Groh pulls strings all the way to end
November 29, 2009 by afp
Filed under *ACCVirginia.com
Column by Chris Graham
I’m not buying it for a second, though I guess that makes me the butthead.
“When I visited the guy in the glass,” Groh said after reading the last line in the poem “The Man in the Glass” at what turned out to be his final press conference as the head football coach at UVa. last night, following a 42-13 loss to in-state rival Virginia Tech, “I saw that he’s a guy of commitment, of integrity, of dependability and accountability. He’s loyal, his spirit is indomitable, and he’s caring and loving.”
“I’m sure I will always call the guy in the glass a friend,” said Groh, before walking to the back of the media room underneath Scott Stadium to embrace his wife, Anne, and family members in a scene that struck me immediately as having been a piece of media-relations orchestration on the part of Groh.
And I’m saying that after reading a handful of sappy “Oh, woe is Al, what a nice guy” columns online today from a group of willing dupes who helped give Groh a sendoff that he didn’t deserve, considering the news that we got today.
Groh somehow avoided having his departure termed either a “firing” or “resignation” while somehow getting his hands on the $4.33 million that he was owed for the final two years of his contract at UVa.
Now, I get that he was owed the money under the terms of his contract, which should get John Casteen III, Craig Littlepage or both booted out on the street along with Groh. But here’s the deal – if I’m going to pay the guy the entirety of his contract anyway, I’m calling it what it is.
To borrow from Donald Trump, “Al, you’re fired!”
But in effect, Al wasn’t fired, he didn’t have to resign. He was simply not “retained,” according to the press release sent out today by the UVa. athletics department to announce the move.
The guy had three losing seasons in his last four years, four losing seasons in nine years, after his predecessor had two losing seasons in 19 years upon taking over for a long line of failed UVa. football coaches, and he still runs the show even in his wake.
Even to the point of the break of protocol in the Virginia Tech postgame yesterday. Again, I was supposed to leave the media room thinking how tough this whole situation was for the Groh family, evidenced by the fact that not five feet from me Groh and his family shared their tearful embraces, and then stayed uncomfortably afterward as we went about our jobs trying to interview players.
What I was left feeling instead was that this was typical Al Groh. Not only did he read to us a cornball poem with the basic message that, Yeah, I don’t care what you think, I think I did a good job, but then he trotted out his emotional family for the TV cameras and still photographers to squeeze every last bit of sympathy he could before cashing out his $4 million golden parachute.
Sorry, I’ll pass.
Chrs on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 5:01 pm
The nerve of some people, how dare Al Groh’s family get in your way of interviewing players. I’m sure this was his plan all along, coach UVa for 9 years then trot out his family while under their breathes they are all saying “suckers!”
Rod Mullins on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 5:14 pm
Groh brought the family in to keep UVa from letting the door hit him on the way out. Beautiful PR move by someone to draw pity and feelings of “how dare UVa do this to such a fine man…” Groh is gone. Let’s pray that someone learns a lesson from this. We need new tires on the Wahoo machine, not Groh or Welsh retreads.
chrisgraham on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 5:38 pm
Shame on Groh for exploiting his family for PR cover. Shame on UVa. athletics for letting him do it.
I’ve seen people use the word “class” to describe how Groh handled his departure. George Welsh handled his somewhat-forced departure with class. I covered that press conference. Welsh took questions for close to an hour. Groh read a hokey poem and left his family in the media room. How that’s class, I have no idea.
todd on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 6:21 pm
Groh was coaching at his Alma matter. Pretty much his dream job, I would guess. And whatever position he takes next I would assume that it will be a backwards move. There’s no doubt in my mind that he was trying the best he could to grow a successful program. Obviously, he fell short in his attempt and it’s time to give someone else a change. There’s too much money at stake not to, and after all…that’s what it’s all about these days. I guess one can buy into the theory that if a coach get paid big bucks to coach in the big-leagues, then the coach signs up to take whatever criticism anyone wants to throw your way; including how you handled your firing (or whatever one calls it). But it bothers me that we (society in general) turn so mean spirited so quickly in the reporting and discussion of them. Even though I know it’s time for a change, I still have a fair amount of sympathy for a man that gave it his best shot and has just lost his dream job.
