Dear Virginia Basketball Season Ticket Holder:

Based on the anticipated weather for Saturday’s home men’s basketball game against Wake Forest, we understand it may be difficult for ticket holders to attend the game. We still would like to create the best possible environment for our team to compete and for our fans to enjoy the game.

Would you support general admission seating for all tickets sold on Saturday? This means all non-student seats will be open for seating on a first-come, first-served basis. In addition, all reserved parking pass holders would be asked to park in the West lot and all remaining lots (South, East and Cage) would be general admission parking lots. Please respond to this survey by 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 4.

Click Here to Respond

If 70% of the season ticket holders support this idea and the severity of the weather forecasted ultimately turns out to be true, we will consider implementing general admission seating. This decision will be made and publicly announced by noon on Friday, Feb. 5.

Thank you for your support of Virginia basketball.

Hey adam,

I know there are probably 0 students awake other than me who has to get up and run snow patrol for uts today but if there are I was hoping you could pass along the message that there will hopefully be a bus running through grounds to jpj and barracks starting at noon on saturday if they want to go to the game. Unfortunately I am one of the only drivers who can drive in the snow thanks to my irresponsible father making me drive home from new jersey in an ice storm when I was 16 so I will be unable to make the game but hopefully I’ll be able to fill the place up with students for the team.

Thanks a lot and go hoos!
Mike

…it’s Bill Lazor (which I choose to pronounce like “lazer” until I hear otherwise); recent QB coach of the Seattle Seahawks.  I like the hire, even if most fans wanted someone with more playcalling experience, mainly because that means three members of the staff have substantial experience with the most important position on the field.  Consider the Groh era—after Bill Musgrave left (who even coaxed a good season out of Bryson Spinner, for goodness sake), he was replaced with Mike Groh, and then, in the disastrous 2009 season, with nobody.  That’s right, in ‘09, UVa had no coach on the staff who had ever coached QB’s before, and nobody even held the title for the team last season.  An amazing lack of emphasis on the QB job.

This year, UVa now has a guy in Bill Lazor who has coached the position for two NFL teams, a guy in Mike Faraghalli who has been a QB coach for the better part of three decades, AND a guy in Shawn Moore who might be the best to ever play the position at Virginia.  While it’s not a home-run hire from a playcalling perspective, in terms of developing and teaching, I love the hire.

Four days on the job for Mike London, and already he’s accomplished a great deal in imprinting his stamp on the football program, the coaching staff, and the Cavalier roster…we’ll get to that, along with some stories we are hearing for the first time from within the team about what exactly went wrong for Al Groh (will post that Friday), but first, as coach London’s first staff starts to take shape, a pattern is starting emerge that might raise more than a few eyebrows in C’ville.

While some people in the sports radio business seem to have a very difficult time in acknowledging that they might have missed one (um, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re probably better off for it), I’ll freely admit that so far, as far as London’s staff goes, my predictions have been a catastrophe.  Let me quote myself from last week: 

-Jeff Hanson: 27 years experience at Richmond (minus a one-year stint at VMI).  Richmond alum.  Probably not going anywhere.

That was in regard to the current DL coach at Richmond, easily the least-likely candidate to jump to UVa with coach London.  Or so I thought.  And then, Jamie Oakes and Chris Wallace at CavsCorner.com scoop me early this week, with the news that Hanson will be on the UVa staff; a story I have since corroborated with multiple sources close to London.  I was puzzled—why in the world bring in someone with his resume, when there was plenty of time to conduct a national search, or simply to re-hire Chad Wilt, who is a tremendous young coach and well-liked on the team? 

I was told on Tuesday by a former member of Al Groh’s coaching staff, that they expect the final number of Richmond assistants joining the UVa staff to be four…probably three full-time assistants and a graduate assistant.  Naturally, I assumed the other three to be the three young up-and-comers with UVa ties; Byron Thweatt, Bill Polin, and Vincent Brown.

