BradFranklin said:

I said right after the announcement that ML had been fired that I was told three guys were at the top of the wish list and the third name on that list was too out there to mention. The stealth nature with which UVa did this makes it all the more impressive. I think it's a perfect fit.

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Just think, after all those years of obsessing over and then whiffing on the infamous Mr. E. Recroot, we struck gold on Mr. E. Coach and didn't bother paying serious attention to the possibility he was in play.

I only remember one poster asking Brad about the third guy and if he were still out there. A few of us mentioned in passing the possibility of a big name nobody had talked about, but not in terms of the anonymous third guy.

First, What a great hire from what seems like it came completely from left field.

Brad, was this nearly as big of a surprise to you as it was to most of us?

Lastly, thanks for the incredible job you have done during this entire process, Brad. I know that there were over 20K views on 4 threads, IIRC, and Brad has been on top of it all. I am sure I speak for a lot more than just me when I say, Brad, you are the man. You truly do enhance the experience of being a Cav fan. While I know it is your job, I never feel that you are different than just a great UVa fan who loves the Cavs, has great info and contacts and loves sharing it with us. Thank you so much for the work you do, Brad, and great job covering all of this the last 4-6 weeks!!!

I wasn't expecting that at all. I guess you could say this is as close to a Tony Bennett hire as we could get and a very solid one. His teams are very physical on multiple fronts as well as having dual threat quarterbacks who can do multiple things. I think we'll see us recruiting a lot of athletes who can come in with the looks of playing multiple places on the field. My one concern with the hire is he's not going to get the older guys from their Mormon missions which is just minor at the end of the day. I think we'll see pretty good redshirting with a great emphasis on player development and I also think that Matt John's for his senior season could actually fit this offense. Very intrigued by the staff he may potentially bring in.

I think we got the hire right and very much look forward to our first match with him as our coach against the Hokies.

We were fine.

I really, really appreciate all the fine work that Brad and Justin have done covering the UVA coaching search. But I just can't put myself through that again. I can't become invested in a potential hire until its officially announced. I'm certainly not saying that other people shouldn't post, but I just don't have the temperament/fortitude to go through this multiple times.

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Attention HOO fans. BIG announcement coming HERE in just minutes regarding UVA Football. #GoHoos

From the west, but not a BYU alum, young guy...possibly a candidate to come with?? Strong looking resume.

http://byucougars.com/staff/m-football/nick-howell

Two straight covert hires of high quality coaches without so much as a whiff they were involved until announcement made. Let's hope this one is as good as the last.

Thinking about it objectively, he has recruited to a university with significant restrictions, developed players, run a clean program, and won consistently with tough nosed, disciplined football. I like to more and more as I digest it.

Thanks so much Brad. This week had to have been a doozy!

I find it interesting that there was so much smoke around Tubby Smith being the next coach at UVA, but all the while the administration was finding Tony Bennett. People were generally upset when they found out Tubby wasn't coming here. Now it seems as if Richt is the football version of Tubby while our administration gets their claws into the real target - a young up and coming stud!

Just looking for the silver lining while pondering the Richter Scale of our current search.

The teams of Guy, Hunter, and Jerome all won their first games this season. Guy had 24 points in the 66-45 win. Hunter also had 24 points in a 81-78 win, and Jerome had 21 points in a 60-50 win. Huff's team is 6-0 on the year. He is averaging17.5 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 6.2 blocks in the 6 games.

A good calm feeling comes with this solid, solid hire. No one knows the future but I believe Bronco will be highly successful here. Godspeed CML and family.

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To expand some on what is out there publicly on our hot board.

As you can see from the board, we've added Troy Calhoun to the mix. I would caution folks to not misconstrue that addition. He's on the board and in the mix but just because he's "new" doesn't mean he's surging to the top or anything. He's listed where he among the other candidates is based on what we've heard.

The guy we think the search focuses on now is WKU's Jeff Brohm. And that's probably not much of a surprise given everything that had been out there prior to yesterday. Don't be surprised if the next few days are a bit quiet (if not very). I expect things will pick up thereafter, though, once UVa can talk to Brohm.

Just to add a bit more color on things, you'll notice that Mike Sanford is now listed last on the list. Part of that is just a lack of actual momentum among those I have talked to over the past few days but part of it is about other candidates, which I'll explain in a moment. I caution, though, that it can change on a dime. My feel is that the part of this search where it moved along with "steady" speed is probably over. We hear that, in the wake of the Richt news, there may be a bit of a reshuffling of the board just as a matter of principle. So while I still believe Brohm to be the most likely to get a long look, anything is possible. It's less likely right now that Sanford is significantly in play because of his lack of experience. If that changes, I'll pass that along as soon as possible.

