Tony Elliott helped lead Clemson University to the highest peak of college football’s mountaintop.

Now University of Virginia fans are hopeful he can guide the Cavaliers on the same exhilarating journey.

Coach Elliott, 42, has been hired as the 40th head football coach at U.Va., following a brilliant 11-year stint as a top Clemson assistant.

Coach Elliott will succeed Coach Bronco Mendenhall, who is stepping down following the Cavaliers’ Dec. 29 Fenway Bowl appearance in Boston. Coach Mendenhall was 36-38 overall in Charlottesville, including 22-27 in ACC games. The Cavaliers are 6-6 overall and 4-4 in the conference this season.

Coach Elliott served as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Clemson this past season under head Coach Dabo Swinney.

During Coach Elliott’s coaching tenure at Clemson, the Tigers won six ACC titles, went to four College Football Playoffs and captured national crowns in 2016 and 2018.

In 2017, Coach Elliott won the Frank Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach. While at Clemson, he helped develop two of the premier offensive players in ACC history—quarterback Trevor Lawrence and running back/receiver Travis Etienne.

Before joining Coach Swinney’s staff, Coach Elliott was an assistant at South Carolina State and Furman universities.

Coach Elliott becomes U.Va.’s second Black coach. Coach Michael London was head coach from 2010 to 2015, posting an overall record of 27-46 and ACC mark of 14-34. Coach London is now at the College of William & Mary.

Coach Elliott joins Syracuse University Coach Dino Babers as the only Black head coaches in the ACC.

U.Va. has come a long way in terms of diversity since the first Black players, Harrison Davis, Kent Merritt, John Rainey and Stanley Land, enrolled in 1970.

Counting walk-ons, there are about 70 players of color on the current football roster. That includes freshman Jay Woolfolk from Benedictine, the likely U.Va. quarterback of the future.