Doug Doughty

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For the second year in a row, Virginia is holding its breath over the feared loss of football assistant Mike London, the Cavaliers’ two-year defensive coordinator.

Virginia was able to hold onto London when Old Dominion was preparing for its resumption of football at the Division I-A level, but now it is London’s alma mater, Richmond, that has a vacancy for a head coach.

Dave Clawson, 40, announced Friday that he is resigning as Spiders’ head coach after four seasons to become the offensive coordinator and quartebacks coach at Tennessee.

Virginia sweetened London’s contract after a 5-7 season in 2006, giving him a multi-year deal and some much-needed security in case things did not go well during 2007. However, security is not necessarily an issue now, not after a 9-4 season and a Gator Bowl trip. Neither is money.

London has not been a college head coach and, at 47, who knows when there will be another opportunity? It is generally believed that London was told he would get an interview in the event of a coaching change at Virginia, but who knows when that change will occur and in what climate?

Besides, if Al Groh were to retire in five years and Richmond were to go 40-17 under London, who’s to say London wouldn’t be a stronger candidate for Virginia at that time?

Of course, a five-year record of 40-17 would be almost unprecedented in recent history at Richmond, where Clawson was 29-20 in four seasons. Richmond has had three consecutive winning seasons for the first time in 52 years.

Would Clawson have been considered for a Virginia opening if it had come open this year? Probably not. That’s probably why he took the coordinator’s post at Tennessee. In his eyes, it would be easier to move from Division I-A coordinator to Division I-A head coach than it would be from Division I-AA head coach to I-A head coach.

But, who knows? Bud Foster has been a successful Division I-A coordinator for a long time at Virginia Tech. How many Division I-AA athletic directors have been dialing his number?

Clawson was rolling the dice, particularly given the sporadic disenchantment with Volunteers’ head coach Phil Fullmer, and so would London. It depends on whether he would feel his career would be fulfilled if he climbed no higher than the Division I-AA level because neither wins nor head-coaching opportunities are guaranteed.

OF COURSE, ALL this supposes that Richmond would come after London, but why not? Not only did Virginia have another Top 25 defense this year under his tutelage, but London has the kind of personality and charisma that would suit the position.

One thing is for certain: The Cavaliers would miss him dearly.

Not only does he relate to the players on the current roster, but he is the Cavaliers’ best recruiter. That’s not Doug Doughty talking. That’s the numbers talking. Of the 16 players who have made oral commitments to Virginia, eight are listed with London as their principal recruiter by rivals.com.

Only two other UVa assistants are listed with multiple recruits, Bobby Diaco with three and Bob Price with two. This is not a staff known for its high-octane recruiters.

If London left, I don’t know if Virginia would lose any of the eight players he has recruited this year. However, he is the Cavaliers’ only hope in the Hampton-Newport News area, which to date has not produced a Division I-A recruit this year but figures to be loaded next year.

Why would London stay? Family, maybe. His daughter, Kristen, is on the UVa women’s basketball team. Money is another possibility. He reportedly makes $240,000 per year at Virginia and Richmond would have to stretch its budget to get anywhere close to $200,000. If Virginia Tech could bump Foster up to $350,000, Virginia certainly could justify moving London closer to $300,000.

London has never left the impression of a guy who’s in the profession for the money, but could he afford to leave $100,000 on the table? What would his accountant say?

A FORMER UVA STAFFER, Danny Rocco, made a similar decision several years ago, when he left the assistant head coach’s role at Virginia to become the head coach at Division I-AA Liberty.

I called Rocco today to ask him what he thought about Clawson’s decision to leave Richmond for a I-A coordinator’s post. Rocco doesn’t pretend to have any inside information but he wondered if Clawson even got a sniff when the head-coaching position came open at Duke, a I-A program the Spiders had beaten only one year previously.

(Ironically, the Duke job was filled by the guy Clawson will be succeeding as Tennessee offensive coordinator, David Cutcliffe).

“I think you have to look at where all a guy has been,” Rocco said. “You take a guy like Dave Clawson. He’s never been in a I-A program so he came to the realization this year that, for him to be really able to get on track and have a legitimate shot at one of these jobs, he’s got to show I-A on his resume. He’s got to be able to say he’s ‘been there and done that.’

“Everybody’s situation is unique. I had been around a lot of quality programs and quality guys. I’d had a number of different titles and responsibilities. I felt that the best thing for me to do to become a head coach in any I-A league was to be a head coach. Coming here and having success has put me on a track that would allow me to be a I-A coach.”