Football Coaching Staff Assignments Announced
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March 3, 2006
Charlottesville, VA – Virginia head football coach Al Groh announced today the coaching staff assignments for the 2006 season. Since the conclusion of the 2005 regular season, Groh has added four assistants to his staff. Those vacancies were created when Al Golden accepted the head coaching position at Temple, Ron Prince was named to head up the program at Kansas State and Danny Rocco was named the head coach at Liberty. Mark D’Onofrio went with Golden to Temple as the Owls’ defensive coordinator.
The additions to the UVa staff include three new faces and one former Groh staffer. Mike London returned to Virginia in January after working for the NFL’s Houston Texans in 2005. He had previously coached the defensive line at Virginia from 2001-04. He was also the program’s recruiting coordinator during his final three seasons. Steve Bernstein, Bob Diaco and Dave Borbely are in their first season coaching the Cavaliers.
Mike Groh will assume the duties of offensive coordinator at Virginia. He will also serve as the quarterbacks coach and continue as UVa’s recruiting coordinator, a position he assumed last season. A former quarterback at Virginia (1991-95), he joined the Cavalier staff in 2001 as a wide receivers coach. He added the quarterbacks to his coaching description in 2003 and gave up the wide receiver duties in 2004.
John Garrett is the assistant head coach for the offense and will continue to coach wide receivers. Garrett joined Groh’s staff in 2004 as the wide receivers coach after working in the NFL since 1992.
Borbely will serve as the running game coordinator and coach the offensive line. He joined the Cavalier staff in January after working at Colorado the past four seasons.
Bob Price will be the assistant recruiting coordinator in addition to coaching tight ends. Price arrived at Virginia in 1997 and coached running backs (1997-99) and defensive backs (2000-04) before switching to the tight ends coach prior to last season.
Anthony Poindexter will work as the assistant special teams coordinator and the running backs coach. Poindexter started his UVa coaching career as a graduate assistant in 2003 and was named the program’s running backs coach in 2004.
Assisting London with coaching the defensive line is Levern Belin. Recruited to play at Wake Forest by Groh, Belin is in his second season at Virginia.
The newest member of the staff, Bernstein is the assistant head coach for the defense and will coach the defensive backs. He brings 37 years of coaching experience with him to the UVa program.
Diaco will be Virginia’s special team’s coordinator and coach the Cavalier linebackers. He was named to the Virginia staff in December after working at Central Michigan during the 2005 campaign.
The 2006 season will be Groh’s sixth at Virginia. He has guided the Cavaliers to a 37-26 record and four bowl appearances in the last five years. Last season Virginia defeated Minnesota 34-31 in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl. It gave Groh a 3-1 record in bowl games since his arrive at UVa.
2006 Virginia Coaching Assignments
Mike London – Defensive coordinator, defensive line coach
Steve Bernstein – Assistant head coach, defensive backs coach
Bob Diaco – Special teams coordinator, linebackers coach
Levern Belin – Defensive assistant coach, assistant defensive line coach
Mike Groh – Offensive coordinator, recruiting coordinator, quarterbacks coach
John Garrett – Assistant head coach for the offense, wide receivers coach
Dave Borbely – Running game coordinator, offensive line coach
Bob Price – Assistant recruiting coordinator, tight ends coach
Anthony Poindexter – Assistant special teams coordinator, running backs coach