It was clear last season that Virginia football coach Al Groh had a high opinion of Ron Prince. A number of times without prompting, Groh singled out his offensive line coach for praise while discussing his team. So it came as little surprise Monday when Groh announced that Prince has been promoted to offensive coordinator. He replaces Bill Musgrave, who left last month to take the same job with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Prince, 33, helped mold one of the nation’s youngest offensive lines into a capable unit as the Cavaliers went 9-5 and won the Continental Tire Bowl. His promotion allowed Groh to create an opening for Andy Heck, a graduate assistant the past two years. Heck, a former NFL offensive lineman, will be the team’s tight ends coach. Prince will remain as offensive line coach in addition to being the coordinator. Groh did not say whether Prince will call the plays, as Musgrave did for two seasons, or if Groh will handle that responsibility. Mike Groh, Al’s son, will fill Musgrave’s other former role as quarterbacks coach while remaining in charge of the wide receivers. Groh was UVa’s starting quarterback in 1994 and 1995. Al Groh also made several other appointments, naming Anthony Poindexter and David Cadaret as offensive graduate assistants and Tim Whitney as a defensive graduate assistant. Poindexter, one of the greatest players in Cavalier history, was a graduate assistant for strength and conditioning last season. Brad Durbin, a reserve tailback last season, replaces Whitney as the graduate assistant for recruiting.
In three weeks, Wake Forest guard Justin Gray’s one-handed, off-balance, beat-the-shot clock, banked-in, 22-foot 3-pointer Sunday could be the defining moment of Virginia’s season. Or, it could have little significance, just a small footnote. It will be the Cavaliers themselves that will determine that matter. A win Sunday at No. 10 Wake Forest would have been just the addition needed for Virginia’s NCAA resume. Instead, Gray’s shot propelled the Deacons to a 75-71 victory and the Cavaliers to their fourth straight loss. Since the NCAA selection committee does not spend too much time discussing close losses, no matter in what fashion they occurred, Sunday’s game is merely a missed opportunity. While the term must-win is overused even more than most sports cliches, there is no escaping the fact that a loss in any of its final four regular-season games likely will leave winning the ACC tournament as Virginia’s lone chance of reaching the NCAAs. “We have four games left we can win and at the same time, we have the ACC tournament left and we can make noise there. In my opinion, we are just as good as every team in the ACC,” Mapp said. “We’ve had some heartbreakers.” Sunday’s contest likely would be in that heartbreaker category. Virginia led by as many as eight in the second half and still held a 68-64 advantage with 3:30 remaining. As has plagued them in the past, the Cavaliers were unable to get that one extra basket that was needed. After a jumper by Josh Howard made it 68-66, the Cavaliers worked the shot clock before Todd Billet took a 3-pointer from the left corner. The ball rimmed out, Wake took possession and eventually Gray tied the score at 68 on a runner. “Wake played good defense down the stretch. We got good looks. Todd’s shot went in and out down in the corner there. Our kids gave it what they could give,” said UVa coach Pete Gillen. Virginia’s offense then again sputtered after Gray’s shot as Billet turned the ball over with 50 seconds remaining and the Cavaliers facing that three-point deficit. While any observer would have to put Gray’s trey in the somewhat lucky category and Billet’s turnover as an ill-timed miscue, those plays are symbolic of why Wake Forest is 19-4 and Virginia is 14-11. Furthermore, the Cavaliers were cognizant that the always ambiguous “moral victories” are of little assistance at this time of the year. “We lost. That’s the bottom line. It doesn’t matter if we played better. We lost. If we lose nobody is going to pay attention to that,” said sophomore Elton Brown who had 16 points, including 14 in the second half. Virginia did play one of its better games of the season, particularly in an opposing venue, and it did so with just limited contributions from senior forward Travis Watson, whose playing time was reduced after missing a class and another unspecified team commitment. After losing at home to Clemson last Tuesday, the spirited effort of Sunday was not necessarily expected. Still, the starkness of the situation is, as Brown noted, that a loss is a loss and of little assistance to UVa’s NCAA hopes. Now, the Cavaliers travel to Ohio University on Wednesday and then Florida State on Saturday in games that are, well, of that oft-repeated variety. “Every game is a must-win and then we go to the conference tournament. We’ll have to leave everything out on the court. We didn’t like the outcome tonight but we did leave just about everything out on the court,” Billet said. “We have to come out and play as hard as we did tonight for the rest of the season.”
