If Virginia did fire him, it would cost them over $11 million to buyout London's and his top assistants' contracts.
"He's done a lot of things that he thought were important for us in terms of adjustments to the coaching staff, some other things relative to the program that I think were important and will bear fruit for us," Littlepage said. "I support him and I have supported him. Nothing has changed in that regard. ... If there was uncertainty, it isn't because of anything other than somebody might have an agenda. I've been very clear."
Mark Giannotto's entire story is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/virginia-athletic-director...
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Best news I have heard all week....I will have to sip some bourbon this weekend to celebrate LoLUVA's continued demise.
I have a (maybe unpopular) opinion about the Mike London situation that I'd like to throw out there and see if anyone agrees/disagrees with me.
First and foremost, do I wish Quin Blanding and Andrew Brown were Hokies? Absolutely. Talented players like them only come around once in a while in one state.
One of the big things I don't like about Virginia Tech football is that we don't have a marquee rival. I firmly believe that schools like Michigan have an edge in recruiting because they have high-profile rivalries with other "big-time" schools. This in-turn create more exposure and more revenue for the program. We're already starting to see that come to fruition playing UT in Bristol in 2016.
Having these guy go to UVA might make the Commonwealth Cup a more legitimate rivalry going forward...and with London being the coach, it's the perfect storm for the Hokies. These high-profiled recruits will go to UVA and will inflate the team's record by "out-talenting" the Duke and Wake Forest's of the world. However, when London is forced to play against Virginia Tech, it won't work because we have just as much talent but we won't have Mike London coaching our team.
UVA will create the facade of a competitive rivalry that we can consistently beat year in and year out (with a couple statistical anomalies thrown in there)...in a roundabout way, UVA is helping Virginia Tech become a stronger program.
Unfortunately from a national perspective, while they might discuss how strong London's recruiting classes are, when you are consistently a three or four win team I don't think the facade holds up. Now if they could find a way to win eight to nine games a year regularly than maybe.
Yeah but 3 or 4 wins a year is pretty good for Public Ivy! I mean, look at Stanf...oh, wait...
They aren't even the top Public Ivy on the East Coast, look at Duke....especially if they win this weekend
Guys, neither Duke nor Stanford is public....
Technically neither is Ivy either.
That's the idea of Public Ivy though: a public school at which one can receive an Ivy League-caliber education.
I think there's another informal group called "Southern Ivies." Duke as well as UVA (and Vanderbilt and Emory) are in that group.
The term came about from a book in 1985 about the top public schools. The original 8 in 1985 were William & Mary, Miami (OH), University of California, Michigan, UNC Chapel Hill, UT Austin, University of Vermont, and UVA. UC Boulder, GT, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, New College of Florida, Penn State, Pitt, SUNY Binghamton, Washington, and Wisconsin were called "worthy runner-ups." In 2001, a new list came out. That list had Penn State, Rutgers, SUNY-Binghamton, UCONN, University of Delaware, UMD, W&M, UVA, Florida, UGA, UNC Chapel Hill, UT-Austin, Arizona, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, UC-Davis, UC-Irvine, UC-San Diego, UC-Santa Barbara, UColorado-Boulder, Washington, Indiana, Miami (OH), Michigan State, Ohio State, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Based on your list then UVA probably ranks behind all these teams then:
Michigan State, Ohio State, ?Illinois?, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Penn State, Rutgers, , ?UCONN?, , UMD, Florida, UGA, UNC Chapel Hill, UT-Austin, Arizona, UC, UCLA, , ?UColorado-Boulder?, Washington
W&M has trailed for I believe 10 minutes total this year, and 9:32 of those were against 1-A WVU. I object to you leaving them off that list.
They were the last one I took off if that makes it better.....just couldn't leave them on, (mental logic went something like: W&M lost to WVU but it was close, WVU lost to UMD 37-0, UMD beat LoLUVA by 1)
Correct.
LOLUVA is considering going private too, making VT the flagship Va university (which might put a strain on our "rivalry".)
The "Public Ivy" meme is both laughable and sad. Comparing Uva to the top tier Ivies, or Stanford... or even Duke is like comparing Mike London to Bill Belichik (or maybe Nick Saban would be more appropriate).
Well, although they're a pretty daggone good school (let's be honest), no one's gonna rank UVA above those schools... or pretty much any public school to be honest. But once you get up into that upper echelon, prestige and perception tend to affect where you're ranked. The Ivies have much more of that going on.
(Sidenote: I just realized that if you replace "Ivies" in my last sentence with "SEC schools," the sentence before that could perfectly describe the football polls.)
Right. The emperor has no clothes. I mean, the police officer has no clothes. Arrest him for conspiracy to commit indecent exposure.
Conspiracy? His whole team commits indecent exposure every week...
If we lack a marquee rival, it's not really our fault. UVA has been terrible, and Tennessee has refused to play us regularly (as I understand it). WVU was the closest we had to an actual good rival in quite some time, but our series with them is on hiatus and even they've fallen on hard times.
I won't lie though... If we could get a yearly home-and-home with UT, that'd be great for perception.