Jeffrey Pillow on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 6:56 pm
Unlike most all my fellow alums and friends, I have to admit, I never was a “Groh must Go” fan. Considering we hired him despite his record at Wake and as a favorite son, he did fairly well. Considering, like I said. I feel bad for the guy. Our athletes don’t deserve what they get from the typical UVA fan: half-ass support. Too many people cry and moan and boo our own coach. Frank Beamer would never have lasted at U.Va. with the record he had at Tech after 6 seasons. But look at Tech now. They own us. It’s called loyalty. We need to learn a little more about what it is. It’s easy to complain.
Brian Rostron on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 7:16 pm
I never thought that Groh was a good fit at U.Va., even though he’s an alum. He’s too much of a State U. type. U.Va. needs an idiosyncratic type, like Welsh. Groh even quoted a piece of doggerel verse at his last press conference.
chrisgraham on Sun, 29th Nov 2009 7:32 pm
I have a hard time feeling sorry for Al Groh, who walks away from his dream job having been paid in the neighborhood of $20 million to fail and fail miserably.
He threw George Welsh under the bus upon taking the job, saying the program needed to set its sights on a national championship, complaining that he hadn’t been left enough talent to succeed early on, then famously saying in 2004, which turned out to be his high-water year, that you couldn’t judge the chef for the quality of the meal until you let him go to the store to buy the groceries.
He was making his meals then with George’s guys. By the time he was making meals with his own guys, he was posting three losing seasons in four years and getting his hat handed to him by Duke (twice), William and Mary and of course Virginia Tech.
“It’s easy to complain”? “Loyalty”? Really? As an alum, I’ll say this – my loyalty is to the University of Virginia and the commitment to excellence across the board that marks everything done at Mr. Jefferson’s University. That approach is the reason the school is considered the top public university in the nation, and it’s why its athletics department pays people like Al Groh and Pete Gillen and Dave Leitao and now Tony Bennett many, many pretty pennies to coach the football and basketball teams.
If the likes of Groh or Gillen or Leitao or Bennett or Chris Petersen or Mike London or whoever ends up taking over the football program wants to escape the accountability that comes with the expectations of being a coach at a school like UVa., then there are numerous Division II, Division III and high-school jobs for them to practice their love of coaching and developing young men into players and successful, productive members of society outside of that spotlight.
Those who sign on for these jobs know the stakes when they take them. Succeed, and be revered. Fail, and, well, the golden parachute that deploys at the end is nice solace.
Theo CLAS '85 on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 11:54 am
Mr. Graham is simply telling it like it is. In the entire time since Welsh stepped down/was removed, there has been no credible effort to examine his impact on the program and on the school. We’ve discussed, ad nauseam, his record, his wins, his losses, how he was conservative with leads, and his recruiting hits (the Moores, Barbers, Jones, Slades, Fredericks, Roberts, Kerneys, Jeffers, etc.) and the misses (Vick — thanks to his cousin, Brooks — and Curry), and his taciturn demeanor. But the full spectrum of Welsh’s impact, which necessarily starts with UVA’s history as a school and the team as a reflection of it, never gets discussed. But make no mistake: Welsh lifted UVA out of something it was in to put it into something it had never been in before. It was a moment of opportunity for the right man in the right job with the right backing. Welsh was that man, Hereford and others were the right backers, and UVA 1981 was the right time. It needs to be examined fully now, especially, if we’re going to get back to it after almost 10 years of dream-killing under Groh.
In my view, the team is not a stand-alone line of business. It cannot be spun-off and sold in the market as a tracking stock. It is as much a part of the school’s profile as the Lawn. That’s just how it is. It reflects the school. Welsh was able to bring together a mix of black and white, in-state laden talent to reflect the best of what UVA was and aspired to be. If you’re not as proud of the Barbers as the Colonnades, then you’re missing the beauty of the Hook. Groh and his ways were not what we needed. That was clear from the moment he severed the team’s future — or attempted to — from the only successful past it had under Welsh. Groh felt like a backlash against something from Day One of his tenure. He departs having torn up what was very, very well put together, despite the fact that Ronald Curry and Michael Vick could not see it.
