RATCLIFFE ON: Old friend now new foe for Cavs’ Groh

Coaches will readily tell you that they would prefer not to coach against their best friends.
While it doesn’t happen too often, it’s almost impossible to go through a career without a clash against someone that’s practically a member of the family. Former UVa coach George Welsh had a few battles against Joe Paterno, whom he had coached for at Penn State. In fact, the Welshes and Paternos were so close that they were the godfathers of each other’s children.
Welsh had similar encounters with Gary Tranquill at Navy. And then there was Steve Spurrier at Duke ... nah, just kidding.
A tilt between friends
Virginia coach Al Groh will have one of those dreaded matchups this Saturday when his Cavaliers host the University of Richmond, coached by former UVa defensive coordinator and close friend Mike London, who is in his first year at the helm of the Spiders.
London was on Groh’s first staff at UVa in 2001 as defensive line coach, left for a year in 2005 to take that same role on the NFL’s Houston Texans staff under Dom Capers, then returned a year later as Virginia’s defensive coordinator.
A firm connection
Over time, Groh and London developed a bond, a mutual respect. In fact, last winter London returned to Charlottesville to present a toast during a special event held at Glenmore Country Club to celebrate Groh being named ACC Coach of the Year for a second time.
On that same evening, London told the crowd a heartwarming story about his relationship with the Virginia head coach.
“When my daughter [Ticynn] was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder that required a bone marrow transplant during spring practice (2007), Al asked me what I wanted to do,” London told the audience. “I told him I wanted to coach, and he said, ‘Look, if you want to go to practice and then go up to Johns Hopkins Hospital on the weekends to be with her, then you can do that.”
Following the story, London looked toward Groh and thanked him for caring.
“Coach, you don’t know how much that meant to me when you allowed me to do that,” London said.
London donated bone marrow to his daughter and saved her life.
“Not many people know that about Coach,” London said. “He had a profound effect on me.”
However, come Saturday afternoon at Scott Stadium, London will put those personal feelings aside and try to take his old coach and his old team to the woodshed.
London said it is tough going up against his mentor but he can’t let the relationship get in the way of his goal of winning the game.
“We’re trying to beat him and he’s trying to beat us,” London said.
Personal and professional emotions will be evident before the game and after the game, but in between is strictly football.
Groh dearly loves London and would do almost anything to help his career ... except let him win come Saturday. Maybe it’s because Groh has been around longer, but he has completely blocked those feelings for this week. After the game, things will return to normal, but for now, it’s all out pigskin warfare.
“Other than acknowledging Mike’s familiarity with our team or whatnot, for this week it’s very impersonal,” Groh said. “Mike’s a dear friend and was a great colleague here and he did a lot for us, but for this particular week there really are no personal feelings about it. We’re pretty sure they’re not going to take it easy on us because Mike likes us, either.”
London, who also served as UVa’s recruiting coordinator for one stint, helped bring a lot of the current Cavaliers into the fold and he has maintained a relationship, though distant one, with several of those kids. However, his allegiance now lies with the Spiders as he attempts to maintain the quality of the program at his own alma mater.
Still, he admits it will be a little strange emerging from the visitor’s locker room at Scott Stadium come Saturday.
“A long time ago at a [Virginia] spring game, I was on the opposing side, and it was the first time I had been in the other locker room,” said London, who said it would still seem a bit odd.
Both coaches have been quizzed by media types about how knowing each other’s styles, philosophies, tendencies, and the like might come to their aid in this weekend’s clash. Both downplayed the idea.
“Other than knowing Mike’s workout routine and what he prefers on his pizza, there’s not much we’re going to be able to apply,” Groh said.
London, by the way, is not using the 3-4 as his base defense at UR, although he said he might have to go with that against Virginia if the Cavaliers spread things out and throw it as much or more than they did against Southern California last week.
However, London said
because he hasn’t been at UVa since last January, when he took the Richmond job, he can offer but only a little insight into what the Cavs might do, but not a whole lot.
“I can’t assume what they’ll do against us,” London said of his old team. “They spent all spring practice and camp trying to find their identity. They may decide to run the ball on us or continue to do what they did [against USC]. We’ll find out after the first couple of series.”
The two friends spoke over the phone last week, London talking briefly about his team’s opener with Elon, Groh about taking on the Trojans.
“Basically, it was wishing each other good luck,” said London, one of four former Groh assistants that have moved on to become head coaches.
Still, Richmond quarterback Eric Ward said in Wednesday’s press conference that London’s knowledge of Virginia’s 3-4 has been helpful in preparation for the game.
“He tells us what [UVa] likes to do, what they did last year, where guys are coming from in their 3-4,” Ward said.
Of course, London will have to guess as to whether Groh has changed things up for this game (the UVa coach said they would change their signals if nothing else), or just see if the Spiders can stop what they expect him to throw their way.
Somebody’s got to win and somebody’s got to lose. One of these guys will feel badly for the other come Saturday night. By then we’ll know if Groh taught London too much.