KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Virginia's Jameel Sewell (right) talks with Vic Hall during practice last week in Charlottesville. Sewell is back after missing 2008.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Unlike some of his University of Virginia coaching colleagues, whose on-the-record exposure to the media lasts for one week each year, Gregg Brandon seemed totally at ease in the glare of the TV lights Sunday.

"I'm used to doing this a heck of a lot more," said Brandon, the Cavaliers' new offensive coordinator.

For the past six seasons, Brandon was the head coach at Bowling Green, where he posted a 44-30 record but lost his job after a 6-6 season in 2008

Brandon, 53, looks back on the Bowling Green experience "with a lot of fond memories," he said. "We won a pretty good chunk of games, [including] some bowl games. We did some things there that nobody had done, but all good things come to an end sometimes and it was time for us to move on."

Bowling Green opened the season with a 27-17 victory at Pittsburgh and ended the year with a 38-10 thrashing of Toledo on the road. In between, the Falcons lost to eventual Mid-America Conference champion Buffalo in overtime and dropped two other games by three points.

"In this business, nothing stuns me anymore," said Brandon, who described his reaction as "surprise, maybe a little bit.

"Any time there's transition in the administration, there's people potentially who can lose their jobs. We had a new president and a new AD, and obviously they wanted to move in another direction."

If Bowling Green had been able to hold onto a 27-7 fourth-quarter lead against Buffalo, it's likely that Brandon would have kept his job.

Along the same lines, if Virginia had been able to stop Miami on a third-and-13 from the Hurricanes' 3-yard line or otherwise prevented a 96-yard, fourth-quarter drive in a 24-17 overtime loss, Mike Groh might still be the Cavaliers' offensive coordinator.

Virginia announced on Dec. 8 that Groh, son of UVa head coach Al Groh, was resigning to pursue other interests. Ten days later, the Cavaliers announced the appointment of Brandon, an acquaintance of the older Groh, but hardly a member of "the tribe" of former Groh coaching contacts.

Brandon takes over a Virginia offense that did not rank among the top 100 Division I-A teams in total offense during Mike Groh's three seasons as coordinator.

"The thing I noticed about [the ACC] is that there are really good defenses," Brandon said. "Either that, or there are really crummy offenses.

"I'm not sure which it is, but I think the defenses are good because the best offense last year [Georgia Tech] was 50th in the country. But, five of the 12 teams in the league, I think, were in the top 30 in defense."

Actually, it was five in the top 18 and seven in the top 30.

"Virginia was close to winning eight or nine games last year," Brandon said. "You could say the offense didn't score enough points or get enough yards or whatever, but maybe it's that we didn't do a good enough job in the kicking game or you didn't do a good enough job on defense."

As an assistant, Brandon worked for some creative offensive minds -- Mike Price at Weber State, Gary Barnett at Northwestern and Colorado, and Urban Meyer at Bowling Green. As Meyer's offensive coordinator, Brandon helped install the Falcons' spread offense and continued to tinker with it after Meyer went to Utah.

Brandon's transition from coaching the team to serving as an assistant has been smooth, "but the hard thing has been getting back into the X's and O's, which I haven't done for seven years," he said.

Brandon said the spread that he has installed at UVa is virtually the same that he ran at Bowling Green, which finished second in Division I-A in total offense in 2004 with Omar Jacobs at quarterback.

"The offense is built for a quarterback who can run," said Brandon, who has two running threats this year in Vic Hall and Jameel Sewell, "but, at Bowling Green, we had a really talented quarterback [Jacobs] who couldn't run a lick but he threw for over 4,000 yards.

"I can tweak the system to what I have at quarterback and that's what I'll do."

Note

Parade All-America offensive tackle Morgan Moses was at Virginia's football scrimmage Saturday and has told Cavaliers coach Al Groh that he will enroll at Fork Union Military Academy today.

Groh also said Sunday that Moses' fellow 2009 UVa signee, Cody Wallace, also will be enrolling at Fork Union.

Wallace, an offensive lineman from Moorestown, N.J., took part in conditioning during the first summer session at UVa but did not report for preseason camp for what were described as personal reasons.

Moses, who did not meet NCAA eligibility guidelines, said as recently as last week that he was considering prep schools for this season.