I 100% agree with you that it isn't our fault. The only teams we play every year that aren't consistently awful are Georgia Tech and Miami.
Miami should be that rivalry but they need to develop continuity before that happens.
Miami would never see it that way though. They're way too consumed with themselves, Florida State, WHY WON'T FLORIDA PLAY US, and themselves.
Miami is the game I look forward to the most every year, but unfortunately, there is more hatred spewed from their end at FSU
Michigan has their 2 rivals, tOSU and MSU. But they are also recruiting in a different pool than we do.
And generally, in the "area" there aren't any schools that are competitive on a yearly basis. Nobody from neighboring states, or even bordering them. Not UVA, anyone from NC, WV, MD, Tenn, Del, even PA. So Virginia recruits can "stay home and play for us, after 2 years of waiting on the upper classmen." (generally) Or go elsewhere, and play immediately. Honestly, I don't think LOLUVa will EVER get to a level to help out us in the recruiting race. Sadly, we are in that boat alone. The best recruiting tool we have right now are the Freshman that are playing and performing on the field!
I don't think "recruiting in a different pool than we do" is true. Michigan pulled Wilton Speight and Derrick Green from Richmond and they're close on getting Da'Shawn Hand. Obviously, those recruits are more the exception than the rule.
Michigan and the Ohio Valley...
You aren't totally wrong about UVA making VT a stronger program. VT's recruiting tailed off during the end of the Groh era when UVA was no longer a factor. Once London came in and UVA started getting players VT would normally expect to get, Beamer shook up his coaching staff and brought in Shane and Cornell Brown to improve the class. This also led to 38-0, which was awesome. Iron sharpens iron, as they say. Beating UVA will always be a goal, and the better UVA is, the better VT has to be.
Not so sure about this. We don't need LOLUVA to be a marquee rival in my opinion, rather we need(ed) the ACC general caliber to rise. For a long time the ACC has been mediocre at best. This season it looks like it turned a corner. If it can continue to do so then big name recruits won't bolt for SEC, BIG10 and other conferences as often. They will stay "home" more, because the big games will attract NFL attention to its players more consistently. This is what top recruits want.
Using your example, Michigan St is LOLUVA for Mich, and their recruiting is not nearly as good. Plus Michigan is a national recruiter not relying solely on in-state recruits. It's apples and oranges. In fact, in most states only one team can prosper. The only states that can consistently afford for multiple schools to attract and hold top tier recruits are also the 3 largest; Florida, Texas and California. Virginia does not have enough local top level recruits for this to be possible. It doesn't even come close to comparing to these states and the big programs in those states also happen to be national recruiters as well. (The State of South Carolina proving the exception but I am not aware if the majority of their players are actually from South Carolina)
So I believe LOLUVA continuing to suck ass is good for VT and combined with ACC on the rise it is actually the best scenario. Now we just need to win more big games!
Agreed. Michigan's biggest rival is OSU and MichSt is the little brother. Miami is our OSU and LOLUVA is the little brother.
Side note: Customer request, any time the quoted string "UVA", case-insensitive, is found in any post, it should be automatically changed to LOLUVA, all caps.
Agree on your side note 100%. I also believe that the automated dictionary should have Hokies and TKP added to it so that it does not read as misspelled words.
Just chiming in*
Michigan State isn't really the same to Michigan as LOLUVA is to the Hokies. Michigan State has actually beaten Michigan somewhat consistently in the past few years, and the recruiting is on the rise.
Agreed MichSt recruiting is on the rise, but you could say that about LOLUVA too. But you are right about beating them, but I think that has more to do with Michigan having a low period than MichSt consistently beating them. My overall point was just the relationship to Michigan St to Michigan is similar to LOLUVA to VT, not the MichSt is a laughing stock like LOLUVA.
excellent.
'Blah, blah, blah......11 million dollar buyout......blah, blah, blah......so Coach London will be staying.'
So, this is what happens when an AD gets stuck with numerous contract obligations
Awesome. But wait-didn't they say the exact same thing before shit canning Al Groh? I guess that means London is gone.
Different economy and monies...
They can't afford to get rid of him. Same thing that Murland went through with Fridge.
Can't be the same thing for Maryland. Friedgen was ACC coach-of-the-year and made a bowl when he was fired.
Maryland wanted to fire him earlier, but couldn't afford to buy out his contract. Then, once the decision had already been made, he won 9 games...
That's how I've understood it at least.
I'm all for London staying if that means more crappy years of UVA football but I don't really put much stock into the quote. I mean Lane Kiffin was "safe" through the season and that lasted for like 2 weeks. I get that USC is a different animal than UVA but just saying this is what he has to say to the media.
So basically what I got out of it is he's too expensive to get rid of so he'll support him.
Which is exactly why, sir, that you are the 'Doctor of Hokienomix.'
If UVA was getting the extra fan and donor support necessary to pay to fire him, he'd be gone.
If they don't beat Duke tomorrow, there may be growing financial support for this.
They'll have the money soon enough. When they go private, the only thing that will change is the tuition cost.
Maybe the M.O. behind going private is to buy out TimeCop.
