The day finally arrived for new Virginia football coach Tony Elliott. The Cavaliers held their first day of spring practice on Tuesday morning. With a giant grin and energy to burn, Elliott described it as “fun” to be on the field again.

That makes sense because the first-time head coach has been juggling a lot of things off the field since taking the job in December, things that he didn’t have to deal with as much in an 11-year stint as a Clemson assistant and eventually offensive coordinator. In other words, practice provided the chance to get away from the whirlwind created by moving to the big chair for a few hours.

Elliott laughed while talking about how time flies on the job.

“This was actually really, really fun because [this] was the first day I really got to dive into some football,” Elliott said. “Everything else has been program-related. A lot of things going on, trying to engage with donors, raise money. Organizationally, trying to get the support staff where I need it to be, just trying to get the culture rooted, getting the guys to understand, so I’ve been doing a lot more of the CEO-type activities. So today was actually pretty fun. You said a couple of months, it feels about like three years.”

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