Al Groh - Legacy

Legacy

While Groh was at Virginia, 13 Cavaliers were selected in the NFL Draft, while 19 others signed pro contracts as free agents. During his first five years, Groh maintained a strategy of hiring young, ambitious assistants, and he hoped to build a network of protégés through the football ranks. His assistants have gone on to become head coaches at other Division I-A programs: (Ron Prince at Kansas State, Al Golden at University of Miami, Mike London in the Division I-AA University of Richmond and Danny Rocco, who left Groh's staff after the 2005 season to become head coach at I-AA Liberty University.

After the 2009 season, Mike London replaced Groh as UVA's head football coach). A number of assistants have also gone into the ranks of assistants in the NFL (Bill Musgrave, previously with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Washington Redskins, now at the Atlanta Falcons, and Mike London at the Houston Texans before returning to Groh's staff and then taking the Richmond job).

Under Groh, Virginia had a 3–2 record in bowl games, with the two losses coming to Fresno State in the 2004 MPC Computers Bowl and Texas Tech in the 2008 Gator Bowl. The Cavaliers defeated West Virginia in the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl and Pittsburgh in the 2003 Continental Tire Bowl and Minnesota in the 2005 Music City Bowl.

His son Mike Groh was a high school football star at Randolph High School in Randolph, New Jersey who kicked the game winning field goal in The Star-Ledger's "Greatest High School Football Game Ever Played" in 1990. Mike was formerly his father's offensive coordinator, quarterback coach, and recruiting coordinator for the Cavaliers.