Coaching Rumors: The Ideal Candidate

Later this week, we will be running a series on the potential coaching candidates to replace Al Groh, who was fired on Sunday.  I thought about doing an Al Groh post-mortem, but quite frankly, with the writing on the wall since September, I think that's been done.  We'd rather look ahead, to what Craig Littlepage (and Jon Oliver, who clearly had a big say in the hiring of Tony Bennett) should be looking for.

1. He'd Better Recruit: As Coach Groh preached as he came in the door, and all too frequently fell back on as his team struggled this year, you don't win without players.  The lack of players, more than anything else, led to Groh's downfall.  It was galling to watch, in succession, a program like William & Mary appear to be on par physically with their in-state big brother, and then watch as non-major conference schools like TCU and S. Miss ran up and down the field on the Hoos.  Alas, that was only a precursor to getting steamrolled by Georgia and Virginia Tech, and being circled by Clemson and Miami.

Groh was unquestionably a good coach (his game management skills notwithstanding).  But after a few successful classes to start his tenure, Groh has allowed UVA to fall behind its ACC brethren in the annual recruiting wars, which is almost always more important to winning on Saturdays than Xs and Os.  If Groh's successor isn't any better at recruiting than Groh was (especially after his principal recruiting assistants left), he could be the second coming of Bill Walsh and its not going to matter much.  (Advantage: Florida Defensive Coordinator Charlie Strong, Temple Head coach Al Golden).

2. He'd Better Be Able to Do It In-State: The state of Virginia is not Florida or Texas, but its a state upon whose talent you can build a national program.  Just ask Frank Beamer.  And only Frank Beamer.  For the last two decades, and in particular the last few seasons, Beamer's Hokies have absolutely dominated in-state recruiting.  Its a wonder when any of the state's top recruits pick the Cavs anymore.

So yeah, its great that UVA has made inroads into places like Pennsylvania and New Jersey for elite talent, but Groh's successor is going to have to do better in talent-rich Hampton Roads, and is going to need to compete for the best from SW Virginia and Northern Virginia.  It won't be easy to wrestle control of the state away from Beamer, but we'll take something closer to competing, as opposed to the bloodbath that in-state recruiting has been recently.  There's enough talent in-state to go around.  (Advantage: Richmond Head Coach Mike London, Virginia Tech Defensive Coordinator Bud Foster).    

3. He Needs to Be Prepared to Deal With Academic Restrictions At Virginia: As the University made clear with the hiring of Tony Bennett, who was recently quoted as saying Virginia should aspire to be Stanford-East, UVa is not going to lower their academic standards to compete for recruits (although it wouldn't kill them to make a few more exceptions). Virginia has nicked more than a few of Groh's recruits, most prominently the lost class of 2006, when 8 of Cavs' 24 recruits didn't qualify academically.  The Hoos also lose players after they walk through the doors of the University.  Most recently, starting QB Jameel Sewell and starting CB Chris Cook were declared academically ineligible for the 2008 season.  And DE Jeffrey Fitzgerald finished his college career playing for Kansas State, not Virignia, in part because of academic issues.       

We can debate whether the football and basketball program should be held to the same academic standards as the rest of the University (although if you think more than 5% of either program would have been admitted without their athletic credentials, you're fooling yourself).  But its largely been made clear that those academic standards aren't going anywhere.  (Advantage: Harvard Head Coach Tim Murphy).   

4. He Needs to Be the Face of the Program: Besides not winning enough games, Groh's biggest failure was in not endearing himself in any way to the University community.  Whether it was his gruff demeanor, or his aloofness in dealing with issues such as ties v. t-shirts (I happen to agree with him, but he could have handled it better), Groh was always more concerned with Xs and Os than leading the program.  So when the records started going south, it was hard to find too many people willing to defend Groh.

Virginia served notice with Bennett's hiring that it was looking for someone to be the face of the program.  Expect them to pick someone that the University community will be able to embrace, something was wasn't often true with Groh.  (Advantage: Boise State Head Coach Chris Peterson).   

We'll be tackling some of the individual names starting tomorrow, but since the hiring of Tony Bennett came out of left field, its just as likely this one will too.  We're not sure the ideal candidate - i.e. the one that checks all these boxes - is out there, but you can be sure the AD's office will be taking these requirements into consideration when they pick their man.