Only to again be scooped, this time by Jeff White, who wrote that the next most likely coach to join the UVa staff would be Mike Faragalli.  Again, let’s copy-and-paste:

-Mike Faragalli.  Previous stop: Lafayette (2000-2007).  Career mid-major type coach who’s only BCS conference experience was at Wisconsin in 1982. Unlikely an option as OC, although I’m sure he’ll be looked at as a potential QB’s coach.

             Ok, so I got that one half-right, because QB coach sounds like where he’ll fit on the staff, but still, I never saw this one coming.  Now comes word today, also through the guys at CavsCorner.com (written here with Jamie’s permission, by the way; I am a paying subscriber there and it’s worth every penny), that there’s another veteran coach in the mix to run the UVa offensive line, which likely means that Polin is no longer a favorite for the job.

             The image of the Mike London staff at Virginia that I had, at first, resembled Al Groh’s first staff here: dynamic, young, energetic coaches who could blitz the state and dominate recruiting.  Nowhere on Al’s first staff was there anyone remotely like Jeff Hanson or Mike Faragalli. 

             Which makes me think that is not unintentional.  I think coach London saw firsthand the chaos that took place within the program when the staff turned over year after year, and is giving indications of modeling his UVa staff much closer to Frank Beamer’s staff at Virginia Tech—who brought a bunch of unheralded assistants with him from Murray State, most of whom are still in Blacksburg today, 20-plus years later.  In fact, the direction coach London seems to be taking the UVa program should demonstrate exactly how destructive he felt constant staff turnover was to Uva’s team, particularly when it comes to recruiting.  Hires like Mike Faragalli and Jeff Hanson, as well as UVa’s likely defensive coordinator, Jim Reid, represent hires that Mike London feels can be a foundation for the next decade; coaches who are past the age of trying to prove themselves and advance their careers, and are content to find a good job to settle into for a long time.  In other words, this is far more like George Welsh than Al Groh.

             I still continue to hear that the staff won’t be entirely devoid of young coaches; Vincent Brown is almost assured of being the third former U of R coach on the Virginia sidelines (and will handle the linebackers), Anthony Poindexter isn’t going anywhere, and while the name Chris Beatty (WVU RB’s coach, NoVa native) continues to swirl around the message boards, until Virginia names someone else to that role, I have to believe he’ll be in play.

             At this point, I don’t believe that anyone else from Al Groh’s staff will be retained.  Bob Price has a chance, as he certainly fits the stability mold and is a versatile coach who has, just in the last five years, handled the TE’s, DB’s, and RB’s…but I am hearing that it’s not likely.  One former player told me that he spoke to Wayne Lineburg and doesn’t expect him back in 2010, and Chad Wilt was doubtful to return even before Jeff Hanson was offered, but it’s definitely not happening now.  Otherwise, the entire staff is not in the picture at all for 2010; Gregg Brandon is a candidate for multiple head coaching positions at the FCS level, and I’ve heard that at least one GA and possibly an assistant coach from UVa will be joining him wherever he lands. 

             By the way, a quick Jim Reid story: Linda Hobgood, the lovely wife of former UVa basketball player (and color commentator) Jim Hobgood, is a professor at the University of Richmond in the Rhetoric and Communications department, and she always used to tell stories about how Jim Reid was her favorite coach ever, in any sport; talk about a coach who “gets it” in college sports.  When he was the head coach at Richmond, he was well known for personally calling professors regularly, checking on his players’ attendance, but also genuinely interested in their academic progress and their success in the classroom.  I have no idea if Jim Reid will be the next defensive coordinator here, although sources close to the Richmond program believe he’d be very interested…but if he does get the job, I would immediately expect the team GPA to get a big bump…and that’s only partially in jest.

Since the buzz keeps growing around Mike London, I thought it might be fun to speculate on what a London staff might look like in Charlottesville.

