RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -Jim Reid, a linebackers coach with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins the past two years, has been named the defensive coordinator and associate head coach at Virginia.
Virginia, he said, offers “the perfect combination of who you’re going to work for and where you’re going to be,” Reid said in a telephone interview. He cited his relationship with new coach Mike London and the school’s high academic standards as attractions of the job.
Reid’s addition to the staff will mark a reunion – and role reversal – of sorts for him and London, who was an outside linebackers coach under Reid at Richmond in 1995 and 1996.
London was hired away from Richmond on Dec. 7 after two years as coach, the first ending with the Spiders winning the 2008 Football Championship Subdivision national championship.
etts, six as head coach from 1986-91, and was the head coach at Richmond for nine years and Virginia Military Institute for two before leaving to take for the NFL.
Each of his last two stops, he thought, were going to be his last, but the opportunity to take a role on London’s staff was difficult to pass up because of their relationship.
He’s a “great teacher of young men, not just in the techniques and strategies of football, but making sure they were educated, making sure they went to class, making sure they progressed socially, and making sure they fulfilled the obligations expected of them as students,” Reid said of London, whose career record is a gaudy 24-5 in just two seasons.
Reid also has a long history with Virginia, one that began when he was a graduate assistant at Massachusetts and was sent to study the program run by Navy coach George Welsh, who was hired by Virginia shortly thereafter. Reid also worked at camps run at Virginia by coach Al Groh, who was fired after nine seasons and replaced eight days later by London.
“When you think of sitting in a home and trying to convince a young man that he should visit and he should come to where you’re coaching, you’ve got to be able to point out the quality of the education, and not just regionally but also nationally,” he said of Virginia.
“No. 2, you have to be so proud when you bring that young man onto campus.”
as family in Virginia, with two of his three children living in the state, as well as all three of his grandchildren, which he said also had an influence on the move.
“It was really fun to be with the Dolphins,” he said
In between head coaching stops, he served as the defensive coordinator at Boston College, and as a defensive assistant at Syracuse and Bucknell for a year each. His season at Syracuse was the last for coach Paul Pasqualoni, now the defensive coordinator with the Dolphins.
Reid, 59, told his players in Miami after their final game on Sunday that he was leaving to take the Virginia job, but his hiring first had to be vetted by the school’s personnel department. That process concluded earlier Thursday, clearing the way for him to become the fifth assistant coach London has brought on board since he was hired to replace Al Groh.
London also retained Anthony Poindexter, the Cavaliers’ defensive backs coach under Groh, but has not announced the positional assignments for any of the assistants besides Reid.
Reid “brings passion and energy to the program, and is an excellent `people person’ guy,” London said. “I feel confident our defensive players will come to love and respect him.”
Reid coached outside linebackers with the Dolphins, and was credited with helping rejuvenate the career of Joey Porter, who had a career-best 17 1/2 sacks in the 2008-09 season.
Add A Comment