Al Groh

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Al Groh

Date of birth	July 13, 1944
Place of birth	New York City, New York
Sport	Football
College	University of Virginia
Title	Head Coach
Record with Team	37-26
Overall Record	63-66
Awards	2002 ACC Coach of the Year
Championships   won	1990 NFL Championship
Coaching Stats	College Football DataWarehouse
School as a player
1963-65	Virginia
Position	Defensive end
Coaching positions
1981-86 2001-Present	Wake Forest Virginia

Al Groh (born July 13, 1944 in New York City, New York) is the current head coach of the University of Virginia college football team and the former head coach of the New York Jets of the NFL. Groh has over 38 years of professional and collegiate coaching experience; This history includes 13 seasons in the NFL, an NFL championship with the 1990 New York Giants, and over a decade of working under coach Bill Parcells. Groh, a 1962 graduate of Chaminade High School, and a 1967 graduate of the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, he returned to his alma mater in 2001 as the head coach of the Cavaliers football team.

Contents 1 Current position 2 Coaching history 3 Playing history 4 External links

[edit] Current position

Groh was named the head coach of the Cavaliers on December 30, 2000, succeeding George Welsh, who retired as the winningest coach in school and Atlantic Coast Conference history. At Virginia, Groh has become known for his implementing a 3-4 defense, rare for the college game, and for maintaining his NFL mentality. Since a 5-7 record in 2001, Groh led Virginia to four consecutive winning seasons and three bowl victories before another 5-7 campaign in 2006. He was named the ACC Coach of the Year in 2002.

Since Groh's arrival at Virginia, 13 Cavaliers have been selected in the NFL Draft, while 19 others have signed pro contracts as free agents. During his first five years, Groh maintained a strategy of hiring young, ambitious assistants, and he hoped to build a network of protégés through the football ranks. His young assistants have gone on to become head coaches at other Division I-A programs (Ron Prince at Kansas State and Al Golden at Temple) and assistants in the NFL (Bill Musgrave, previously with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Washington Redskins, now at the Atlanta Falcons, and Mike London at the Houston Texans, although London has since returned to Groh's staff.)

Virginia under Groh has a 3-1 record in bowl games, with the lone loss coming to Fresno State in overtime of the 2004 MPC Computers Bowl. The Cavaliers defeated West Virginia and Pittsburgh in the 2002 and 2003 Continental Tire Bowls and Minnesota in the 2005 Music City Bowl.

Groh’s first year as Virginia’s head coach contained struggles both on and off the field. The 2001 Cavalier team posted a 5-7 record, and Groh, a native of New York City and Long Island, was involved in controversy surrounding comments regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks in his hometown. In response to a reporters question about whether he and his team should be afraid to fly their charter plane to Clemson soon thereafter, Groh stated "I'm not saying this to make light of it by any means, but I'm not planning on having Arabs in the traveling party, so therefore I think probably that the threat of our being hijacked is pretty remote."^{[citation needed]} Both Groh and the President of the University, John T. Casteen III, apologized and recognized the inappropriateness of the remarks. Subsequent to the 2001 season, Groh was selected as the defensive head coach of the Gray team in the 64th Annual Blue-Gray All-Star Football Classic.

During Groh’s second year as head coach, Virginia amassed a 9-5 record with a schedule ranked the 11th toughest in the nation by Jeff Sagarin of USA Today, and Groh was voted the ACC Coach of the Year. In 2003, Virginia was nationally-ranked all season and finished with an 8-5 record. Groh continued coaching the team to winning seasons in 2004 (8-4) and 2005 (7-5).

The 2006 Cavaliers were a young team with several new assistant coaches. The team experienced some growing pains, and a few games into the season, freshman Jameel Sewell earned the starting quarterback position, leading Virginia to a 5-7 season record. No Cavalier player made first team All-ACC team for the first time in 20 years. While Groh acknowledged that the year would be a rebuilding experience and a slow start upset some fans, Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage stated that, "Al will be our head coach" through at least the 2007 season. [1] Littlepage, however, later refused to exercise an option to extend Groh's contract by one year stating that Virginia's expectations were higher than 5-7. [2] Unlike past seasons, Groh only played one true freshman in 2006, which preserved the redshirt of true freshman. In earlier seasons, Groh had faced criticism for playing true freshman in only limited action.

[edit] Coaching history

Throughout his career, Groh has been a friend and protégé of Bill Parcells, working with him for over 13 years in both collegiate and professional positions. Groh was an assistant under Parcells in two Super Bowls, including a 1990 Super Bowl XXV victory with the New York Giants and a 1996 loss in Super Bowl XXXI with the New England Patriots.

Groh began his college coaching career in 1968 as the defensive coach of the plebe squad at Army, working with Parcells for his first time. Groh returned to Virginia in 1970 as head coach of the freshmen team and later defensive line coach. From 1973 through 1977, he was an assistant at North Carolina, followed by a year (1978) as Parcells’ defensive coordinator at Air Force and a year at Texas Tech in 1980. Groh received his first head football coach experience with Wake Forest from 1981 through 1986 where his record was 26-40.

In 1987, Groh made his NFL debut as the special teams and tight ends coach of the Atlanta Falcons. After a brief return to the college ranks in 1988 as the offensive coordinator for South Carolina, Groh joined the New York Giants coaching staff. He served as the Giants’ linebackers coach from 1989 to 1990 and as defensive coordinator in 1991. Groh’s expertise in linebackers led to Bill Belichick hiring him as an assistant with the Cleveland Browns in 1992. Groh then reunited with Parcells in New England from 1993 to 1996 as the defensive coordinator, following him to the New York Jets as the linebacker coach from 1997 through 1999.

Groh’s first head coaching experience in the NFL occurred with the New York Jets during the 2000 season, leading the Jets to a 9-7 record. It should be noted that although Groh was the de facto successor to Bill Parcells as Jets Head Coach, he was actually the successor to Bill Belichick. Belichick took the Jets job after Parcells resigned, but stepped down the next day to become the head coach of the New England Patriots. After Belichick's resignation, Groh accepted the head coaching position.

Preceded by John Mackovic	Wake Forest Demon Deacons Head Coach 1981–1986	Succeeded by Bill Dooley
Preceded by Bill Parcells	New York Jets Head Coach 2000	Succeeded by Herman Edwards
Preceded by George Welsh	Virginia Cavaliers Head Football Coach 2001—	Succeeded by Current Coach

[edit] Playing history

Groh played for the University of Virginia football team from 1963-65, lettering at defensive end in 1965. A two-sport athlete, Groh also lettered on defense for the Cavalier lacrosse team.

[edit] External links

• Groh's bio at official UVa athletics site

Current Head Football Coaches of the Atlantic Coast Conference
Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech) | Bobby Bowden (FSU) | Tommy Bowden (Clemson) | Butch Davis (UNC) | Chan Gailey (Georgia Tech) | Jim Grobe (Wake Forest) | Al Groh (Virginia) | Jeff Jagodzinski (Boston College) | Ralph Friedgen (Maryland) | Tom O'Brien (NC State) | Ted Roof (Duke) | Randy Shannon (Miami)

New York Titans/Jets Head Coaches
Baugh • Turner • Ewbank • Winner • Shipp • Holtz • Michaels • Walton • Coslet • Carroll • Kotite • Parcells • Groh • Edwards • Mangini