I think a couple things are clear; given that the majority of the last decade has been spent with London at UVa.  Most of his recent football contacts have been established at Virginia, and I think we can expect at least a couple familiar faces to be a part of the staff.  Also, it seems pretty apparent that London will reach outside of the box (and outside of the family) to bring in a prominent offensive coordinator, and in fact, that may very well be part of any arrangement a new coach would reach with UVa…but still, let’s start by examining some other obvious connections:

This was the 2005 Houston Texans coaching staff, of which London was a part; I included the position each coach was assigned with Houston; I also tried to include what each coach is doing now, and what the likelihood is that that coach could be a potential part of a staff.  There are a couple interesting names to remember on this list, most notably the QB coach, OL coach, and Ass’t DB coach, and I’d be surprised if at least one of these connections didn’t end up with a spot on the staff:

Offensive coordinator: Joe Pendry.  Current job: Assistant HC/OL coach, University of Alabama.  Prior to joining Nick Saban’s staff, Pendry’s last college coaching job was with Michigan State in 1981…still, I think he’s an interesting name to keep in mind for an OC/Ass’t HC role, and while it’s probably a pipe dream, I don’t think he’d be completely unattainable.  Great resume, obviously, with former OC jobs with the Texans, Bills, Chiefs, and Panthers, plus at Michigan State, WVU, Pitt, Kansas State, and in the USFL. 

Defensive coordinator:  Vic Fangio.  Current job: LB coach, Baltimore Ravens.  Former NFL DC with the Texans, Colts, and Panthers.  Highly unlikely that a high-profile former NFL DC would coach under a defensive-minded head coach at the college level.

QB Coach:  Greg Roman.  Current job:  TE coach, OT coach, Running Game coordinator, Stanford.  Very interesting option, as Roman is still a young guy (John Carroll ’93) with NFL QB coaching experience, and ties to London.  Stanford is his first college job, as he’d previously spent 13 years in the NFL, but he has somewhat regional connections, having spent seven years as a member of the Carolina Panthers coaching staff.

RB Coach:  Chick Harris.  Current job:  RB coach, Houston Texans.  Likely a non-starter, as he’s in his 29^th NFL season, and is still in the same job he was in when London was on the staff, as an assistant with the Texans. 

WR Coach:  Kippy Brown.  Current job: Unemployed.  Most recent job: Ass’t HC/Passing Game Coordinator, Detroit Lions (fired after 2008 season).  Interesting one, given that he was heavily rumored to be interested in the Duke OC job in 2007, and is apparently a current candidate for the head coaching job at Tennessee State.  Could certainly be an option as an OC if coach London chooses to pursue that route.

OL Coach: Steve Marshall.  Current job:  OL coach, University of California.  Member of the coaching staff at Virginia Tech from 1987 to 1992.  Also, of regional note, was the OL coach at Tennessee in two different stints, and was also the offensive coordinator at North Carolina from 1998-99.  While there are other obvious candidates at the OL, I wouldn’t entirely discount Marshall here just based on his resume and knowledge of London.

LB Coach: Tom Olivadotti.  Current job:  Unknown, likely retired.  Most google searches bring articles from the mid- to late- 1990’s.  Still, does not appear to have any college experience in decades, and as he is in his 60’s now, I doubt he’ll be under any kind of consideration.

DB Coach:  Jon Hoke.  Current job:  DB coach, Chicago Bears.  Former 18-year veteran of college coaching, most recently with the University of Florida in the early 2000’s.  Also coached at Bowling Green, Kent State, San Diego State, and Missouri.

Ass’t DB Coach: Tony Oden.  Current job:  Assistant secondary coach, New Orleans Saints.  I think here’s a particularly interesting candidate for the staff; Oden is young, energetic, and has regional college coaching experience.  He was on the staff at ECU from 2000-2002, and has the added cache of being on the staff of a super bowl contender this year.  I have no idea if he and London have stayed in touch, but if they have, I think Oden is a prime candidate for at least a nominal DC job.

ST Coaches:  Will list the names, but not elaborate, as none seem to be viable candidates to follow London to UVa.

Joe Marciano (still with the Texans)

Tony Marciano (out of coaching)

Eric Sutulovich (ass’t ST coach, Atlanta Falcons)

Now, let’s look at London’s current staff at Richmond…

Offensive Coordinator:  Mike Faragalli.  Previous stop: Lafayette (2000-2007).  Career mid-major type coach who’s only BCS conference experience was at Wisconsin in 1982. Unlikely an option as OC, although I’m sure he’ll be looked at as a potential QB’s coach.

