Dear Old U.Va.

An Early Look at Potential Head Coaches

Wednesday, November 25 2009 by Tiki

By now, everybody knows Al Groh will get pink slipped after the Virginia Tech game. Whether he resigns, retires, or gets fired is irrelevant. The important thing is that we will have a new coach next season.

Many people have thrown in their 2 cents about who we should hire, or who we might hire. MelbourneHoo has made public the characteristics of ideal candidate. Once the season ends, we will definitely let you know who we would like to see get the job. I haven’t made up my mind on that yet. What I want to do is briefly introduce the various candidates whose names are floating around on message boards and on the blogosphere.

This is simply a discussion of who these guys are, and why they might or might not be interested in the Virginia head coaching job. I also include some odds for each guy, based on my thoughts and opinions.

London is currently coaching at his alma mater, which is likely his dream job. Would he leave it just two years in? Is 2 years of head coaching at the DIAA level enough experience to be an ACC head coach. London has passion and energy, and it well known in Virginia recruiting circles.

Golden played at Penn State, and coached at Penn State. Think he wouldn’t love to take over there once JoePa leaves? He has done wonders with Temple, and he certainly knows our recruiting ground. I wonder if he has inside information on Paterno, and if he would leave Temple knowing that the Penn State job is opening up soon. If he did take the UVA job, would he leave in a couple of years if the PSU job was offered?

Murphy certainly has experience coaching at a place where academics are a priority. However, his tenure at Cincinnati was not all that successful. Is success in the Ivy League the same as success in the ACC? Would Murphy be able to recruit in the mid-atlantic? Murphy is a Massachussets guy, and he left Cincinnati after his first winning season to take the job at Harvard. He may not want to leave.

Charlie Strong has been passed over for several head coaching positions over the past few years. He says it is due to racial bias, but others disagree. I, of course, have no idea if that is the case. I do know that he would bring in a ton of contacts in recruit-rich Florida. I have little doubt that Strong would take the job if offered.

After his playing days at Virginia, Dooley went to law school and practiced a lawyer for several years before getting into coaching.  He has been successful at Louisiana Tech, and has been a hot coaching candidate for several years.  His current salary is relatively low, so we may be able to entice him financially.  As with many other coaches, I imagine he would like to return home.  Still, he has a good gig at LT, and he has turned down other offers.  Plus, having just gone through 9 years of being coached by an alumnus, do we want to go that route again?

Holtz got his start at Notre Dame, and was named Offensive Coordinator by his father, even though he probably hadn’t earned the position (sound familiar?). Holtz has built off that experience, and has been very successful at ECU. He knows the recruiting ground, and he has name recognition due to his father. I’m not certain he would leave ECU, as he has apparently turned down other offers in the past.

Grobe has been successful at Wake Forest, playing in the Orange Bowl in 2006. His team this year as dropped off somewhat, which could be due to his talent level dropping. He runs a spread offense, predicated on misdirection and speed. He obviously knows the ACC, and as an alumnus he would be accepted by fans. However, I am not sure he would leave Wake, and I also am not sure we would even attempt to hire away an ACC head coach.

Tuberville is the big “name” among the candidates, largely due to his presence on ESPN. He has a lot of head coaching experience, but none of it is at a school with our academics. Would he be willing to follow our recruiting guidelines? Tuberville, while at Ole Miss said “They’ll have to carry me out of here in a pine box”. He left for the Auburn job two days later. I am not sure I want that kind of “integrity” coaching my team.

Rocco brings up a lot of the same problems at Mike London. Is coaching at Liberty enough experience to come be a head coach in the ACC? Would Rocco have enough pull to recruit against guys like Butch Davis, Frank Beamer and Paul Johnson? Rocco has to be considered a fall back choice, due to his lack of experience.

Kelly has built the Cincinnati program into a Big East powerhouse, after being successful at his two other head coaching stops. He hasn’t coached in the mid-atlantic, so he would have to learn the area and build relationships with high school coaches. Kelly is a spread offense guy, who has proven that his teams can put points on the board. Is he ready to leave Cincinnati after just 4 years?

Kelly is a north east product, so moving back east might be tempting. He is another spread offense guy, who has had success as an offensive coordinator. His name was thrown into the national picture with the LeGarret Blount incident. This is his first year at Oregon, though, and I am not sure he is ready to leave. Actually, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t leave, but he is an interesting idea. Also, including him lets me link to the Blount incident.

Leach is another spread offense guy, who has built his teams has passing juggernauts. He has proven the ability to develop a good college QB. He has no experience recruiting in the region, but he does have some national cache. I think it is unlikely he leaves the Big 12 to coach in the ACC.

Peterson is another offensive genius who has had tremendous success at Boise State, after Dan Hawkins left to coach Colorado. Peterson has turned down several offers to coach at a higher profile school, which leads me to believe he would turn down our offer as well. Plus, he is a west coast guy, and coming east could be difficult.

Foster has been at Vippie Sue for over 20 years, and I do not see him leaving anytime soon. While some people think he would be a good head coach, and he certainly could recruit in-state, he clearly isn’t the right fit for the Hoos. If we were to hire Foster, for some reason, I think we would lose many fans. I also think I would be one of them.

You may notice that the above percentages only add up to 50%. This is because I feel as though there is at least a 50% chance that our next football coach is somebody we do not see coming. Much like with the Tony Bennett hire, there is much going on behind the scenes, and the hire may come out of left field. There are guys like Will Muschamp and Greg Davis, DC and OC (respectively) at Texas. I didn’t include them above because I don’t really think they are viable candidates for us. But then again, I didn’t think Tony Bennett was either.

There are many options. I only hope Littlepage and Casteen make the right choice.