If Elliott ever decides to emphasize his coaching on the OTHER aspects of volleyball, I think it would make life a lot easier for the team. We have the players, so it comes down to coaching IMO.
Emphasis needs to be placed on Good, Consistent 1st contact - whether that be individual serving or receiving serve from the opponent.
Last night, Texas actually passed the best that I've seen on serve-receive this season. That's something that needs to improve and become more consistent with each match.
Serving is a different story because it's just getting worse. Whether each player needs individual coaching in practice to correct her mechanics or needs to come in on her off-time and work on that skill on her own...or if it's the way they go about serving in practice - something needs to change!
And this has been a main criticism of mine since Elliott's tenure...Digging a ball up with control TO THE SETTER to stay in-system and run a diverse offense. Yes, it may look cool and athletic when a player throws her body across the floor and dives to save a ball and get it up, but in reality, all that really tells me that the player is out-of-position, can't read the hitter, and is late getting to the ball.
Now the setter has to chase the ball down and can only get it to the outside pin where the opposing blockers are camping out. How many times did we see Stanford dig a ball up and it go straight to the setter where she had all her options to set the ball and spread out our block? That's the type of ball control Texas will need to develop if it ever wants to get over the hump and win multiple National Championships. That's a skill that needs to be coached and emphasized to the players....and should be a team philosophy.
If Elliott can't coach these aspects of the game, then he needs assistants that will. And if they can't, then he needs to hire coaches that can. If this is his own philosophy that he just wants to get big hitters/jumpers and hope to out-athlete teams, then it's time for him to go.