Stories coming out of Charlottesville gave two differing pictures of player reaction to the firing of nine-year football coach Al Groh.

According to one, there was a line of players waiting to meet with Groh that extended down a hallway and into the lobby of the McCue Center, UVa's football operations center.

Yet, when sports information officials tried to locate players for teleconferences with the media, it was determined that many of the players were at a World Wrestling Entertainment show at John Paul Jones Arena.

It was left to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jared Green to speak for his teammates.

Green said the players had learned of Groh's firing Sunday at a 2 p.m. meeting with athletic director Craig Littlepage, who was accompanied by assistant football coach Anthony Poindexter.

"I think the meeting was good and was needed," said Green, the son of ex-Washington Redskins defensive back Darrell Green, who is in the NFL Hall of Fame. "It was good because we got together as a family and the players got to express their different feelings as to what was going on."

There was no mass meeting involving the players and their ex-coach and Green said he had not spoken to Groh personally. He said that most of his contact had been with his fellow wide receivers.

"What continued to come up was the fact that a coaching change can only change so much," Green said. "We have to change our culture and have to work hard. We're really excited about next season, but it starts with us."

Poindexter and recruiting coordinator Bob Price are the only assistants from the Groh staff who will be working during the transition to a new coach.

"We believe the players are the key factors in this whole situation," Green said. "We have to make sure we stay out of trouble during this period when we don't have a head figure.

"It's very important that we take care of each other and stay out of harm's way. This is the time when we're going to find out who the new leaders are on the team. We don't know who the new leaders are on the team.

"Clearly, there's going to be some voices that are going to be heard [and] some guys who are going to be kind of like shepherds to the sheep."

Green hopes that the new coach is a "personable and relatable guy," as he put it.

"I love Groh; I really appreciate what he did [in] giving me the opportunity to play in orange and blue," said Green, offered a scholarship by UVa on the eve of signing day in 2007. "I'm forever in debt to him for that, but I would really like to have a coach that has a tight relationship with his players.

"I don't want people to think coach Groh wasn't a personable guy. My relationship with coach Groh was good at the McCue Center, but that's as far as it went."