Defensive Coordinator:  Vic Shealy.  Richmond alum, most recently at UNLV.  Again, resume doesn’t inspire much confidence from a big-schools standpoint (1995-1998: Azusa Pacific!).  A major candidate to be a holdover on the next U of R staff if London does indeed come to Virginia.

Ass’t HC Coach/DL Coach:  Jeff Hanson.  27 Years experience at Richmond (minus a one-year stint at VMI in 2007).  Richmond alum.  Probably not going anywhere.

WR Coach:  Scott Burton.  First-time college assistant, former HC at Highland Springs HS, a longtime Hokie pipeline.  Seeing him at UVa would make some long-time observers chuckle, but he is seen as a sharp young coach (Richmond ’95) and would be an intriguing addition to the UVa staff.

RB Coach:  Stacy Tutt.  ’06 Richmond Grad.  Former Spider standout and New York Jets Fullback.  Possibly a GA at UVa but unlikely to fill a full-time assistant spot.

OL Coach:  Bill Polin.  Not a shoo-in to join a London UVa staff, but lots of insiders sure think it’s close.  Former UVa graduate assistant, well-liked in Charlottesville, who has packed 6 stops on his resume since entering coaching in 2000 (months after he graduated from Colby College).  Would certainly be a primary candidate to coach the OL.

TE Coach:  Byron Thweatt.  Lord Byron is in his 3^rd year at U of R after serving as a UVa graduate assistant.  A 2000 Virginia grad who was a prolific tackler and a fan favorite at linebacker.  Would certainly be a candidate to return to UVa.

LB Coach:  Vincent Brown.  A third former UVa GA on the staff at Richmond, Brown was a longtime Patriots linebacker who played 123 career games in the NFL.  Also coached under Bill Parcells for two years with the Dallas Cowboys.  Unclear if that’s a positive or a negative from Virginia’s standpoint…no matter what, another well-liked guy with lots of coaching ambition who is certain to be in the discussion.

CB Coach/ST Coach:  Dave Legg.  Lots of in-state experience at CNU, William and Mary, Hampden-Sydney, and Richmond.  Still would appear unlikely to get the bump up to UVa at this stage based on resume.

Ass’t DL Coach:  Kevin Lewis.  Yes, that Kevin Lewis, former Hokie.  We’ll leave it at that.

Former/Current Virginia Coaches with ties to London:

John Garrett, former UVa OC, current TE coach with the Dallas Cowboys.  A prime candidate for the Virginia OC job; one he should have gotten after the 2005 season instead of Mike Groh.  A great recruiter, I’m sure he’ll be high on London’s radar screen.

Anthony Poindexter, current UVa DB’s coach.  As close to a lock as there is.

Bob Price, current UVa TE’s coach.  Possible holdover, more likely to move into football administration.  Still, don’t discount the possibility that London will try to maintain some continuity at least for year one.  Price isn’t seen as a “Groh guy”; hell, he was hired by George Welsh seemingly a generation ago.  Would likely return to coaching RB’s, something at which he’s been immensely successful.

Wayne Lineburg, former UVa RB’s coach (and prior UVa WR coach).  Was told today that he’d be unlikely to rejoin the staff now that he’s been cut loose.  Tough break, as he was neck in neck with Latrell Scott as the best recruiter on the staff, and a much, much better football coach.  

Anyway, that’s just a start, and I’m sure there are tons of candidates that we haven’t even considered; but hopefully this is some food for thought at least for now…

Well, every day the search gets more and more interesting and entertaining…If you’re looking for breaking news or earth-shaking information, there’s not a lot of it to be had at this point, but I am going to try to shine some light onto why I think Mike London would (and will) take the Virginia job with some stories that I don’t think have been told yet; I’ll address the out-of-the-blue Skip Holtz rumors, and investigate Jon Oliver’s trip to Boise; plus some other odds-and-ends as the Wahoo world turns.  (I’m going to stick to bulletpoints this time, though; apparently our WKAV blog software changed all of my numbers to “1” last time.  I realize math is not my strong suit, but despite how it might have looked, I can count beyond one…)

