[jcmanson]

Oh come on. Don’t be blinded. I hope as much as the next guy Rocco retires here, but be honest with yourself. If the chances arises for him to jump to Wake, UVA, Penn State, WVU, don’t think he won’t jump at the chance and I wouldn’t blame him.

[prototype]

I know it would be hard to pass up, but I just think the man has a bigger purpose here than to just win games.

[JK37]

Rocco is here to stay. Why would he leave? He makes good money and LU will continue to make sure he is well payed.

He could and would easily make more elsewhere, especially at an FBS school, not to mention one in a BCS conference.

He is getting a brand new stadium.

He could coach in a far nicer and larger one at any FBS school, especially in any BCS conference.

He has great support from the administration and fans.

If a school values winning enough to already fulfill the previous two, and be an FBS school, as well as a member of a BCS conference - then he'll have more support than he could ever have here.

His kids are here. His family is here.

I bet they go wherever he goes.

His job is secure.

Coaches like pressure. Most live for that "win-or-die" mentality. Some leave just looking for that new challenge. You don't become a Division I head coach without enjoying pressure on at least some level.

He has the ability to be part of something that could make history. He could be a legend here, he could be a has-been anywhere else after a couple bad seasons.

But he has the opporutnity to make greater history elsewhere, under far greater scrutiny, and therefore with far greater acclaim if he does it elsewhere. Also, refer to previous answer about pressure.

I also agree with everyone else - UVA will want nothing to do with a Groh product.

Well, we'll see...


My answers address your seemingly blind outlook toward the length of the Rocco era at Liberty. You would do well to come to terms with the debatable fact that it's highly unlikely he is a Liberty lifer, as well as with the indisputable fact that a head coaching job such as one at UVA would have much more to offer him and his family.

(But I also know you well enough to know you're probably saying all this just to rile people up! I guess I took a little of the bait. )

[PAmedic]

I know it would be hard to pass up, but I just think the man has a bigger purpose here than to just win games.

[cough....Richie McKay....cough]

where's TBGB's sig when I need it?

[SuperJon]

If Coach Rocco leaves then I will say congratulations and thank you. He's always said his goal was to build a championship program and that's what he's done. We're much better off now than when he got here. I'd love for him to coach here for the next twenty years but if he chooses not to, I won't hold a grudge at all. He's handled it the right way.

With that being said, no way UVA goes after him and no way he'd go there. He wouldn't take his friend's job.

[JK37]

If Coach Rocco leaves then I will say congratulations and thank you. He's always said his goal was to build a championship program and that's what he's done. We're much better off now than when he got here. I'd love for him to coach here for the next twenty years but if he chooses not to, I won't hold a grudge at all. He's handled it the right way.

With that being said, no way UVA goes after him and no way he'd go there. He wouldn't take his friend's job.

Well said. I respectfully disagree about UVA pursuing Rocco - you never know, especially when schools become desparate. But as for Coach Rocco taking it...you made an excellent point as to why that's far less within the realm of possibility.

[SuperJon]

If UVA goes after a Groh guy it'll be Mike London. He coaches in a similar environment as UVA (snooty private school with high admissions) and has won a national championship.

[JK37]

If UVA goes after a Groh guy it'll be Mike London. He coaches in a similar environment as UVA (snooty private school with high admissions) and has won a national championship.

Interesting scenario with only 2 years at RU. But certainly the top choice, IMO.

[Hold My Own]

WF --> UVA = LU -->WF

[SuperJon]

Wake is the school I'm worried about most.

[Hold My Own]

yeh....thats the one where it would be his job to lose...yes he'd be on the short list at UVa but there still would be a list and I doubt his name would hold up to the donors choice...lets face it they run that school although Wake would make the smart choice not name choice

[blwall1416]

WOW... Lengthy, but interesting story from a former Groh player:

This story was widely told, year after year, and everyone on the team heard it, several times (maybe). So here is the story, whether it's true or not, I don't know, you might ask Al and see what he says. Haha!

