AP Top 25 Extra Points: Elliott would go from hot seat to hot coach if No. 24 Virginia keeps rising

By Canadian Press on September 29, 2025.

The vibe around Virginia football has never been more upbeat than at this moment in coach Tony Elliott’s four seasons in Charlottesville.

The Cavaliers are 4-1 for a second straight season and in a three-way tie for first in the Atlantic Coast Conference after Friday’s two-overtime win against what was a top-10 Florida State team. On Sunday, they appeared in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2019.

Sustained success has been fleeting for the program, so the No. 24 ranking and all the rest are worth celebrating.

At the center of it is Elliott, who has had far more lows than highs since he left his longtime assistant’s job at his alma mater of Clemson to take over the Cavaliers in 2022.

Three Virginia players died in a campus shooting late in his first season, a tragedy that changed his role from coach to counselor and prompted the cancelation of the final two games. A win over a top-10 North Carolina highlighted a three-win campaign in 2023. Last year’s 4-1 start was followed by losses in six of the last seven games.

Through three years, Elliott was 11-23 overall and 6-17 in ACC play and his name was prominent on hot-seat lists entering 2025.

“There’s been days I didn’t know how I was going to do it,” he said.

Virginia brought in a promising class of 22 high school recruits and a highly regarded group of 32 transfers headed by North Texas quarterback Chandler Morris. The Cavaliers are in the top 10 in scoring and total offense, and their defense is allowing opponents to convert just 25% of their third downs.

“Stay the course. Don’t deviate from the plan. Double down on what you believe in,” Elliott said of his mantra. “I came here because I believed Virginia can be one of the premier football programs in the country to go alongside being one of the premier academic schools, that everything associated with this university can just ooze with excellence.”

Virginia visits unbeaten Louisville on Saturday looking to keep stacking wins. The Cavaliers’ only loss was to North Carolina State in a designated nonconference game. They haven’t been 3-0 in ACC play since 2007.

“We wanted to be in the driver’s seat, and that’s all we did was keep ourselves in the driver’s seat,” Elliott said of the win over FSU. “So we have to keep two hands on the wheel, keep the seatbelt on, make sure we check the rearview mirror and make sure we’re awake so we don’t hit a pothole along the way.”

What, me worry?

Many saw Illinois’ 63-10 loss at Indiana as proof the Illini were overrated and on the verge of spiraling. Coach Bret Bielema said he certainly didn’t see it that way and the 34-32 bounce-back win over previously unbeaten Southern California was no surprise. It was expected.

“The part that really gave me satisfaction during the course of this week is that I know my roster better than anybody in the country,” said Bielema, whose team is ranked No. 22. “I know who they are, what they represent. I knew how they would respond. I saw them hurt. I felt myself hurting. But I knew we could respond and I thought we would play pretty well today.”

Time for a break

There might be no team in need of an open date more than No. 17 Georgia Tech.

The unbeaten Yellow Jackets (5-0) have played five straight weeks and have had three heart-pounding wins.

They overcame turnovers on their first three possessions of their opener to win 27-20 at Colorado on Haynes King’s late 45-yard touchdown run. It took a 55-yard field goal as time ran out to beat Clemson, 24-21. And they had to have an interception on Wake Forest’s 2-point try in overtime to pull out a 30-29 win.

Georgia Tech joins Iowa State, Mississippi and UNLV as the only Bowl Subdivision teams with three one-score wins, according to Sportradar.

“We’ve got to recharge and mentally get ourselves back ready to go,” coach Brent Key said. “Everybody thinks about the physical part but the mental grind starts to mount as the season goes on. … Everybody comes out of the gates sprinting. The last third of the season you see the finish line. This middle part, that’s the endurance phase.”

Next up is an Oct. 11 home game against Virginia Tech.

Extra points

Penn State coach James Franklin faced his 4-21 record against top-10 opponents head-on following his team’s 30-24 loss to Oregon in two overtimes. “I get that narrative. It’s really not a narrative; it’s factual. It’s the facts. I get it. I try to look at the entire picture and what we’ve been able to do here. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to find a way to win those games. I totally get it. And I take ownership and I take responsibility.” … Alabama’s 24-21 win that ended Georgia’s 33-game home win streak makes the Bulldogs 49-2 at Sanford Stadium since 2019. … Ohio State has allowed just two touchdowns, and its average of 5.5 points allowed per game is best in the nation after a Week 5 since Georgia allowed 4.6 per game at this point in 2021.

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Eric Olson, The Associated Press