Al Groh doesn't have the reputation of being the friendliest guy in the world (a rep that's supposedly undeserved), but give him this much- he knows how to take care of his own. After an at-times dispiriting search for a new defensive coordinator, he is now flanked by his son and his best friend in coaching after the hire of Bob Pruett.Now, if that name happens to ring some bells, it's likely that you remember Pruett from the Randy Moss/Chad Pennington teams from the late '90s at Marshall, where he achieved massive success. Either that, or his time as the DC under Steve Spurrier at Florida. As often as those teams won, however, I don't think they were primarily known for defense, but considering that Al Groh still has a lot of sway in terms of playcalling (in fact, rumor has it that he called all the plays for the last two years), who knows how much it will matter?
And yes, when you take into account that no athletic program might be having a worse 2008 than Virginia (have you seen the basketball team? Gadzooks!), pulling one of Groh's pals out of retirement at the age of 64 might not give anyone a lot to get excited about. But I actually see this as a potentially good hire, certainly one of the better ones in the Groh tenure. Yeah, it might be nice to get one of these maverick DC's that are magic on the recruiting trail, particularly in the 757 area code, but how's that worked out the last two times? Al Golden and Mike London leaped at pretty much the first head coaching opportunities that came down the pike (to London's credit, he did turn down the Old Dominion job, but to paraphrase a LL Cool J diss, 99% of their team doesn't exist). Which leads to the next point- high school coaches in Virginia have explained UVA's shortcomings on the recruiting trail as a result of a lack of staff continuity and Groh's perceived elitism and a Treach-style tendency to do his dirt all by his lonely. Pruett helps on this front; this is probably the last job he'll have, period, unless UVA managed to shut out USC in the season opener or something. Moreover, he has a reputation of being a "good cop" type that is revered by his players, and he has strong roots in the Northern Virginia region from his high school coaching days. Now, this may not do a whole lot for Virginia in the Tidewater region (beating VT more than once a decade would probably help), but UVA can use any edge in-state, particularly since neither Virginia OR Tech has been particularly adept at taking top-notch recruits from NoVA; they're just as likely to end up at Penn State, Notre Dame, Florida or even NC State. So while not a particularly innovative hire, it's still a solid one and solid is what Virginia needs right now. Besides, were any of these dudes better options?