The story goes that Groh would climb trees on campus and urinate on passing students underneath him while attending UVA as a student fballer, and lacrosse player.This might have happened only one time, but who’s counting?

The story would always include beer being hauled up the tree, usually it was a case, sometimes less. It seemed he wanted enough ammo for a long siege.

The story seemed to fit his personality he showed me for the 5 years I was around him at UNC.

I thought any dirty water under our bridge was cleaned up and the old memories of his weird side would fade into the distant past and all was cool with him and I and the world in general. But that's all changed now that he's a coach of non-paid athletes now. If he affects their college experience the way he did mine, he will make their lives miserable, and kids don't need his obsessive maniacal moody **** pushed down their throat.

In all honesty, I was a pain in the *** to him, because I never took any of his **** and I held the guys back when they were trying rescue him from being strangled.

My best friend tried to kill him. Only Dooley saved Al from being strangled to death. So he could have really have held a grudge against me, but did not. But, like I say, that was before Al got back into college coaching where he should be creating a positive experience for his kids and not get psycho-freaky-abusive on them.

My personal encounters with Al cover 5 summer practices, 3 spring practices and four seasons.

Al always ran around in a dark blue sweatsuit and would always be streaming sweat, he was extremely EXTREMELY hyperactive and manic on the field and off it he just mostly stared straight ahead and thought about football all the time.

He coached the defensive ends. He recruited LT. He was nuts like LT. We would constantly wonder about his mental state, especially those who were in his drills at Navy Field.

He was always clapping his hands together real fast while screaming something, always in fast motion, veins popping out of his neck, flying around on his skinny legs dripping sweat all over place and just being an unpleasant ******* all the time he was on the field. Al didn't care if his drills injured you for life.

He ran “Helicopter Drills”.These were high-low hits that were designed to take out opposing players.
He expected idiots like me to let two guys hit me at full speed, one high, one low and just stand there while my knees were ripped apart. If you elevated (jumped off the ground) right before the hit, you just helicoptered in mid air, usually without injury, if you stayed planted, your knees were done.

I always went up and he HATED me for that. If you were in his drill, you were dog meat, and your entire body was his for the taking.

He was a coach who smacked guys in the side of the head a lot to "ring your bell". He was also a big facemask grabber, he specialized in jamming your head back after he clamped on to your facemask, just to let you know that he could do it.

And you had to take it.

Groh was so fanatically focused on football to the exclusion of any other distraction or social grace that I was forced to try to figure out what type of man would be so one-dimensional and anal. He excluded all other input, contact or normal pursuits, while acting like an ******* all the time. I was taking was Pysch 80 - "Abnormal Psychology" one semester. It enabled me to get an understanding of what

Al was all about. Describing Al's obsessive behavior to my professor, he would call Al = > a case of "arrested development".

I know that since the Sprewell/P.J Carlisimo bball incident, attacking and choking coaches has taken on an even more sinister tone, but I'm telling this story basically because it is a reflection of how ultimately hated Al was and to what extremes he drove us to. My story also is more about self-defense, than an attack.

Yeah, and you're going to know I was nuts too, but anyone could have told you that who knew me in my day.

The strangling incident takes place at a practice before the Peach Bowl in 1976 (I think). The Bombardiers (the legendary practice squad full of characters) had been taking Groh's **** all season long and me and the QB had been putting up with him for 3 long years. You can only take abuse from someone so long.

On this day things were going to blow up in a big way.

We were running dummy plays against the varsity defense, it’s what a Bombardier does. Groh was in charge of making the bombers run correct looks to imitate the opponent's offense. He would shove these cards in front of your face with plays diagramed on them and you went out and ran it. Mostly you just got the **** slammed out of you and Al was always there to make you feel worse, because he was such a prick.

My best pal was at QB and I was running at right guard.

