This will hit the news wires shortly, but as Kris is reporting in that Edge Board post, Al Groh is going to resign as Virginia’s head coach this week and accept a Director of Player Personnel position with his ol’ buddy Bill Parcels. Son and assistant coach Mike Groh is taking over immediately. In the end, the lure of a low-stress NFL job in the Big Tuna’s orbit and the chance to allow his son to take the reins at the Grohs’ alma mater was too much to pass up. Groh will become the highest paid DPP in the league, and will have free rein in scouting, trading, and drafting, though Parcels will have the ability to veto if he wants. I doubt Groh would make any major decisions, however, without a Tribal committee approach. For almost everyone in Wahoo nation, this is devastating news that was apparently coming for a while — the developing line of familial succession explains why Mike London thought he needed to move on to further his career.

The silver lining: This move paves the way for Chris Long to become the number one pick … and perhaps opens up a pipeline for former Hoos to the NFL. So, while Virginia loses the ACC Coach of the Year, the consolation prize will be the first Wahoo ever taken #1 and a new pro beachhead that should be very alluring for recruits. In the end, I guess this would be a very bittersweet morning if I wasn’t pulling your chain because it’s April Fool’s Day. Sorry, had to do it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 8:31 am and is filed under ACC Football, Football, UVa Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.