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Al Groh won his second ACC Coach of the Year Award and had his contracted extended in the same week. |
It can’t be too common for a coach to move from “got to go” paintings to coach of the year in the same season, but that’s exactly what happened for Virginia’s Al Groh in 2007. After his team finished 5-7 in 2006 and lost the opening game of 2007 in Wyoming 23-3, some displeased fans painted “Groh Must Go” on Beta Bridge in September. On Tuesday, Groh capped the turn-around with the ACC Coach of the Year Award.
“Throughout the course of this season, our team has been about, as you’ve heard us say many times, ‘We, us, and ours.’ That’s a mentality that has provided a unity and a sense of purpose. There have been no individual agendas along the way and that’s required a lot of people to be selfless along the way. When we’ve won, we’ve all won,” Groh said. “When a coach is cited in this way, it’s always when his team has had an outstanding season so this is our team trophy this year. … I’d say probably seldom has the coach who was cited been elevated as high by the players and the staff as I have been.”
The Cavaliers were picked to finish fourth in the ACC’s Coastal Division in the preseason, but came within one victory of winning the division title. The season started with the aforementioned loss in Wyoming, but UVa reeled off a seven-game winning streak. That led to the 9-3 record, the team’s most regular-season wins since 1998.
Some bystanders have mused that the season’s success and Groh’s selection are quite remarkable considering just how miserable the team performed out west in Week 1. But Groh said the team never lost faith, knowing that things don’t automatically change or automatically stay the same – a team can influence how things go after a bad performance. This team obviously buckled down and got better week to week, focusing on the entire season instead of the season opener.
“The building and creation of this team was a long time in the making and it involved significant effort and energy on the part of great many people. Within that effort, we all felt we had a chance to have a good team and a good team is determined during the course of the season,” Groh said. “As we’ve noted with this season, it’s rare that a team goes through a season that there’s not some bumps they have to deal with – we can look through almost all the teams in the country this year on every level. Ours just happened to materialize a little early and caused quite a few people to fall in to their Chicken Little mode.”
In addition to the ACC Coach of the Year Award, Coach Groh received more good news this week. University of Virginia Athletics Director Craig Littlepage rolled over Groh’s contract, extending the deal through the 2011 season. Littlepage said the one-year rollover provision is “a fairly common situation” and that as far as he knew “it’s not something that is unique to the University of Virginia.”
Virginia finished 9-3 and 6-2 in the ACC. The Cavaliers were in contention for the Coastal Division title and a spot in the ACC Championship Game before losing this past weekend to Virginia Tech.
“This is an indication of confidence on my part and the University’s part of the work that Al and his staff have done. I think it’s also a good indication of the confidence that we have in the future and the direction of the football program, both in the short term in the upcoming bowl game and in the long-term future. I’m very pleased we’re at this point,” Littlepage said.
“The factors are pretty clear. We are very pleased, and have been, with what we have seen in the on the field performance in particular and the way this team stuck together, that sort of theme, that sort of quality of a team doesn’t just happen by mistake. It’s a great indication of the kind of leadership, both from the coaching staff as well as the leadership that takes place within a team,” Littlepage said in addition. “It’s been very clear that the direction of the team, the success of the team is certainly something that we saw taking us to the position that we were in over the weekend.”
Groh, while pleased with the extension, said he hadn’t thought much about his contract since last season. At the end of that campaign, Littlepage did not elect to add one rollover year to the deal. This time around, Littlepage and Groh met on Monday night to talk about his contract before moving forward with the one-year extension.
“I’ve always considered it be an honor and a privilege to the be the head coach at the University of Virginia and I look forward to doing that for quite a while,” said Groh, who reportedly received a $25,000 bonus for the ACC Coach of the Year Award (he indicated the bonus was going to his assistant coaches). “I don’t coach for contracts. I coach for the players and for the sense of accomplishment that comes from our achieving together, but I certainly do appreciate this gesture.”
The move to extend Groh’s contract by one year should provide stability to the program. After all things were looking shaky after a 5-7 season, last year’s decision to bypass the rollover year, a column placing Groh among college’s worst coaches, somewhat heavy “hot seat” speculation, and the loss to Wyoming. Just three months later, the growing whispers around the UVa program seem to be settled with the contract situation being addressed. That, in theory, should help recruiting and help the program move forward.
“The way it came out last year caused some people that we recruit against last year to blow it in to a bigger issue than what it was. So it has been a factor in some circumstances,” Groh said of the recruiting ramifications. “But this is a very positive class that is forming right now and there’s a lot of players in the class who had a lot of belief in us and understood the reality of things and we appreciate that.”
Bowl Thoughts
At 9-3 and 6-2 in the ACC, Virginia has qualified for postseason play this season, just one year after missing the bowl party at 5-7. The Cavaliers are not eligible for the Orange Bowl, but figure to be in the mix for the Chik-fil-A Bowl, the Gator Bowl, and the Champs Sports Bowl. The Music City Bowl could be an outside factor if something changes about the bowl selection expectations.
“It’s good to know that we are in admirable position in terms of this year’s bowl selection. Certainly to be among the top four bowl games that are contracted with the Atlantic Coast Conference, pending something unusual that could happen based on the selection process, we should be anywhere from the Chik-fil-A to the Champs Sports Bowl, which I think is pretty good. Where we go, nobody knows at this point and if we went to any one of those three, we would certainly be happy,” Littlepage said. “All three are great destinations. All three have excellent traditions in terms of the games and the competition that we would potentially play. … To come in one year from not being bowl eligible to being bowl eligible and in one of the top four games for the conference is a great show of progress on the part of what this team has done in the course of the year.”
Virginia’s conference record places it ahead of teams like Clemson and Wake Forest and just one game behind BC and VT. Is there any lobbying going on with the bowls?
“I think the fact that there has been a tweaking of the conference’s selection process and there’s less flexibility in terms of where teams could rise or fall [makes lobbying less likely.] It appears as though we would have to be slated in one of those top four bowls, again pending something unusual,” Littlepage said.
All-ACC Selections
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The honors started for Chris Long on Saturday when his jersey was retired. Monday, he was named first-team All-ACC. He is a finalist for several national awards as well. |
Virginia had five players honored as All-ACC selections Monday. Two Cavaliers, guard Branden Albert and defensive end Chris Long , were named first-team All-ACC. Two others, tight end Tom Santi and punter Ryan Weigand , were named to the second-team. Offensive tackle Eugene Monroe was an honorable mention selection.
Long was the only unanimous selection from any team, leading some to wonder about his ACC Player of the Year chances. Conventional wisdom would point to Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan as the favorite for the award.
“Both players have been tremendous pieces of their team and neither team would have accomplished what the team did without that particular player. If Chris Long wins the award, he’ll be a tremendously deserving award winner who nobody could say someone else should have won it. But the same could be said about Matt Ryan,” Groh said. “I’ve watched Matt Ryan play on a number of occasions and I have a tremendous amount of respect for what he did for his team. He seems to have the same emotional presence and input on his team as Chris has on our team. … I think they both clearly were the two really awesome players in the conference this year.”
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