One last thing: the young men who were recruited by and/or matriculated under Welsh have shown themselves to be outstanding performers as graduates. Yes, they’re football players, but look at how well they have managed themselves in that profession. The Barbers, Chris Slade, James Farrior, Jamie Sharper, Thomas Jones, Heath Miller, Matt Schaub, Herman Moore, Shawn Moore, Patrick Kerney, Terry Kirby — the list goes on and on — all contributed to the lustre of the school and the NFL. There are strong arguments that three of them — the Barbers and James Farrior — are Hall of Famers. They will certainly be enshrined in their respective teams’ rings of honor, as should Herman Moore, Thomas Jones and Heath Miller (if he continues as he has). Welsh, thus, had a formula. It worked. The foundation he built worked. It may not have been the “national championship” contender we all would like to have seen, but it was the beginning of what is the best we can achieve ultimately. Just look at the decades of horrific failure before Welsh and you know that he brought something radically different to the table. We have squandered the formula under Groh. I still don’t know why, but I know that we must make the right coaching choice to bring the formula back to the table. I do not believe that a single name that I have heard thus far has even a chance of doing that. I am glad that Poindexter was not dismissed with the rest. He’s the guy.
chrisgraham on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 12:17 pm
Very, very well said, Theo.
Anthony Poindexter needs to be at least a part of the solution moving forward. I’m not sure if he’s ready to lead the program given his age and relative inexperience in terms of coaching experience, but we should be looking for a link to what’s left of the foundation that George Welsh laid down in his time at UVa., and Poindexter, in every respect, would be a proper representative as a link between UVa. football past and UVa. football future.
It seems that for a time in the late ’90s/early ’00s the people making decisions on athletics were in some serious denial about what had worked to get UVa. sports to the place that it was. Jeff Jones was thrown to the side after having two losing seasons in a span of three years, then George Welsh was sacked for having back-to-back subpar seasons (for the Welsh era, anyway), and both were replaced with people who made it clear from the get-go that they were going to break from the Terry Holland-Jeff Jones-George Welsh traditions to do things their way.
Nothing automatically wrong with that approach, especially if it works. Unfortunately in both instances (and the replacement of Gillen with Dave Leitao), it didn’t.
But we seem to be getting it now. Case in point: Brian O’Connor, a young, cerebral, focused man who is reminiscent of a young Holland or Welsh; Tony Bennett, the early returns on whom have him appearing to be cut from the same cloth.
You can eliminate Tommy Tuberville from any discussion on a replacement to Groh, no aspersions to Mr. Tuberville. If we follow the model that has worked at UVa. dating back to the Terry Holland hire in the ’70s, we’re going to get a young (mid-30s to mid-40s) coach who is either an assistant at a top program or a head coach at a midmajor, who wants good young men who happen to be good football players, and who won’t get upset if the fans want to wear a tie and jacket or a Laura Ashley dress to the game.
Those are your marching orders, Mr. Littlepage. Good luck, and Godspeed.
Todd on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 8:24 pm
I think you two (Chris & Theo) are really over simplifying things. Being a successful coach is more like being a CEO than simply a coach. Obviously, Groh did not have all the tools to do the job. But, not sure Poindexter has done enough to even put himself on the short list for a replacement (though I do appreciate the Hammer’s performance as a player, especially on Nov 2, 1995 when we were the first team to knock off the FSU fellas). Or, that a mid-30’s to 40’s guy is a good enough description to help the search committee. My main point was that I (and just to clarify, I’m an UVa alum too), expect a higher level of behavior in dealing with such issues. Even if the guy you are taking the knees out from is making $2.2 MM a year with a $4.3 MM buyout, there should be some etiquette expectations.
I’m also curious as to what your expectations are in reference to the football program. Do you want UVa to be National Championship contender? Personally, I’ve never thought that was realistic given the UVa academic standards (after all, there’s only one Mr. Jefferson’s University and I’m not ready to trade that in so we can beat LSU in football). That may be where our disagreement begins.