-        I’m not sure it ever became public last year just how close Mike London came to being the next head coach at Boston College.  Because BC didn’t part ways with Jeff Jagodzinski until well after the season (thanks to his interest in the New York Jets coaching job), London had already completed his first season at U of R and brought home a national championship.  BC Athletic Director Gene DiFillipo was quite aware of London and his accomplishment, as he was at the school when London served as Defensive Line coach under Tom O’Brien, and he immediately moved to bring London back to Chestnut Hill.  As we all saw last year, Boston College is a school that is incredibly image-conscious, and conducted their national search very quietly so as to avoid the perception of being turned down by anyone…but sources very, very close to London confirmed to me last offseason that he was verbally offered the job, and told that, at one point, he was the only candidate Boston College was considering.  London was fond of his time at BC and heavily considered jumping at an ACC coaching opportunity, but ultimately turned it down for one primary reason- his parents, who convinced him he’d be making a mistake if he shut the door on his chances to succeed Al Groh at UVa.  While it’s debatable whether UVa is Mike London’s “dream job”—he’s never made any comments one way or the other on that—there is no question that most of his extended family views Charlottesville and the University as their utopia, and they have urged London at every turn to pursue this job with all his heart.  For the London family, UVa is the job they always dreamed Mike would get…and for Mike, a former Richmond Police detective who has always been about much more than football, his family is a major motivating factor, and their desire to return to Charlottesville would, in my opinion, be enough to cause London to turn down Southern Cal in favor of UVa if the two schools both came in with offers. 

-        While clearly London has to be seen as the overwhelming favorite at this stage, many Virginia fans had to raise an eyebrow when news circulated on Wednesday that assistant AD Jon Oliver, the man in charge of the search, had been spotted on a plane bound for Boise, Idaho.  While I can’t definitively confirm he was even there, if he was, I’ve heard that it was most likely to visit a sick family member.  A member of Oliver’s family has faced some health hurdles lately, and this person lives in Boise.  When even the Daily Progress walks back its predictions of Chris Petersen to UVa, you know that ship has sailed (if it was ever even in the dock). 

-        Speaking of eyebrow-raising news from this week, how about the bizarre declaration of Skip Holtz-to-Virginia by a Greenville reporter?  While this certainly caused a fresh round of media buzz, no substance was ever found to be behind the report…which leads me to one guess about how this started, especially since it came from the ECU end: I believe that the rumor was circulated by a member of Holtz’ camp, whether an agent or Holtz himself, in order to create a market and inflate his value for his pursuit of the Notre Dame job.  With the news that Brian Kelly is now out of the mix in South Bend (how far has ND fallen when coaches are turning down the Irish to stay at Cincinnati?), apparently Holtz has moved to the forefront along with Jim Harbaugh, and, possibly, Randy Edsall…and nothing creates a market for a coach like the perception he’s fighting off offers from major programs.  Holtz is said to covet the Notre Dame job, not hard to believe given his father’s legacy at the school, and while nobody will ever confirm this on the record, my guess is that he found a friendly reporter and planted the Virginia story in order to boost his chances of getting a swift offer from Jack Swarbrick.  Do I think there has been contact between Holtz and UVa?  Yes, I do, and I think there’s at least nominal interest on both sides.  But there has been literally nothing to indicate anything close to a “done deal” except for one article in a Greenville paper…you do the math.

