment. That was the number one thing I was looking for. We were able to have a couple of conversations off the record that solidified that UVA was the right place for me. It already fit the profile, what I was looking for, because you guys know that academics for me is the most important thing. I was a ballplayer just like these guys, and I had dreams of playing in the NFL, but it was my aunt's persistent and consistent messaging to me about my education. Now my life and the lives of my children has changed because of education.

“It started there. The alignment was established through those off-the-record conversations, and then there's a lot of similarities between where I was coming from and UVA. It's a college-oriented town. It's in the ACC, and I believe that this is the best conference in college football. I've experienced it at the highest level, so I knew I had a chance to compete for championships.”

Elliott has the belief that he can build the model program in Charlottesville.

“Then the last thing is I wanted to be somewhere where I could build what I believe is the model program,” he said. “A program that shows you can win at the highest level but you don't have to compromise anything from a character standpoint, an academic standpoint and player development standpoint.”

Elliott and his players all wore Nike tennis shoes that were handpainted by Lindsay Huff, a Virginia graduate who is the wife of former Cavalier center Jay Huff. The Huffs live in Los Angeles (Jay plays for the South Bay Lakers of the NBA G League), and she offered to make sure all of the sneakers tell a story.

@Coach_TElliott has some sweet shoes here at Kickoff. Pay homage to Clemson and UVa and his family. pic.twitter.com/xvdd0DFKkW
— David Hood (@MDavidHood) July 21, 2022

For Elliott, his shoes include a nod to Clemson with a Tiger paw and his Clemson jersey, a quote ("A man will be defined by the condition of his heart"), his wife Tamika and sons AJ and Ace, and the words “A Model Program.”

“You know I’m a shoe guy at heart,” Elliott said. “And then at my press conference, Carla shows up in an exclusive pair of Air Jordan 4’s and I said we are going to have a great time. So we had an idea that when we come to media day, let’s have some fun with it. Lindsay is a licensed artist, and each shoe tells a story about themselves.”