CHARLOTTE — Tony Elliott learned long ago how to deal with the agony of defeat.

While an assistant on Dabo Swinney’s staff, Elliott experienced the highest of highs, helping lead the Tigers to two national titles. However, he was also on the receiving end of two losses in the national title game, with the first one coming in heartbreaking fashion to Alabama following the 2014 season.

Those moments prepared Elliott for how to handle his own team in the face of bitter disappointment, which is exactly what Virginia was faced with after the Cavaliers dropped a heartbreaker of their own, losing 27-20 in overtime to Duke in last year’s ACC Championship Game.

“I go back to an experience that I had in 2015,” Elliott said during the ACC Kickoff on Wednesday. “I remember coming off the field in Phoenix, just lost the National Championship. I saw my mentor and my boss just, like, distraught, defeated. I just remember saying to him, Coach, the guys in the locker room need you. They need you. And they did. I remember that.”

Following that loss to the Blue Devils in Charlotte, Elliott knew it was important to put on a happy face in front of his team.

“But I was pretty upbeat and positive in the locker room after the game, right, because I knew that this was going to lead to something better in the future,” Elliott added. “I kind of flipped a switch pretty quickly.”

And Elliott hasn’t wasted much time thinking what might have been. Entering his sixth season as the Virginia head coach, his focus now is on what is ahead.

Elliott is hoping his current team can do exactly what the Clemson team in 2015 did. Use a loss in the previous season to fuel a run to a championship. The Cavs have not won an ACC Championship in football since 1995 and have only won two in the history of the program.

“I have not even thought about the what ifs,” Elliott said. “I knew that I had an opportunity to develop us as a program that night in Charlotte. I think the guys were able to quickly flush it, and that resulted in us being able to go out and win the last game of the season, which is one of our team goals. I’m focusing on the future. I’ve learned not to do the what-if, wish I would have, ’cause that agony and that regret, it will eat you up inside.”

Photo courtesy of Nell Redmond/ACC Communications