-        And, finally, another coach who has seen his name gain some steam lately is Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe.  Multiple well-connected reporters following this story have never given up on Grobe as a legitimate option, which tells me there’s definitely some substance there.  Still, this week, Jerry Ratcliffe, a friend of Grobe’s, published a column in which he said that there was no chance Grobe takes the Virginia job.  I did some digging with some friends in the Wake athletic department, and actually end up siding closer to Ratcliffe on this one, for one reason:  I think Grobe is the only coach still in play (London, Calhoun, Golden, Grobe were the four I identified in Wednesday’s post) for whom the lack of an identity of the next UVa president will be the determining factor.  Wake Forest is led by a man named Nathan Hatch, who’s introduction in 2005 not-coincidentally dovetails with Wake football’s rise to ACC prominence (4-7 in ’04 and ’05, 11-3 in ’06).  If this were simply a matter of having a president who has given Grobe the support he needs to win games, I’m not sure if that would entirely outweigh the appeal of returning to his alma mater.  But I’m told that Grobe and Hatch are also extremely close personally, and that Grobe feels a tremendous amount of loyalty towards Hatch, due to the loyalty Hatch has shown to Grobe and Wake Forest football.  I think under any circumstances, it would be incredibly painful for Grobe to leave Hatch, but the idea of him leaving for a job where he doesn’t even know who the new president will be is improbable at best.  Do I think there’s legitimate interest from Virginia’s side in Grobe?  I do, and I think he’d be a no-brainer; Nebraska felt he was the best coach in America when they conducted their search, and I tend not to put my own opinion over Tom Osborne’s.  If Virginia offers Grobe the position, I think he’d consider it and would have some serious soul-searching to do.  But at the end of the day, I do not believe Grobe would leave Wake for a circumstance like Virginia’s right now.

That’s all for now.  Have a great weekend, and if you can make it to Klockner tonight, it should be a barn-burner.  Go Hoos; let’s end the Terrapins season and make it to the Final Four.

Certainly, last year’s basketball coaching search proved that it’s hard to predict what UVa will do (and nobody failed more spectacularly than me—believe me, I’m still choking down crow from last spring).  Still, I think a number of factors make this one a little easier to predict (not the least of which being that there are more definable candidates with known ties to the Virginia program)…and quite simply, it’s a fascinating process, and one that is a lot of fun to follow.  In the last 72 hours, I’ve talked candidly with more than one current player, several former players, and three members of the former UVa staff.  Here’s what I’ve been able to dig up so far, as well as some educated guesses about what it all means.

1. The decision to retain Anthony Poindexter and Bob Price were made for two very different reasons.  While the administration continues to say that the next head coach will have complete authority over their staff, we do expect that there will at least be some heavy “suggestions” made to retain Dex on the full time coaching roster.  Some heavy-hitters at UVa are big fans of Dex, but more than that, it’s seen as an olive branch to Cavalier fans who would not respond well to any dismissal of perhaps the all-time most popular player in team history.  As far as Coach Price goes, as a holdover to the last decade (and the Welsh staff), he is also part of an older class of employees who’s contracts were drafted through the state, which means unless he takes a job with another school, he has the equivalent of “tenure” and can remain employed at UVa as long as he chooses.  If the next coach does not retain Coach Price, he can elect to remain at Virginia in a different role outside of the football team (much like Art Markos and Danny Wilmer chose to do in 2001).  But for now, Price’s upbeat personality and role as recruiting coordinator would have made him a logical pick to stick around in the interim, even if his contract situation had been different.  As far as the decision NOT to retain Latrell Scott, we had heard that his tenure at Virginia had been seen by his bosses as incredibly disappointing; he had a reputation here for being verbally abusive to players and was not likely to be retained under any circumstances.  Still, we believed he’d remain on board in the interim because of comments made privately last month from 5-star OT commitment Morgan Moses, who told Craig Littlepage that he’d only honor his commitment to UVa if Scott was retained.  Give credit to ‘Page, though, because in the last two weeks, he has personally taken over Moses’ recruitment, going so far as to accompany the massive lineman on road trips.  Either way, one player does not a staff make, and in the end, the decision with regard to Coach Scott was made independent of any specific recruiting ramifications.

1. What are the clues about the next coach?  I spoke with a player who was in the room when Craig Littlepage addressed the team on Sunday, and while much of the meeting was pretty much standard operating procedure and question-and-answer, the most interesting hints about the identity of UVa’s top targets came from Page himself.  He told the team that UVa will pursue a coach who meets three criteria; one, they want a coach with ACC experience; two, they want a coach who is coming from a winning program, and three, they want someone who “understands the unique attributes and appeal of the University of Virginia.”  The person I spoke to interpreted this as meaning it has to be Mike London or Al Golden; both clearly do match the criteria listed.  However, those are not the only candidates who would appear to fit those attributes.  One, Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe, as a former ACC champion, clearly fits the first two criteria, and as a UVa graduate, also fits number three.  Also, don’t discount Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun; a former Wake assistant coach (ACC experience) who has led Air Force to record-setting seasons (winning program), and as a service academy coach, is seen as perhaps a second-coming of George Welsh—and has had to deal with circumstances not dissimilar (and, perhaps, much more difficult) than winning at a school like UVa.  That’s not to say that there isn’t a darkhorse candidate—but if Littlepage’s words are to be taken at face value, one has to believe that the next coach will likely come from this list, and any of these four should be seen as a home run hire.