Groh promotes Prince
Ron Prince will continue to coach UVa's offensive line as he succeeds Bill
Musgrave, who left for the NFL. -
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES
Al Groh has responded to the first vacancy on his Virginia football staff by
staying inside his "tribe."
Groh announced Monday that Ron Prince, who has coached the UVa offensive line
for the past two seasons, will be the Cavaliers' new offensive coordinator.
Prince, 33, succeeds Bill Musgrave, who resigned Jan.20 to become the offensive
coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL.
Prince will continue to coach the offensive line and Mike Groh, son of the head
coach, will add the quarterbacks to responsibilities that include the wide
receivers.
Prince is the first black offensive or defensive coordinator at UVa. He is a
1992 Appalachian State graduate who has coached at Alabama A&M, South Carolina
State, James Madison and Cornell.
Prince, the running-game coordinator at Cornell, received NFL Minority
Fellowships that allowed him to spend summer camp with Jacksonville, Washington,
Atlanta and the New York Giants.
"You want a person who has the ability to organize the overall operation," Groh
said. "The person has to have very good teaching skills. The person has to have
good talent-evaluation skills. A coordinator has to have very good leadership
skills. And, then, there's calling the game."
Al Groh did not specify if Prince will call plays. One alternative would be for
the older Groh to call them.
"I don't have a reluctance to do that if that would give us the best operation,"
Groh said in a recent interview, "but it's too easy just to say, 'Oh, yeah, I'm
going to do that.' Everybody likes to call plays. The fans in the stands like to
do that."
By promoting Prince, Groh created a full-time position for Andy Heck, a former
NFL offensive lineman who has been a graduate assistant for the past two years.
Heck will coach the UVa tight ends.
One-time Cavaliers All-American Anthony Poindexter, a graduate assistant this
past season with the strength and conditioning program, will assume on-field
duties in 2003 as a football graduate assistant.
"With what he's done in his duties with the off-season program, his interaction
with players has been very positive," Groh said.
Other graduate assistants will be David Cadaret, a 1993 UVa graduate who was a
pole vaulter on the Cavaliers' track team and later coached football in central
Virginia, and Tim Whitney, a four-year football letterman at Catholic
University.
Cadaret and Whitney worked for UVa last year as graduate assistants for video
and recruiting, respectively. Brad Durbin, a walk-on running back who was
awarded a scholarship before the 2002 season, will assume Whitney's recruiting
responsibilities.
U.VA. NOTES
Feb 25, 2003
TRIUMPH: After finishing second to North Carolina in ACC women's swimming and
diving in each of the past three years, Virginia broke through in emphatic
fashion over the weekend. The Cavaliers amassed 710 points to rout second-place
UNC (609) in the three-day meet at Chapel Hill.
The ACC title was the fourth for the U.Va. women. All have come under Mark
Bernardino, Virginia's coach since 1978-79. The Cavaliers also won in 1990,'98
and'99.
Bernardino said his swimmers had extra motivation at UNC. The teammates of U.Va.
stars Mirjana Bosevska and Cara Lane - both members of the ACC's 50th
anniversary team - wanted to send those seniors out in style.
"For those girls to go three years without an ACC title was hard to swallow for
the team," Bernardino said. "It was almost as if there was a chapter that had to
be written, an incomplete sentence on their resumes."
The U.Va. men's team is heavily favored to win its fifth straight ACC title this
weekend in Chapel Hill.
OFF THE MARK: Travis Watson missed a 3-point attempt with Virginia trailing Wake
Forest 25-23 late in the first half Sunday night. Almost immediately, U.Va.
coach Pete Gillen sent Jason Clark to the scorer's table to replace Watson. As
Watson walked toward the bench, Gillen told him, in no uncertain terms, not to
try any more 3-pointers.
Watson, who attempted only one 3-pointer in his first two seasons, was 7 for 14
beyond the arc as a junior, but he's struggled from long range this season. He's
5 for 24 on 3-pointers this season, one reason his field goal percentage is
hovering around 50. Watson, a force around the basket, shot 52.5 percent from
the floor last season.
LIMITED IMPACT: With Watson benched for violating team rules, 6-10, 255-pound
junior Nick Vander Laan started against Wake. The transfer from California
didn't capitalize on his opportunity. In 15 minutes, Vander Laan grabbed two
rebounds but missed his only field goal attempt and turned over the ball three
times. He has scored only four points in his past four games.
Vander Laan, who has started 11 games, is averaging 5.3 points and 4.5 rebounds.
BIG, BAD BOBCAT: Virginia, trying to end a four-game losing streak, figures to
need a significant contribution from the 6-8, 255-pound Watson tomorrow night.
