Just about everybody saw it coming, and now it’s official: Football Head Coach Al Groh has fired his son, Mike Groh, from his position as offensive coordinator.
“Since the end of the season, I have done the annual review of every aspect of our program in order to make our plans to move forward to the next season,” said Groh in a statement issued this afternoon. “Part of that moving forward will involve changes in our systems and staff.
“The change in systems will be made to utilize the player talent available to us from our current roster and incoming players, and the changes in the staff will be made to accommodate those schemes.”
Rivals.com broke the story last night, and The Daily Progress, Richmond Times-Dispatch and other outlets quickly followed up. But the action had seemed imminent since the football team ended the season 5-7 after losing—yet again—to Virginia Tech. UVA Athletic Director Craig Littlepage announced last week that Al Groh’s contract wouldn’t be extended. Virginia and Duke are the only squads out of the 12 ACC teams that won’t go to a bowl game this year.
Since Mike Groh, an acclaimed UVA quarterback in the 1990s, took over the role of offensive coordinator, the offense has never finished the season higher than 101 out of 119 division I-A teams.
In addition to Mike Groh, Levern Belin, defensive line coach, is also leaving to “pursue career opportunities.” Steve Bernstein, assistant head coach and defensive backs coach, will retire. Bob Pruett will move to the position of assistant head coach/defense, while Bob Diaco will become defensive coordinator. Anthony Poindexter will move from running backs coach to defensive secondary coach.
Groh will conduct a “national search” to replace his son and the other vacancies. Jeff White of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that former offensive coordinator Ron Prince, who was fired earlier this year from his position as head coach of Kansas State, hasn’t been contacted yet about the job.