Elliott on Vols job: Time, fit not right
Tony Elliott is grateful the stress of this winter is behind him and he’s once more doing a job he loves.
Clemson’s offensive coordinator was out with COVID-19 for the Tigers’ 49-28 loss to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, a College Football Playoff semifinal on New Year’s Day. Soon after, Elliott strongly considered leaving his alma mater as he was courted for the head coaching job at Tennessee, one of the Southeastern Conference’s resource-rich programs.
“You know, I thought I had made it through the coaching carousel unscathed,” Elliott joked.
Elliott spoke with Tennessee athletic director Danny White before choosing to remain with the Tigers. The Volunteers ultimately hired Josh Heupel, who went to Knoxville after three seasons as head coach at Central Florida, where White had been the AD until mid-January. “Definitely it was something that I really had to sit down and think about, and consider and pray about, and talk to people and try to find the right confirmation,” Elliott said. “At the end of the day, when I put everything on the table, it just wasn’t the right time.”
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is happy to have Elliott back leading an offense that must replace its two marquee players of the past few seasons: quarterback Trevor Lawrence and tailback Travis Etienne. Swinney’s gratitude was apparent when Elliott received a raise last month that boosted the 41-year-old assistant’s annual salary to $2 million.
“He loves Clemson, and he loves his job,” Swinney said. “One of these days it will be the right one. The only reason he’s not a head coach yet is because it hasn’t been the right one yet.”
Elliott has carefully considered each step in his career before jumping into it. After playing wide receiver for the Tigers from 2000 to 2003, he had his engineering degree and a bright future in the business at tire manufacturer Michelin North America. Still, he couldn’t get the coaching bug out of his system and became a receivers coach at Football Championship Subdivision schools South Carolina State (200607) and Furman (2008-10).
He remained in the Palmetto State when he returned to Clemson as a running backs coach in 2011 and learned everything he could about the Tigers’ high-powered attack from Chad Morris, who was the team’s offensive coordinator at the time. When Morris left to become head coach at SMU after the 2014 season, Elliott was ready to call plays for the Tigers.
Elliott shared coordinator duties with Jeff Scott from 2015 until Scott left to become South Florida’s head coach after the 2019 season. With Elliott solely in charge last season,
the Tigers continued to post big offensive numbers and finished 10th nationally at 502 yards a game.
Being in charge of an entire program seems to be in Elliott’s future, but because of his accomplishments at Clemson, he knows high expectations will follow him wherever he goes.
“I want to be in a position where we have a legitimate opportunity to win,” he said.
Elliott was confident the Tigers could keep last season going at the Sugar Bowl when he was told he’d tested positive for the coronavirus.
“When they told me, I broke down,” he said.
Elliott began tracing back for how he contracted the virus before making peace with the fact that while he could virtually take part in pregame preparations, he’d have to sit out the game against the Buckeyes. As the night went on and Ohio State dominated, Elliott felt helpless.
“To see the guys struggle and to know I wasn’t there to help them out,” he said, “that’s when it started to hurt.”
A reenergized Elliott, whose raise came with added title of assistant head coach, has thrown himself into spring workouts and some new coaching duties. He moved to working with tight ends so Swinney could hire C.J. Spiller, a former Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year for the Tigers, to coach running backs.
Elliott is excited about the potential of rising sophomore quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, Lawrence’s heir apparent, and a stacked group of runners — including senior tailback Lyn-J Dixon and five-star freshman Will Shipley — to keep the ground game going after Etienne.
He wants to be a head coach one day, but only if the fit is right for his family and his peace of mind that he can do a good job.
“It’s more about everything else than it is about the football piece,” Elliott said. “That’s what I’ve learned in my 10 years here.”