Now, I mentioned above that part of Sanford's dip on our board was tied to other candidates. And realistically, it's the theme of experience and how important that will be. Two "former" head coaches that may get more of a look because of that, as well as Richt being off the board, are Mack Brown and Greg Schiano. I'm still not hearing enough about the latter to have him on our board (I've been selective about making sure we focus on the candidates sources say UVa is actually focused on and not just discussing), but Brown is a more viable option now. The problem, as I've said, is that there's more to him being the HC than just making a hire. There would be as-important other hires involved there. Brown hasn't made any secret about wanting the job and at this point, I'm willing to say UVa is listening a bit more. But he's still a ways down the list.

One more "new" name in the mix that we'll be closely watching: Cal's Sonny Dykes. Though UVa sources have been pretty quiet on him since earlier in the process, a source in the midwest reached out today to say that there's some momentum out there that Dykes could be someone that UVa looks at soon.

And lastly, just a personal note.... I know yesterday was rough. Same here. Only thing I can do is what I'm going to do: Just keep doing the job and keep reporting what I hear. You guys know me by now. I don't run noise just to run it. And I'm not going to change that, either.

With that, I'll open the floor...

ESPN reporting Pitt's monster RB has Hodgkin's disease (lymphoma). Hope that he beats it and gets back to being his beastly self.

I am not sure if this has been mention on here already or not. I see that he was just fired by ECU. Brad do you think that UVA would be interested in him? He has a great offense and I don't think that he did a bad job at ECU.

Here's what you know you are getting with him. Someone who runs an effective offensive system and will delevop QBs. These 2 things alone are something UVa football has missed in a long time.

The downside to someone like Brohm is he is still a little green as a head coach. Comparing him to London is silly as their success are on two different levels. Did Brohm inherit talent from a previous head coach? Absolutely. But he could have flamed out, but he didn't.

What will the defense look like? That's a fair question and one I really can't answer. It would appear they did okay this year but probably nothing special (I haven't really looked at their defense).

Can he recruit? Also a fair question. It sounds like those in power want to retain Beatty and Biscuit. That would immediately help with the recruiting side of things with Brohm. The question I would have would be, as a guy that runs a system, are Beatty and Biscuit two guys he would want to keep or would he prefer his own guys? I think that is a fair question.

I like what Brohm brings to the table on the offensive side of the ball and he has shown some success at the FBS level. He comes from a solid coaching tree (weather you like Petrino or not, the guy is a good coach). The questions about the defensive side and recruiting are legit. Could we get better and more proven? Sure, but we could get a lot worse too.

Derek Dooley will be the next Head Coach at UVA. Al Golden will be D- Coordinator and Lazor will be O-Coordinator. Write that down and watch it work. Best possible scenario for the program.

What is everyone's opinion on him being a head coach? he was a great oc in my opinion when he was here. Thoughts?

Does anyone know where we might be able to see these two teams play this weekend since we are looking at both coaches. I would like to see what they look like.

While I'm a little surprised that UCLA took them down, I posted in the GW game thread that NO team is going through this season with fewer than 3 losses. That's the thing about recruiting 1 and doners, you are at the mercy of how good the recruiting class is.

When will London be back in action? We sure could use him against WVU.

I don't know how many of you are in sales or business development, but if you are this may resonate with you. Consider this.

In my business I compete for clients all the time. If a really huge potential client tells me "you know what, I think I'm leaning towards another firm but I'm willing to listen to you" you know what I do? I pull out all the stops. Throw the Hail Mary. Wine and dine. Etc. it's high risk as often they still go elsewhere, but high reward too. And if they go elsewhere I don't hold it against them.

Bottom line. It's very possible Richt was very transparent with his intentions and we tried to sell him anyway. That's what I'd have done!

Food for thought.

He had been interviewed in a previous search for our head coaching position, and had a longstanding good relationship with our staff. He wanted to seriously look at us, but things changed once his alma mater offered him an ideal job, in the same geographic area, for money he thought was above expectations, in the same conference we would have offered.
Maybe he felt so strongly about taking the Miami job, but didn't want to just cancel his visit. I think it may be possible that he and his wife decided to abide by their commitment, but to explain things had changed and a decision had been made. I know when I have to break bad news, I try to do it in person. Maybe he and his wife wanted to say thanks for the interest, thanks for the way you have treated us now and in the past, and we're sorry but we have chosen Miami. That would be acceptable, if true.
It fits what we know of Richt. It makes sense to break the bad news in person due to the relationship. Until we know what happened, it seems maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt.
Please don't jump down my throat. I'm just trying to think of a scenario that makes sense, and offer this as a possibility.

Seats section 309 Row C seats 19, 20, 21 he wants face value $28 each. Wife and I are going so I can meet at front door. Email: gpopron@yahoo.com