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The main casualty of the Virginia football coach search: Anthony Poindexter

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

By spring practice, hell, by next week, you’ll have forgotten the drama from this week surrounding the Virginia football coach search.

AD Carla Williams got her man, former Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, and all is well, for now.

It’s college football. The popularity of the head coach is more day-to-day than presidential approval.

The main casualty of the coach search is Anthony Poindexter, a legend from his time on Grounds as a player in the late 1990s, whose name was propped up as the supposed top candidate for the job.

It’s hard to imagine Poindexter getting a shot at another big-time job anytime soon.

The way the Virginia story played out, it’s obvious that someone from his team was pushing the narrative that he was the top candidate at Virginia, that his hiring was “imminent,” the rest.

It’s also obvious that the two sides were nowhere near coming to terms, if they were even close to that stage at all, and that whoever it was on AP’s side pushing the story that things had advanced to dotting i’s and crossing t’s was overplaying his hand.

He may already be victim to the fallout in the short term. Penn State head coach James Franklin announced today that he has hired former Miami head coach Manny Diaz to be his defensive coordinator, replacing Brent Pry, who left Happy Valley to take the head coach job at Virginia Tech.

Technically, Pry and Poindexter were co-defensive coordinators, but Pry was the one who designed game plans and called plays during games.

Diaz is a solid hire, but with Poindexter already on staff as a co-DC, you’d think that you’d just elevate him to the big whistle on that side of the ball.

Maybe Franklin didn’t want to have to fight the media and the interwebs.

I’m imagining that ADs at other Power 5s and Group of 5s have to be thinking the same way.

If you bring a guy in for an interview who has a history of using a friendly reporter to gem up momentum on his behalf, it’s shame on you if you end up in the media crosshairs.

Which makes me feel bad for Dex.

I’m not sure that he’s there yet resume-wise, but he’s not far from being in line legitimately for a head coach job.

Hopefully his team has learned its lesson in terms of how to go about the process.

If a reporter texts to see if you’re interviewing, respond, but don’t go much beyond confirmation.

It sure was refreshing to not hear much of anything from the Elliott team throughout. If it wasn’t for Flight Aware, we might not have even known that he was in Charlottesville for an interview this week.

That’s how it should be.

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].