Groh loses Diaco, adds Prince to staff

As one goes, another arrives.

In an odd offseason with more twists than a season of Melrose Place, Virginia landed a football coach and watched as another left.

Former assistant coach Bob Diaco, UVa’s defensive coordinator for the past two months, was officially announced as the new defensive coordinator at Cincinnati on Wednesday.

The move reunites Diaco with Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly, for whom he worked as co-defensive coordinator in 2006 at Central Michigan.

Virginia kept the revolving door spinning by hiring former offensive coordinator Ron Prince as the program’s special teams coach and assistant head coach, a title recently given to former defensive coordinator Bob Pruett. After one season at UVa, Pruett announced his retirement earlier this month.

Prince, 39, left UVa to become the head coach at Kansas State prior to the 2006 seasons. After compiling a 17-20 record, Kansas State elected to buy Prince out of a contract with a $1.2 million payment.

Virginia still has one vacancy on its staff, which is expected to be filled by a linebackers coach.

In all, coach Al Groh will have five new faces on his staff.

In December, the university announced that former defensive line coach Levern Belin and former offensive coorindator Mike Groh were resigning to pursue other possibilities, an announcement that Belin debunked. At the same time, former secondary coach Steve Bernstein announced his retirement.

The Cavaliers have since added an offensive coordinator (Gregg Brandon), a wide receivers coach (Latrell Scott) and a defensive line coach (Chad Wilt).