White: London Likely to Have Company from UR

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)

CHARLOTTESVILLE — He’s been bombarded with calls and texts from coaches hoping to be part of his new staff, and Mike London still has several decisions to make.

He appears to have settled, though, on which University of Richmond assistants will join him at UVa.

The details are still being finalized, but London is expected to hire UR assistants Mike Faragalli, Vincent Brown and Jeff Hanson.

Also, Steve Atkinson, the Spiders’ director of football operations, is likely to take an administrative position on London’s staff.

It’s too early to say what the specific responsibilities of the UR four would be at UVa.

London, who had two stints as an assistant under Al Groh, was introduced as the Cavaliers’ head coach Monday. He spent the past two seasons as UR’s coach.

Under London, the Spiders went 24-5 and won a national title.

Faragalli was London’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach each of those two seasons. Under Faragalli’s tutelage, Eric Ward blossomed into one of the top quarterbacks in the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision.

A former head coach in the Canadian Football League, Faragalli has been offensive coordinator at Lafayette, at Bowling Green and with three CFL teams. Faragalli, a Rhode Island graduate, also has coached at his alma mater, at Wisconsin and at William and Mary.

Brown is more familiar to fans who follow UVa football closely. The former NFL linebacker was a graduate assistant at Virginia in 2007.

The Wahoos won nine games that season, after which London, their defensive coordinator, left to become head coach at UR, his alma mater.

Brown followed him to Richmond. Brown, a native of Atlanta, coached the Spiders’ linebackers in 2008 and ’09. In 2006, he was an inside linebackers coach for the Dallas Cowboys.

Hanson, a 1972 graduate of UR, has had three stints as an assistant at his alma mater. The second ran from 1989 to 2006, and Hanson’s colleagues in ’89 included a first-year assistant named Mike London.

After the 2006 season, Hanson left Richmond to join Jim Reid at Virginia Military Institute. Hanson coached the Keydets’ defensive line and served as the program’s chief of staff in 2007.

After London took over at UR, Hanson returned in February 2008 to become the team’s assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator. He also coached the Spiders’ defensive line.

Most of Hanson’s professional experience has been at UR, but he has also coached at Marshall, Lamar, Southwest Texas State and West Texas State.