U.Va. (14-11) plays at Ohio (9-14), whose best player is 6-7, 265-pound Brandon
Hunter.
Hunter, a senior, leads the nation in rebounding (13.3 per game) and also
averages 22 points. He had 30 points and 12 boards - his 11th straight
double-double - in the Bobcats' 84-82 overtime loss at Akron on Sunday night.
When Ohio visited Virginia on Dec. 6, 2000, Hunter had 12 points and six
rebounds. Watson had 16 points, eight rebounds, two blocked shots, two steals
and two assists in U.Va.'s 90-71 victory.
DOGGED PLAYER: Jordy Lipsey, who signed with U.Va.'s football team this month,
is ranked by some recruiting analysts as the No. 1 center in the nation's Class
of 2003. Cavaliers coach Al Groh raves about Lipsey's tenacity.
"I can remember back in the days of black-and-white television, before we had
"The King of Queens" and some of these sitcoms, we'd have some of the more
Laurel and Hardy type of humor on television," Groh said. "And you'd see
sometimes where the postman would be in the yard and the dog would latch on to
his leg and no matter what he did, he couldn't get him off, whether he ran,
kicked him with the other foot, threw his mailbag at him.
"The dog was tenacious, and that's kind of what this guy reminds me of. He can
really get out and move."
NAME TO REMEMBER: The Virginia High School League isn't known for producing
big-time college lacrosse players. The quality of play in Northern Virginia is
improving, though, and a freshman defenseman from Lake Braddock High has
impressed U.Va. coach Dom Starsia.
"If there's been a single greatest surprise in the preseason, it's been Pat
Buchanan," Starsia said. "He's come on. He's very athletic."
Buchanan, whose brother Josh was an All-America attackman at New York Tech,
starred in lacrosse, football and track at Lake Braddock.
- Jeff White
Prince's rule extended over Cavaliers' offense
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 25, 2003
CHARLOTTESVILLE - The faces are essentially the same, but some of the
responsibilities have changed on University of Virginia football coach Al Groh's
staff.
Offensive-line coach Ron Prince, 33, is now the Cavaliers' offensive
coordinator, too, Groh announced yesterday in a news release. Bill Musgrave,
U.Va.'s offensive coordinator in 2001 and '02, left last month to take that
position with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.
Prince, a Nebraska native, played football at Dodge City Community College and
Appalachian State. He had coaching stints - working primarily with offensive
linemen - at Dodge City, Alabama A&M, South Carolina State, James Madison and
Cornell before joining Groh's first staff at U.Va. in January 2001. Prince also
served NFL Minority Fellowships with Jacksonville (1996), Washington (1997),
Atlanta (1999) and the New York Giants (2000).
At Cornell, Prince was running-game coordinator (as well as offensive-line
coach), but he's never been an offensive coordinator.
Musgrave, a former NFL quarterback, also coached Virginia's QBs. That job now
falls to former U.Va. quarterback Mike Groh, who'll continue as receivers coach,
too.
Andy Heck, 36, a graduate assistant on offense the past two seasons, has been
promoted to tight ends coach. Heck, who grew up in Northern Virginia, is a
former All-American at Notre Dame. He spent 12 seasons as an offensive lineman
in the NFL.
Other changes: Anthony Poindexter and David Cabaret are new graduate assistants
on offense, and Tim Whitney is the new defensive GA. Poindexter, a former
All-America safety at U.Va., was a graduate assistant for strength and
conditioning last season.
Brad Durbin, who completed his career as a reserve tailback at U.Va. last
season, replaces Whitney as graduate assistant for recruiting.
Al Groh wasn't available for comment yesterday; he and his assistants were in
Newport News conducting a clinic for coaches. On national-signing day, however,
Groh downplayed the impact of Musgrave's departure.
Musgrave is considered a brilliant play-caller, and his tutoring helped
quarterback Matt Schaub earn ACC player-of-the-year honors in 2002.
Still, Groh said, Virginia's "playbook never belonged to one person. There's a
way that we're going to play around here, and that's the way we've been playing.
. . . We're going to pretty much continue to play within these concepts for
quite some time, and the alterations that will come about will be through the
creative ideas of the staff members, most particularly as it helps us utilize
the skills of the current players."
Of the players who started on offense for Virginia in the Dec. 28 Continental
Tire Bowl, only all-ACC wideout Billy McMullen was a senior. U.Va. finished 9-5
after whipping West Virginia 48-22.