As the early signing period arrives for college football, the Virginia football program continues to work through a coaching transition. Six-year head coach Bronco Mendenhall announced his resignation on Thursday, Dec. 2 and UVA hired Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott to take the job on Friday, Dec. 10.

That timing, of course, landed just ahead of the big Dec. 15 signing day. Elliott has yet to announce a coaching staff and he indicated that he would evaluate current Cavalier coaches as part of his candidate pool. From a recruiting standpoint, that added to the uncertainty of signing day itself. He did contact the current recruits, but could not visit or meet them face to face due to an NCAA dead period. UVA lost some commitments, while others remained steady. Follow signing day with The Sabre’s Chris Horne right here.

Once the dust settles from Wednesday, however, Elliott will need to put his stamp on recruiting at Virginia. The talent pool you can attract after all has a lot to do with what kind of teams you can field in the future. With more than half of the ACC Coastal Division teams changing coaches, how each program establishes itself in the recruiting category will be a storyline for each new coach in the league.

Elliott’s 10,000-foot view of recruiting should transition well from the Mendenhall era. Mendenhall’s philosophy focused on players that wanted to excel both as a student “AND” as an athlete and the recruiting pitch included “a 40-year decision” tagline at times. Elliott had a similar message at his introductory press conference.

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