1. Why won’t the name Chris Petersen go away?  The rumors that surfaced last week about the Boise State head coach were surprisingly specific, and allegedly started from Jon Oliver (which, as most people close to the program know, is a good place to start).  The rumors involve UVa having actually reached the offer stage with Petersen; a five year deal at 1.7 million dollars annually, and it was supposedly said to be a “done deal”.  Still, I find this one hard to believe, and equate it to a game of telephone—someone heard from someone who heard from someone, and a “possibly” became a “definitely”, and a hypothetical offer became a firm one.  I don’t believe Chris Petersen will be the next UVa coach, nor do I believe he should: let’s ignore the obvious reason (Dirk Koetter and Dan Hawkins appeared to be can’t-miss candidates at BSU and flamed out fast at higher-profile programs)…to me, quite simply, I equate this to Al Groh offering a scholarship to Scott Deke over Sean Glennon; if all things are equal, you STAY LOCAL.  UVa has several home-run type hires in it’s back yard with ready-made connections to local high school coaches.  Why reach 2,000 miles away??  Yes, Petersen is a great coach, and from all accounts, a tremendous person…but he’s a schemes guy.  If he gets the job, it would be because of his innovative offense.  As one prominent former player told me over the weekend, Al Groh was as good at breaking down film as anyone else in football; he lost his job because UVa slipped to the bottom of the ACC in terms of talent.  The next coach needs to be someone who can, immediately, upgrade Virginia’s talent level, and lock down the state of Virginia from a recruiting standpoint.  Chris Petersen is a fantastic coach who has a great chance to be a big winner at a major program—but he just doesn’t make sense for UVa.  This program’s weaknesses don’t seem to match up with Petersen’s strengths.

1. Are there any Tony Bennett-like darkhorses out there?  Yes, I’m sure; and if we knew their identity, they wouldn’t be Bennett-esque.  But I do believe strongly that Virginia intends to hire a current HEAD coach, and not a hot coordinator (which would eliminate Charlie Strong, among many others).  There are some names that deserve at least a passing mention: Houston coach Kevin Sumlin, ECU coach Skip Holtz, UConn coach Randy Edsall (who, in other circumstances, might be seen as a favorite for the job, although I don’t expect him to consider leaving UConn this year in the aftermath of the team’s tragedy this season), and Oregon coach Chip Kelley (who was said to be a favorite of Jon Oliver from his coordinator days, though would be highly unlikely to leave Oregon after one year as the head coach).

1. What do the former coaches think?  I spoke to one position coach who was let go last week, who told me that if there are any hints we should interpret, it’s that it was highly unusual (and to this coach, highly inappropriate) for Virginia to fire their four graduate assistant coaches.  Included among the four, who only make about an $8,000/yr stipend and who are generally retained during a coaching search to keep the office running smoothly, are three Virginia alums, and two former Cavalier players.  The fact that former Wahoo players Josh Zidenberg and Rich Bedesem were immediately told to clear out their offices signaled, at least to one coach, that Virginia wanted to distance themselves as far as possible from Al Groh, which means Mike London and Al Golden might not be favorites for the job, after all.  I would hope that isn’t the case—let’s not forget, Groh’s idea when he built his first “tribe” was to bring in the best young assistant coaches in America.  To say that Mike London and Al Golden should be disqualified because they coached under Al Groh would be akin to saying you shouldn’t be considered for a better job because you happened to work under (name your worst boss ever here).  What a massive, unforgiveable mistake UVa would be making to sever ties with arguably the two best candidates for the job simply because of who they happened to work for when they coached at Virginia…and I’d like to believe it isn’t the case.  Still, weird move to fire the GA’s, and not one that went over well at all with the Virginia football family.