It was an especially tough and tense day and Groh was freaking out about something he thought our QB was doing wrong. All of a sudden, Al throws the cards down and violently comes at QB and grabs him around the throat with both hands and starts to squeeze.

I was standing right next to them and saw this lightening-quick move where QB throws Al down to the astro turf using his hip with a half twist in a wrestling take-down move. The QB was a Champion wrestler and meaner than a snake, not a man to mess with.

Al was an idiot for attacking him, but that was just Al's way.

Al really under estimated the strength of this 170 pounder, who shall remain nameless, as he now works in law enforcement and is about ready to retire.

In an instant Al went from being the "choker" to being the "chokee".

QB was on top off Al with both hands wrapped around Al's neck, squeezing for all he's worth. Al's face started to go through the color changes you hear about when someone is strangled. I can't remember the order of the colors, like which one came first, but one shade was dark red and another was purple.

There were a lot of gagging and gurgling sounds coming from Al and his eyes were bulging out, it was very hard core. It was obvious QB would not stop until Al was dead.

While this was going on, everyone in the drill circled round to watch.

Some were cheering QB on, yelling, "Kill him! Kill the ************!"

No one seemed in a hurry to rescue Al and I was going to do my best to make sure no one did.

My first reaction was to prevent anyone from interfering because it looked like we would soon no longer have to listen to Al or take any more of his ****.

My adrenaline was really pumping and I went hyper and kept yelling, "Let 'em fight! Let 'em fight!"

I was circling the two with my arms out and pushing the guys back to make sure they didn't break it up. This attracted Dooley's attention from the other side of the field and he came running over and pulls QB
off Groh, who was less than 20 seconds away from dying.

What I remember next is that we are back running plays again after things settled down a bit, and with a new guy at QB.

Groh, right away, goes after me, becauseI held the guys back.

He comes up to me while I'm in the huddle facing him and grabs my facemask and jams my neck back with all the strength he could muster. It was one big, hard shove.

This REALLY ticked me off.

He could have broken my neck, he jammed it back so hard and fast. I got EXTREMELY worked up. On the next play, I exploded out of my stance and hit the first team varsity LB so violently, I knocked him unconscious. The second team guy comes in to take his place and, on the next play, I hit him so hard LB #2 is now done for the day.

Both guys went down in a heap and were either carried off or limped off.

Later that week, I'm running around the fieldhouse with my hand bandaged up and my arm in a sling from
something I did.

I bolt into the defensive assistant coach's room where Groh is sitting at his desk, reading a newspaper with his head down.

I'm standing in front of him. He looks up, sees me and violently throws himself out of the chair and slams
himself straight up against the wall, raising both hands high in the air with an insane look on his face.

With a frantic, high pitch voice he screams, "I thought you had a gun!"

I was like, "Aw ... nah ... coach, it's just a sling and a bandage"

I think QB and I scared him real bad and for a long time.

I think he's still a little tweaked in the head.


With Warm Regards,

Bill Span

[LUconn]

I can't believe I just read that. That was retarded.

[blwall1416]

I can't believe I just read that. That was retarded.

A retarded story....or retarded that it happened?

[LUconn]

that it happened I guess. But I don't believe it. No way a practice squad loser is knocking out linebackers because he got mad. Sounds pretty exaggerated. He's not Lou Farrigno.

[blwall1416]

I saw some of our 1st/2nd team players get laid out by us practice squad losers. Some even missed a majority of the season.

[LUconn]

I don't mean to pile on but this couldn't have been funnier based on how embarrassing UVA is:

[youtube]

[/youtube]

[JMUDukes]

"Groh must go"

[Schfourteenteen]

Anybody see some of the signs at the game?

"Mediocrity: It Grohs on you."

[rueful]

showing the replay against TCU right now. This is such ugly football.

Wasnt there a thread about sewell maybe transferring here? Glad he didnt