As the Virginia football team moves through its spring practices, accounts of a different energy and focus continue to trickle out from the program. Whether that’s enough to improve on a 3-7 record from the first season of the Tony Elliott era remains to be seen, but the Hoos clearly believe there is a difference in 2023.

Player after player and numerous assistant coaches have said as much in media Zoom calls this spring. Often, it’s come at the end of an open-ended questions along the lines of ‘What’s different this spring compared to last?’ or about comfort levels in the schemes a year later. The answers, from both sides of the ball, have drifted toward the intangibles as much as anything.

“We’re playing much more as a team right now,” senior tight end Grant Misch said. “I think that was one of the biggest things we were lacking last year is that team atmosphere, especially out at practice. This year it’s much different.”

“I think the main difference from last year to this year is just our closeness as a team and our team mentality,” junior linebacker James Jackson said. “It started off fresh with Coach E last year. It was a lot of learning, a lot of things we had to get used to with him as the head coach, and as we progressed throughout the year, we learned more and more about him and how he wants our team to be and what he wants our mission to be as a team. I think we’re just more and more buying into that and growing as a team, coming more and more together. I feel like we’re more in one accord as a team this year than last year – not saying we weren’t last year, but we’re just growing as a team.”

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