Eight days after former BYU Cougars head football coach Bronco Mendenhall abruptly resigned from his post as head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers, the Cavaliers named his replacement.
On Friday, Virginia announced it has hired Clemson Tigers assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Tony Elliott to the position.
Elliott is just 42 years old, but has been talked about for quite some time as a future college head coach after he won the Broyles Award in 2017, which recognizes the nation’s top assistant coach.
Despite that, Elliott has until now opted to remain as Clemson’s offensive coordinator.
This month, the Tigers also lost defensive coordinator Brent Venables, who was named head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, and athletic director Dan Radakovich, who took the same job at the University of Miami.
It is not known if Elliott will retain any of Mendenhall’s coaching staff, many of whom followed Mendenhall to Virginia from BYU.
Mendenhall, 55, has a career record of 135-81 in 17 years as a head coach. He went 99-43 in 11 seasons at BYU and 36-38 in six campaigns at Virginia.
On Dec. 2, he announced his resignation, indicating he had received “a prompting” that it was time for him to step down.
He did very much leave open the possibility that he could return to coaching at some point in the future.