1. When will this all wrap up?  From the day Dave Leitao was fired to the day Tony Bennett was hired, exactly three weeks passed, and I expect that timeline to be fairly similar here.  I don’t think UVa will wait until the BCS to fill the job.  The fact that there were only two coaches retained during the interim (and no GA’s) signals to me that they think the new staff will be assembled with plenty of time before signing day to secure the recruiting class, which is key to the program’s future, and this year, signing day is on February 3^rd.  I spoke to one high school coach who is well-connected who told me he’s sure UVa will have a new coach in place before Christmas.  One would imagine that might not eliminate coaches from BCS-bound schools (Chris Petersen, Charlie Strong), but it makes it unlikely that they are the favored candidates at this point.

That’s all for now, we’ll have another update when the information warrants…

Ok, it’s Thanksgiving, so I am risking being disowned by my family if I spend too much time on here….but here’s the deal with the Chris Petersen story.

There is no substance to the rumor that he’s got the UVa job “locked down”.  None.  That’s not to say that he won’t be asked to interview after the season, and I definitely think he’s on Virginia’s short-list (and he might reciprocate), and from what I’ve heard, he’s expressed through intermediaries that he’d be very interested in the Virginia opening.  But as of right now, there is zero “fire” behind the smoke.  I’ve heard the story over the last few days from some of the same people who say they spoke to Mac, and I’m absolutely baffled that he declared it a done deal…that’s putting a lot out there when there’s a long, long way to go before this process is complete.  It might end up happening, but for now, this is nothing more than a game of telephone; everyone heard something third-hand, and the truth is that there’s nothing to report.  Same for the Daily Progress and their breathless, premature reporting.  It’s a disservice to Al Groh, to his team, and more than anything, it almost guarantees that Petersen WON’T take the job without looking like a hypocrite.

If there’s an odds-on favorite for the job, it still has to be Mike London.  Chris Petersen is a great young coach but he’s hardly a slam-dunk—just see Dan Hawkins at Colorado for an example of how success at Boise State doesn’t automatically mean anything at a BCS school.  Why UVa would limit it’s options now, given the attractive and unique situation of the job (and how many other options may crop up after the season) doesn’t make a lick of sense—but it makes a lot more sense than the rumor does for Petersen…why would he say yes to a job NOW, that he has no connections to, when his team is still mathematically alive for a NATIONAL championship, and when, for all he knows, Notre Dame may come calling in two weeks?

Look, somebody heard something from someone, which we can interpret safely to mean that Chris Petersen is an extremely attractive candidate who UVa would like to believe they have a shot at landing.  But think logically—nobody would leak his name if they really were “in the know”…. Because as we all know, the more widely reported it becomes, the LESS likely it is that it comes to fruition.  The easiest way to get a coach to say “no” is to make him deny his interest in a job to his players and his local media…and that’s likely what Chris Petersen is facing right now.

If next week, Chris Petersen is declared the next coach at UVa, then I’ll happily eat my words, and apologize to Mac and Jerry Ratcliffe and Snoop Jenkins.  But I’ve heard the rumors too, from “connected” people, and those don’t sound different from the rumors that declared it “done” that Tuberville was gonna take the job, or that it was London’s to turn down.  The only difference here is that someone bought it and reported it.  Want to know the value of rumors?  Google search “Chris Petersen” and you’ll quickly find links to legitimate articles declaring he had accepted the job at Mississippi State and UCLA.  We all know how that turned out.

So it’s in print and black-and-white:

My odds (from this morning’s show) on the next UVa head coach…

Mike London (2:1)
The Field (3:1)
Tommy Tuberville (4:1)
Al Golden (6:1)
Chris Petersen (7:1)
Charlie Strong (12:1)
Jim Harbaugh (20:1)
Philip Fulmer (20:1)
Brian Kelly (25:1)
Al Groh (300:1)
Ron Prince (50,000:1)

nbsp;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC6avfXLb…

From the old “4th Quarter” days