Littlepage: Groh to Return Next Season

General NCS Football16

Larry Coker and John Bunting may be gone next year, but it sounds as though Virginia’s Al Groh will probably return for another season in Charlottesville. (Link) The Washington Post said:

The growing number of fans wishing for Al Groh to be dismissed as the coach of the Virginia football team will have to wait at least one year. “Al will be our head coach,” Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said yesterday in an e-mail when asked if Groh would be the coach next season.

To be honest, SFN is a little disappointed in Littlepage’s comments at this juncture of the season. What if Al Groh loses every game for the rest of the season in John Buntingesque fashion? What if UVa has Miami Hurricane-like fights in multiple games the rest of the season? We just don’t see how it could be prudent to make such definitive statements at this point of the season.

In fact, back in February of 2005 we held Littlepage’s behavior up as an example in one of our all-time favorite entries that you can read by clicking here. Relatedly, we’ve got this key link from the archives that also supports our position on the topic of commenting about coaches before the end of the season.

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General NCS Football

16 Responses to Littlepage: Groh to Return Next Season

  1. Dan 10/16/2006 at 2:49 PM #

    Agree with SFN 100%. I dont see how the postive of assuring an underperforming staff outweighs the negative of telling the fans that its ok if UVa sucks next year too. Why take away the hope of a big chunk of the fanbase?

    I dont know why AD’s are always suckered by pesky reporters into making comments like this. They all need a new scripted response.

    Maybe ..”We are all disappointed in the season to date, but we are confident that the coaching staff will improve as the season progresses.”

  2. Cardiff Giant 10/16/2006 at 2:58 PM #

    This is a very simple question to answer:

    “The status of all coaches is evaluated after the end of the season. That is no different in the case of Coach Groh. There will be no further comment on the issue.”

    Simple.

  3. BoKnowsNCS71 10/16/2006 at 3:41 PM #

    Agree. They always say they want to look at the full season. I think Groh and the AD may be afraid of losing recruits who are unsure of Groh’s status.

    But Groh has had problems with recruting. 1/3 of this years class did not qualify and attend UVA. Good recruits but they can’t attend.

  4. Mr O 10/16/2006 at 4:04 PM #

    Groh has a huge contract. Why let the speculation hurt the program if Groh is going to return?

    Jeff: I think that this is the ONLY reason to say something…BUT…does it REALLY matter? Will the media really just stop speculating? Will that statement REALLY make one ounce of impact in fan conversations and dissatisfaction? Do high school recruits really read the Washington Post?

    Heck, Lee Fowler made multiple definitive comments about Herb’s status…yet, we heard hundreds of times that the continued speculation (despite Fowler’s comments) continually hurt the program.

    If an AD wants to squash this kind of talk for recruiting purposes, then the AD should address recruits when they come to visit; and/or send the recruits direct correspondence stating his thoughts. That would serve the SUPPOSED stated purpose of not letting speculation hurt the program.

  5. Mr O 10/16/2006 at 4:05 PM #

    I think he gets $1.7 million a year and has another 7-8 years left on the deal. UVa just paid a lot of money to buy Pete Gillen out.

  6. Woof Wolf 10/16/2006 at 4:37 PM #

    I don’t know how many times I have heard an AD or GM make definitive a statement supporting a coach or manager and then fire them a few days or weeks later.

    I think sometimes it may be better to lie, than make some statement that creates speculation that could impact team morale and recruiting.

    Just cause he said it, don’t make it so. In this case I don’t think he had much of a choice.

  7. choppack1 10/16/2006 at 5:37 PM #

    Wearing a nuetral hat, I don’t think you can judge Groh’s tenure by this season. If they see more of the same this year, it’s probably time for a change. This is the new ACC – a lot of teams are going to struggle – especially when you don’t have Wake to push around.

    It’s interesting – in the second half of our season, we play the “Hot Seat” challenge – UVA, UMd and UNC. I think we may all play each other this year: The results of these “battle royales” should give each school just an idea of where they are. For us, we play all 3 of these games on the road – and we need to take that in consideration.

  8. whitefang 10/16/2006 at 5:39 PM #

    From RAWFS it showed UVa as having the largest athletic revenue in the ACC at $62.3 million (nearly twice State’s) with the second largest “profit” after expenses of $4.9 million (compared with State’s $250,000 “profit”) with $82.9 thousand expenditures per male athlete ($25.8 thousand for State). Don’t know the accuracy of this information nor the revelance to the ability to buy out coaches. Still even with Groh’s huge buyout it seems UVa may be in a better financial postion than most ACC schools when it comes to buying out large contracts even after the bball coach buyout.

  9. Mr O 10/16/2006 at 7:03 PM #

    Jeff: Fowler challenged Mark May from ESPN about comments he made about Amato’s job security a couple of weeks ago. Since he did so the talk about Amato’s job status has totally changed. Part of that were the two wins, but it settled the issue in the media so we don’t have the media talking about it after our loss to Wake.

    I was wondering if you just missed the article two weeks ago about Fowler calling Mark May because I didn’t see any of your comments about it. Personally, I thought it was a great move by Fowler because the media had been allover Amato(which has been well documented on here).

  10. SaccoV 10/16/2006 at 10:40 PM #

    Don’t you think that Groh is pulling his back hair out these days, because of the job Grobe (another Virginia guy) is doing at Wake? Groh hasn’t been much at UVa and he’s had some great players. No reason he shouldn’t reach a bowl every year. Also, I agree with most of you. ADs do this crap all the time, give support and pull the rug out a month later. Groh is probably toast at the end of the year. Maybe Grobe goes to Virginia and tortures us from Charlottesville.

  11. Woof Wolf 10/16/2006 at 11:05 PM #

    One of my greatest fears is Grobe at UVA. A greater fear is Grobe at UNC.

  12. Mr O 10/16/2006 at 11:59 PM #

    Grobe went 4-7 the last two seasons and had a lot of Wake fans not all that happy with the program going into the season.

    Will this be his 2nd winning season?

  13. Woof Wolf 10/17/2006 at 12:36 AM #

    His propects look a lot better than ours? One win gets him over .500.

  14. Woof Wolf 10/17/2006 at 12:39 AM #

    What if he had some real 1A talent.

  15. Mr O 10/17/2006 at 9:27 AM #

    What if he had better 1A talent and the expectations of a program where 4-7 would get you fired?

    Grobe does have talent. It isn’t like they lack speed. Maybe he averages 6 or 7 wins at a place like UVa, NC State or UNC. Amato is averaging almost eight wins per season and he isn’t the most popular guy in Raleigh.

  16. BoKnowsNCS71 10/17/2006 at 2:28 PM #

    I thought it was interesting that EweNC gave away ten thousand tickets to get kids in to see the game — and the stadium was still not full.

    On the other hand maybe the parents were wise to keep them home based on this report:

    “The Miami Dade Police Department kicked off their annual “Join-a-Team, Not-a-Gang program on Tuesday, October 10th.

    This Saturday, the Miami Dade Police Department will bring about 700 children to the Miami vs. FIU football game as part of the program.”

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