Until it was announced last week that Virginia was not exercising the rollover clause in Al Groh's contract, there had been no clear indication that Groh had a boss or bosses.

Outside of the admissions office, it was the first time that anybody had stood up to Groh or, in effect, told him "no."

Otherwise, maybe somebody would have stuck up a hand when Groh decided last winter to promote his son to offensive coordinator and asked, "Shouldn't we talk about this?"

Call it nepotism. Blame Al Groh, if you will. Somewhere along the line, there should have been some accountability, though. That's the fault of the people who allowed him the freedom to negotiate a contract extension with the school president or put his assistants off-limits to the media.

One of the defining moments of Frank Beamer's tenure at Virginia Tech followed a 2-8-1 season in 1992, when then-athletic director Dave Braine stepped forward and pushed Beamer to make changes to his staff, which he did.

That would never happen at Virginia. And it probably wouldn't happen at Virginia Tech now that Beamer has coached for 20 years and established himself as one of the premier coaches in college football. Beamer has more power now, but he's earned it.

Groh had three seasons between 2002-04 when his teams won a total of 25 games, but should that have given him unlimited power? Not if the next two years would yield an overall record of 14-14.

How refreshing it was, late in the season, to hear Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe talk about his philosophy on redshirting. While Grobe had experienced the benefits of redshirting in a previous stop at Ohio University, he was quick to credit Wake athletic director Ron Wellman for suggesting it would be a good approach for the Deacons.

Again, that's not the kind of thing that happens at Virginia. A suggestion would not have been offered, nor would it have been solicited.

When Wake Forest won the ACC championship this past weekend, somebody asked me the difference between the Deacons and Cavaliers.

First, the Deacons have redshirted 114 of 126 players during the Grobe era. Second, Wake has an imaginative offense predicated on deception. Third, the Deacons can win on the road.

Wake Forest's success comes at a bad time for Groh because both are UVa alumni and Groh, coming off a 5-7 season, doesn't come off well in a comparison. For that matter, Jon Tenuta, the defensive coordinator for ACC runner-up Georgia Tech, also played at UVa.

But be honest. When the Virginia and Wake Forest jobs came open following the 2000 season, what UVa fans were thinking about Jim Grobe?

Groh has said that some of his early success would not have been responsible without the use of true freshmen like D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Wali Lundy and Ahmad Brooks. "When they're ready, we're ready," he likes to say.

But you know what? Most of the time they aren't ready. Alex Field, for instance, a defensive end who played 33 plays as a true freshman in 2005 and outside linebacker Aaron Clark, a Rockbridge County graduate who played 116 snaps as a true freshman in 2005, then was credited with 16 plays this year.

Clark could have been redshirted as a freshman or sophomore but now finds himself halfway through his career, with nothing to show for it.

There are another dozen cases just like it.

This year, when Groh redshirted 15 of his 16 freshmen, the media asked on several occasions if he had changed his philosophy. Groh wouldn't bite. He does have a self-effacing side but one thing he never publicly admits he's made a mistake. He's never wrong.

In time, son Mike may turn out to be a fine coordinator but these kind of arrangements don't have a good track record. Jeff Bowden was forced out at Florida State, though not by his father, while Mike Price at Texas-El Paso and Bobby Ross at Army were 5-7 and 3-9 this year with their sons as offensive coordinators.

Mike Groh's promotion was announced March 3 in a dizzying 11-paragraph release that also designated an assistant head coach, a defensive coordinator, an assistant head coach for the offense, a running game coordinator, a special-teams coordinator, a recruiting coordinator and an assistant recruiting coordinator.

It was enough to make your head spin and almost forget the Groh-Groh connection, not that that was the idea.

So, Al Groh has four years left on his contract instead of five? Big deal. People have been calling this a vote of no-confidence, but what it really is -- finally -- is a sign that somebody at UVa is paying attention to Groh. It wouldn't hurt him to reciprocate.