Monday, December 1, 2008
Virginia declined to extend Coach Al Groh's contract into 2012, Athletic Director Craig Littlepage announced in a statement yesterday. Groh remains under contract through the next three seasons, although the contract could have rolled over an additional year.
Virginia's season ended Saturday following a 17-14 loss to rival Virginia Tech that dropped the Cavaliers to 5-7. It was their second losing season in three years. Littlepage did not exercise the option in Groh's contract after the 5-7 season in 2006, but Groh took his name off the hot seat in 2007 by finishing 9-4, winning the ACC coach of the year and receiving a contract extension.
Groh's job security was under scrutiny after a 1-3 start this season, but Virginia rebounded by winning four games in October. However, the Cavaliers ended the season with four consecutive losses and will again miss a bowl game.
Littlepage said last night he was planning to meet with Groh in the next 48 hours to conduct a year-end review of the football program.
Also yesterday, Cavaliers left tackle Eugene Monroe was announced as the winner of the 2008 Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the top blocker in the ACC. . . .
Of the 65 coaches leading programs affiliated with the Bowl Championship Series, Miami's Randy Shannon is about to be the only black man in the group.
After Sylvester Croom resigned Saturday from Mississippi State, along with the recent firings of Kansas State's Ron Prince and Washington's Tyrone Willingham -- who'll coach his final game with the Huskies on Saturday -- Shannon is one of three black coaches left in major college football, and the only one at a BCS school.
"It's sad that we keep talking about the same things," Shannon told the Associated Press yesterday. "Maybe Sylvester was tired. I know a year or two ago he had surgery on his hip or back. But after a while, you say to yourself, how much longer can we keep going just talking about this? We can't keep talking about the same issues every year."
· WINTER SPORTS: Nobunari Oda of Japan capped a successful return to competitive figure skating with a victory at the NHK Trophy in Tokyo. Oda, who was in first place after Friday's short program, overcame several mistakes in his free skate to finish with 236.18 points, ahead of American Johnny Weir with 224.42. Yannick Ponsero of France was third at 217.24. . . .
Sarka Zahrobska got her first World Cup victory, taking the slalom in Aspen, Colo., in a combined time of 1 minute 39.32 seconds to beat Austrian Nicole Hosp. . . .
Hermann Maier of Austria won a Super-G in Lake Louise, Alberta, for his 54th career World Cup win. Maier, who last won a World Cup race in January 2006, won in 1:29.84.
· GOLF: In Indian Wells, Calif., K.J. Choi holed an 11-foot birdie putt worth $270,000 on the 18th hole to win the 26th Skins Game with $415,000.
· SOCCER: Chelsea lost ground in the Premier League title race after being upset 2-1 by Arsenal, enabling defending champion Manchester United to close the gap to five points with a 1-0 victory over Manchester City.
Meanwhile, Manchester United Manager Alex Ferguson is backtracking on retirement plans again. Ferguson, 66, who had previously announced that the 2001-02 season was his last, said he is again having second thoughts.
· CYCLING: With the first training camp of his comeback set to start, Lance Armstrong guaranteed the drug-testing program he arranged with the United States' top anti-doping expert will be in place by the time he rides in his first official race in January. The seven-time Tour de France winner starts training with his new team today without having subjected himself to drug tests by Don Catlin, the expert he teamed with, and with no deal in place to post results of those tests online.
"It's a tough thing to organize, but we will make it happen," Armstrong said. "All the stuff we said we were going to do will happen."
-- From News Services and Staff Reports
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