One last minor point, mostly for Theo, Patrick Kerney was primarily a lacrosse player at UVa. He was a football walk-on at UVa and not recruited by Welsh. The Barber twins, Thomas Jones, and as I understand it…Terry Kirby (which by the way, is one of only two 5-star recruits in UVa’s entire history) was not heavily recruited by Welsh, but were players that grew up wanting to go to UVa.
Enjoying the debate. Too bad we can’t so this over a beer.
chrisgraham on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 8:43 pm
Etiquette? Are you serious? Saying you want the guy to go somehow lacks etiquette? That’s an odd perspective.
Your disagreement on whether UVa. can be a national-championship contender begins with Al Groh. He used that terminology at his introductory press conference. My expectation is that UVa. can field a competitive program as it did in the Welsh years.
Your minor point on Patrick Kerney is inaccurate. Kerney was a football walk-on, but he was hardly “primarily a lacrosse player” at UVa. He only played lacrosse for two years at UVa.
Brian Rostron on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 8:44 pm
I don’t think that anyone expects or even really wants U.Va. to be a national championship contender. A winning season pretty much every year and competing for an ACC championship every two or three years would satisfy most people. You know, like the success that George Welsh had. For 15 years straight.
chrisgraham on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 8:48 pm
Precisely. It was done that way for 15 years.
Todd on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 9:53 pm
Etiquette…yes I’m serious. Maybe that wasn’t the correct adjective to use but toning-down the “meaness” is what I was refering to. You, the wordsmith can surely say it better but me but I trust you know what I’m getting at.
To clarify my minor point…Kerny came to UVa soley as a lacrosse player. He ended up being a hell of football player but Welsh shouldn’t be credited with recruiting him. That’s all I meant.
I was a Welsh supported too. And told those (that as I recal had a similar harsh tone similar to what I hear today) at the time that were eager to see Welsh leave becase 7-wins a year just wasn’t good enough, that they should be satisfied; that it could be worse. And…that the man deserved more respect than he was getting both because of what he had done for the program and, how we (the University community) should strive to be viewed.
I have no issues with what’s happening. I just don’t like the “tone” of it. Maybe I’m just getting soft in my old age.
chrisgraham on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 10:15 pm
Actually, no, I don’t know what you’re getting at. If you’re speaking generally about some of the more mean-spirited “Get rid of Al, he’s the dumbest person on the face of the planet” people, maybe. That’s not the tone here.
We’re critical, but criticism in and of itself isn’t by definition meanspirited.
chrisgraham on Mon, 30th Nov 2009 10:24 pm
And if we’re going to give credit/take it away based on the standards above, Groh can’t take any credit for his only (moderately) successful teams in ‘02, ‘03 and ‘04, because the key players on those teams had been recruited by George’s staff. And the only player of note on his ‘07 team was Chris Long, who was coming to Virginia whether Todd or Chris Graham or Brian Rostron was the coach.
The sum of contributions from Al Groh to UVa. football, then, are D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Eugene Monroe and Branden Albert. With whom our offense somehow couldn’t manage to move the football with any consistency.
On the other hand, apparently George Welsh was the luckiest man on earth to have never won a lottery, because though we’re led to believe he couldn’t recruit his way out of a paper bag he landed a roster of NFL Pro Bowlers that kept on winning after he left.
There I go again, with “tone.”
todd on Tue, 1st Dec 2009 7:25 am
“…apparently George Welsh was the luckiest man on earth to have never won a lottery, because though we’re led to believe he couldn’t recruit his way out of a paper bag”…that’s really stretching what I said. Didn’t I say I was a Welsh supporter?
The point I wanted to originally make (and may have fallen short on, I admit), and still stand by is, I understand and agree that It’s time for a change. I’m just don’t like the harshness surrounding Groh’s dismissal when I know he’s decent guy and UVa alum that tried his best, and just came up short. I expect that from the rest of the college world but I’d hoped better for ol’ UVa.
Apparently, I’m alone on this, just like I was when Welsh was kicked to the curb.
Brian Rostron on Tue, 1st Dec 2009 8:31 am
Groh appears to have an attitude that has rubbed some people the wrong way from the beginning of his tenure at U.Va. He actually reminds me of Charlie Weis. Both came back to their alma maters emphasizing their NFL pedigrees and Super Bowl rings and claiming that they could take the programs “to the next level.” Both enjoyed early success with previous recruits and got big contract extensions. Then when losses mounted and their programs actually took a step backward there was a lot more talk about recruiting obstacles. Or, in Groh’s case, vague talk about disruptive forces undermining his program.
