The New Head Coach

It certainly sounded on Saturday as if Mike London had coached his last game at his alma mater.  First, there was a blog report that Richmond had been removed from UVA's 2010 schedule.  Then, there was London's post-game comments after his Spider's last-second loss to Appalachian State, almost speaking in the past tense when talking about his team.  By Sunday morning, it was released that Virginia had sought permission to speak to London, and by last night, a press conference had been scheduled to announce London as the University's next head football coach.

Is it the right hire?  Only time will tell, but it certainly fits the criteria we talked about earlier in the week.  London is know by reputation as a solid recruiter, particularly in the state.  That makes sense in light of the fact that he was raised in the talent-rich Hampton Roads area, and has been coaching in the state for 17 of the last 21 years.  As we noted in our review of London's resume, if anyone can break Frank Beamer's death-grip on in-state talent, its the Hampton native London. 

That failure to maintain in-state recruiting, more than any other reason, explains why Al Groh was fired last Sunday.  The program had at least held its own during Groh's early years, and success followed.  If Virignia was looking to a return to the successes of earlier this decade, London (or perhaps Temple Head Coach Al Golden) made a heck of a lot of sense.  Those teams were never great, but with the talent brought in principally by those two men, Virginia was relevant, going to four straight bowl games from 2002-05.  As his assistants left, the recruiting fell off, leading to losing seasons in three of the last four campaigns. 

Can London coach? Former UVa players sure seem to think so.  First Nate Collins sung his praises, and then over the weekend Chris Long gave London his endorsement.  And while its fair to say that London did not build the program at Richmond, he certainly got them over the hump, taking a team that had bowed out in the FCS Semifinals the year before to a National Championship in 2008, his first year as coach.  And as a former Cav assistant, and a former assistant at W&M and BC as well, London should be prepared to deal with the academic restrictions that exist at a place like Virginia. 

Is it a foolproof hire?  No.  A cynic would point out that he won at Richmond with someone else's players.  All 22 Spider starers this season were upperclassmen, and thus brought to Richmond by London's predecessor.  We don't know yet how London's classes, who would have started to make their mark next season, would have fared. 

A cynic might also suggest that while UVA's defenses were solid under London in 2006 and '07, it did so while London was the DC under Al Groh, who made his name as a defensive coach.  Its kind of like being the OC of the New Orleans Saints.  Its nice and all (and may have gotten Doug Marrone the job at Syracuse), but everyone knows Sean Payton calls the shots down there.  It could easily be argued that London's only been truly calling the defensive shots for two seasons, a little thin for a major conference head coach.

But this is where the speed of the hire allays some of those concerns (at least mine).  We'll never truly know whether it was London or Golden (choice 1A in my book) who was more or less responsible for the stellar recruiting classes from earlier this decade.  Nor can we fairly credit either man with being a better coach - London got Richmond over the hump, but Golden has done nothing short of work miracles at Temple.  But its fair to assume (even if we don't always trust their evaluations) that the Athletic Department does know the difference between these two men.  And while there were rumors surrounding London from the day Groh was fired,  there was never a report anywhere that Virginia sought permission to speak with Golden.  Perhaps that's because Golden wouldn't have come, but I have a hard time believing he would not have at least listened.  The fact that Virginia flirted with no one else tells me they knew who they wanted all along, and that can only be interpreted as a good sign. 

More than anything, the hire makes sense because more than any of the other candidates, this was a destination job for London.  A bit early in his career maybe - none of the other major programs were looking at him - but some of the more seasoned candidates that were, like Tommy Tuberville or Skip Holtz, may always have seen the grass as greener on the other side.  Same to a certain extent with Golden, who may have been tempted by the Penn State job when Paterno finally rides off into the sunset.  Its hard to see London coaching anywhere else.  Its his dream job.  We can only hope that it turns out to be Virginia's dream hire.