Jed Williams

However you feel about Al Groh as a college football coach – and yes, the reviews are very mixed – this one thing is for sure: the ex-Jet, Patriot, Giant, etc. knows what the NFL likes and wants. And he delivers them that product.

D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Heath Miller, Matt Schaub, Elton Brown, Darryl Blackstock, Ahmad Brooks , Alvin Pearman, Wali Lundy and others have all parlayed time under Groh’s thumb into varying degrees of professional success and loads of dinero.

2008 is no different. For the second time in three years, an NFL Commissioner will step to the podium and within the first five picks, utter a name followed by “The University of Virginia.” The depth of talent emerging from the Charlottesville pipeline is more top-heavy and less plentiful than three years ago when seven Hoos were called on Draft day (third among all college programs), but it’s far from sparse.

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