I can’t imagine George Welsh giving a great recruiting sales pitch, but the success of his program (and Terry Holland’s) attracted a lot of good in-state recruits to U.Va. A lot of people say that high school coaches in Virginia view Al Groh as arrogant and condescending to them and aren’t sad to see him go.
Todd on Tue, 1st Dec 2009 11:53 am
Brian, I’ve heard the same thing about Groh and his recruiting; that he’s rubbed people the wrong way many times while recruiting for/at UVa. I’ve often said if I had a 4 or 5 star HS recruit as a son, and I sat through the living-room pitch with Groh and Beamer, I’d probably end up sending him to VT, even though I’m UVa alum. Groh’s personality is probably the one thing that has hurt him the most. One has to assume that once they get to this level they all know the x’s and o’s. It’s the other skills (recruiting, personnel management, leadership, etc.) that separate the Grohs from the Urban Meyers. Well, those and little luck go a long way, at least in my opinion.
chrisgraham on Tue, 1st Dec 2009 12:02 pm
I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to do one-on-one interviews with both. On the field, their coaching philosophies are strikingly similar. Both prefer to play field-position football, with offenses that can run the ball and eat clock and be opportunistic with short fields, and defenses and special teams that can stop the other guys and take the ball away to set up those short fields.
Off the field, yeah, it’s a night-and-day difference. Groh, maybe from his NFL days, came across the way you’d expect an NFL guy to come across. Beamer either was a natural salesman or taught himself to become one. I left the one-on-one with him from a couple of years ago thinking he was the greatest guy in the world, even after getting back to the office and realizing when I listened to the tape that he hadn’t really told me anything.
theo CLAS '85 on Tue, 1st Dec 2009 6:10 pm
Sorry I dropped out — looks like things got interesting! As I suggested, Welsh’s impact has not truly been examined in proper context. I’m not Taylor Branch, or the like, so I can’t do it justice. However, I was there from ‘81 (Bestwick’s last season, a 1-10 campaign) through ‘85, including Welsh’s first 3 seasons (2-9, 6-5 and 8-4). The kind of transformation that Welsh engineered can’t be confined to the type of debate we’re seeing. Hindsight and time have given us a better perch — we should use it. The head coach of the program is the Recruiter-in-Chief. At the end of the day, that’s the guy you’re signing on to play for and work under. Sure, good men worked the rooms to stoke interest in the team, but Welsh was the deal closer. We have never read any compendium of interviews from those early BIG-TIME recruits. But I’ll bet that a candid Moore, Moore, Kirby, Slade, etc. would say that they believed that Welsh was a man of integrity and a man of his word. And that they would have fair opportunities to reach their full potential — AT THEIR POSITIONS — if they came on board. Whatever prior coaches may have been trying and saying, it wasn’t until Welsh that the deals got closed. My theory — and it’s only that — is that Welsh brought some of that Navy merit system way of doing things with him to Virginia. Recruits could see a path with him to get the big prize — the best education in the South — and have a successful career at the end. UVA had not been that before Welsh, that’s clear. We shouldn’t debate that. And, because Groh imposed his own model, apparently, we have really slipped in recruits’ eyes, back to where we were before Welsh. I disagree that it is all Beamer. VPI was regularly whooping our tails when they were Frank-less, when they were major independents, and for a time in the Big East. That only stopped under Welsh, and it picked right back up after he retired. That tells me one thing: when UVA hangs the right welcome sign, VPI can’t touch us. Why? Because the value proposition doesn’t lie. Groh lost the mojo, but it’s still there if the right guy stands in. I like Dex because he embodies every aspect of that era, and is a bona fide Commonwealth leged in his own right. I like that the Running Backs did well under him, and that he did very well with the DBs this year under trying conditions. He’s a gamer and a force — he wouldn’t have to beg the recruits, especially if the school stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him. But that’ll all play itself out. The main point is we shouldn’t ignore the blueprint again. We do at our own peril.