I think they've got a losing streak of several years to Duke. Which I find hilarious.
Nope. UVA won in '11 to interrupt that streak of 3.
Still, 1 out of 5 ain't good.
Translated, "We whole-heartedly accept the mediocrity that is UVa football."
Pass the popcorn. I LOVE watching this train wreck unfold. Bring on a Duke loss this weekend, and lets get the party started.
Who needs popcorn when you have Sam Rogers and Bourbon?
Or Sam Rogers made Bourbon?
Dear Craig Littlepage,
Welsh coached at UVA for 19 years (1982-2000), generating a W-L-T record of 134-86-3. His teams were without a losing record for his last 14 years at the school. His reward? Flat-out fired after posting a 6-6 record in 2000.
Al "The Chessmaster" Groh was next. After 9 seasons to include 5 winning seasons and an 85-93 W-L record, he too was fired.
Soooo - here we have Mike "The Savior" London who is now in his 4th year at UVA. He has managed to generate one winning season (2011) and a W-L record through last week of 18-25, and 2-4 this season. He ran off most of Groh's recruits during his first 2-3 years, and now he's using his own recruits who were, by and large, pretty good players in high school. The problem at UVA is the lack of good coaching. Period. But, despite ALL appearances, UVA claims they're going to keep London at least one more year? Isn't that the definition of insanity?
Wow, great point.
I guess its clear that they've had continually worse coaches since Welsh. I didn't realize London was actually BETTER than Groh from a Hokie standpoint; If London is this bad, I can't wait for the next coach that takes over!
It could actually be a touch of genius. For all his bad coaching, Mike London has brought in some really talented athletes to UVA. Now he is on the verge of bringing in what could be a star studded haul. So if you are the AD, the last thing you want to do now is to scare those recruits away with a middle of the season firing. Instead, you promise that coach will be back next year. February rolls in, LOIs are signed (at which point these recruits become bonded to the school), then you give the coach a behind-the-scenes ultimatum to get it done or get out. If he does not, you bring in a guy who can actually coach. Now that person would have the great talent pool that London brought in. Should be able to generate some success with that. And reality in College football these days is that success breeds success. So for all we know, their AD may be playing a good game here. Ruthless politics.
But then it is UVA (or LOLUVA as horse said), so they might bring in another London too. Should be interesting either way. Just a hypothesis.
The problem with that is that London has supposedly been bringing in great classes for at least 3 years. These are now his players that he is losing with.
I dunno, I think it's more like LOLUVA losing with their current coach. Gotta put it in perspective, now
Absolutely. That is why their best bet would be to bring in someone who can actually coach them up. Talent needs to be found, groomed, developed and mentored. I think London trails many HCs in the latter three categories. Beamer is very good at all four.
London looks like a passionate person, and that is a great recruiting tool when you are trying to reel in HS kids; but such high emotion is usually not the hallmark of a good mentor and planner (required in any head coaching job).
Average class rating 2011-13, according to Rivals:
VT: 26
UVA: 26.667
That's what I thought. Good classes when you consider there are 120 schools.
Amazingly good classes when you consider they went 4 and 8 last year (and should have lost to Penn St.) and will be lucky to get 4 wins this year. Top 25 recruiting, bottom 25 coaching.
While we're on the topic of classes, according to 247, VT's is currently ranked #21 and UVA's is currently ranked #35. It's not like they've got a top-10 class they're trying to keep together here.
They're trying to keep two players.
this is guy actually figured out what specific day ice cube was talking about, pretty impressive.
http://murkavenue.tumblr.com/post/16553509655/i-found-ice-cubes-good-day
Jenna Marbles always gets a +1 from me, as does BCH for bringing that awesome post to my attention.
I love this woman.
Same.
Can we make sure someone uses this for every discussion?
UVA AD: "I would like to take a time out to comment on Mike London's future."
I'm not sure what I'm looking at but it is one of my new favorite things.
Believe that's called doin the SpongeBob
Believe that's called doin the SpongeBob
Theory. Beamer didn't have the greatest start at VT, and always praises getting more of a shot.
Maybe UVA is trying to follow VTs process?
Sweet! I hope he never gets fired but when he does George Welshes Mimi me will likely take over..his long time assistant Tom Obrian..
Who better to coach a team when your goal is to win 7-8 games a year?
From coacheshotseat.com (and overly dramatic, if you ask me):
Haha one can only hope
Thoughts, McGee?
what could he possibly be happy about? This must be at the end of the game when they get their consolation prizes...
By "consolation prize" you mean "Capri Suns and orange slices", correct?
i was thinking more along the lines of sqwincher pops
"what..no more blues?? okay I'll take orange..hurr hurr hurr"
but yeah on the same level anyway
FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS!
DUKE is 5-1 against UVA and 5-32 against everyone else in the ACC in the David Cutcliffe era. Love Mike London!
this isn't entirely fair to Al Groh...we can't forget that he had a part in that too
Some on the The Sabre are pushing for Al's son, Mike, to be the next HC.
Please let it be so!
That's rich....Mike Groh was chased out of Hooville before AlGroh was....LOLUVA!