Prince officially a Wahoo; Groh will be defensive boss

Virginia will officially announce the hiring of former Kansas State head coach Ron Prince as the Cavaliers new special teams coordinator this afternoon, but that will be his lone title within the program.

Prince, 39, had previously served as UVa’s offensive line coach and offensive coordinator prior to taking the Kansas State job in 2006. After compiling a 17-20 record in three seasons, Prince was fired after this past season.

Speculation that Prince would also be named associate head coach for the Cavaliers is incorrect. He will focus all his energies on raising the profile of all UVa special teams.

Virginia coach Al Groh pointed out that during Prince’s years at Kansas State, that the Wildcats led the nation in punt returns one season, led the country in kick returns another season, and led the nation in blocked kicks last season.

“We definitely need an upgrade there on special teams,” Groh said Friday. “Bringing Ron back is exciting. He has head coaching experience and he has UVa experience. He will be a great sounding board for me. We made it a practice to speak weekly with one another over the past three seasons, about football and about our respective teams.”

Virginia finished 92nd in the nation in punt returns last season out of 119 FBS teams, and No. 70 in kickoff returns.

Meanwhile, Groh said that after deliberation that he will take over the defensive coordinator responsibilities, a role that he has unofficially played for the past three seasons. That means he has only one more vacancy to fill on his staff, a linebackers coach.

“We have a few really good candidates to coach our linebackers, guys that will right right into our system,” Groh said.

Far-fetched rumors that former Cleveland Browns coach Romeo Crenell was being considered as a candidate to fill a UVa vacancy were untrue.

“I called Romeo this week to ask about how his hip surgery went,” Groh said. “I don’t know how those rumors get started unless someone is tapping my phone line.”

Groh said he is comfortable with assistant Anthony Poindexter’s move to the secondary, that he has no issues with him handling that phase of Virginia’s defense for the first time. Poindexter has served as UVa’s running backs coach.

“Both Anthony and Chad Wilt are getting together on a daily basis and watching video with me of last year’s team and both have been impressive. They are both really organized,” Groh said.

Wilt, who was a graduate assistant at UVa before moving with Danny Rocco to Liberty, is the Cavaliers’ new defensive line coach.

Groh has been the Cavs’ defensive coordinator behind the scenes ever since the Music City Bowl win over Minnesota at the end of the 2005 season when most of his defensive staff left for other coaching jobs.

During that process and afterward, players kept approaching Groh and telling them that they had learned a great deal under his tutelage and encouraged him to continue in the role.

While he hired Mike London as the official defensive coordinator for 2006 and 2007, Groh was actually the coach who called the defenses from play to play. London was the personality and energy of the defense, but Groh was responsible for strategy.

When London took over the head coaching job at the University of Richmond prior to the 2008 season, Groh coaxed former Marshall head coach Bob Pruett out of retirment as the team’s defensive coordinator.

“It wouldn’t have been fair to Bob to come in new to the system, so he assumed the same role as Mike London’s,” Groh said. “Because I had 30 years in the system, it made sense.”

This season, Groh will have all that responsibility with no other coach working in that capacity.