Home Something doesn’t add up on the latest Poindexter-Virginia news
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Something doesn’t add up on the latest Poindexter-Virginia news

Chris Graham
Anthony Poindexter
Anthony Poindexter. Photo courtesy UVA Athletics.

My colleague, Jerry Ratcliffe, is reporting that the Virginia football coach search is down to two, Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, and Anthony Poindexter, a UVA alum and the titular co-defensive coordinator at Penn State.

Go read Jerry’s story, if you haven’t already.

One detail that stands out to me: that there is apparently a gap between what UVA is offering and what Poindexter expects to be paid.

We didn’t get specifics or even a ballpark on what the gap is, but the idea that Poindexter would turn the job down over money doesn’t add up to me.

For starters, his resume isn’t anywhere near what Bronco Mendenhall had back in 2015 when he was the surprise hire. Even Mike London had more chops with his two years as an FCS head coach, which is two more years of head-coaching experience than Poindexter has.

Dex has three years as a DC, at UConn, and that ended back in 2016.

This would be a big-time reach on the part of AD Carla Williams. Hiring Poindexter may work out, it may not; that’s the case with any potential hire.

Going the Dex route, basically elevating a position coach, is the same as going to Marques Hagans, who is on the Mendenhall staff as a wide receivers coach.

And actually, Hagans makes more sense to me, if what you’re doing is, as Jerry suggests in his column, trying to appease the football alums, who Jerry says are solidly behind Poindexter, the idea being, getting an alum the job would motivate the money people to back the long-delayed football ops center.

OK, I’ll bite here. Hagans is an alum, right? And wouldn’t he have the advantage of incumbency, as a guy who was part of the recruiting, development and coaching of the current roster?

Continuity for the current roster has to be a consideration here. Not the consideration, because you’re building for the long term, but still, if you can have success right away, that helps build for the long term.

Personally, I’d love to see Hagans and Poindexter as big parts of the equation for the next staff. Dream team scenario here, give me Bill O’Brien, the current Alabama offensive coordinator, and former Penn State and Houston Texans head coach, as the HC, with Hagans as OC, Dex as DC, flesh out the staff from there, recruit Virginia hard, and it’s a win all the way around, in my view.

If what Jerry is reporting is true, and it’s down to Elliott, the OC at Clemson the past two years, and Poindexter, a position coach with DC experience dating back several years, mamma, mia.

Let me say this: I fear going the Poindexter route for HC at the point of a bayonet from the football alums is going to blow up in everybody’s faces.

I’m just getting a feeling like back before the hiring of Mike London, when it seemed that everybody behind the scenes wanted the guy, but no one could say why.

Now it seems that everybody behind the scenes wants Poindexter, and the one reason they can give as to why – because it’ll get the donors to grab for their checkbooks – seems like so much wishful thinking.

How I know that: we’re being told that there’s a gap between what UVA is supposedly offering Poindexter, and what he wants.

If the donor types were already behind this, wouldn’t the offer be in the vicinity of whatever it would be that Poindexter wants?

Something isn’t adding up there, is what I’m saying.

Story by Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].

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