{"id":413074,"date":"2025-09-10T12:06:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/413074\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T12:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:06:17","slug":"frequent-returns-to-face-uva-doesnt-get-old-for-london-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/413074\/","title":{"rendered":"Frequent returns to face UVa doesn’t get old for London | College"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTESVILLE \u2014<\/strong> Mike London has made this trip three times previously as William & Mary\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n

Still, returning to Charlottesville doesn\u2019t get tiresome for the veteran headman, who held the same job at Virginia from 2010 through 2015. He\u2019s been back with W&M for the Cavaliers\u2019 annual tilt against an FCS foe in 2019, 2021 and 2023, and his Tribe (1-1) visit UVa (1-1) again on Saturday for a noon kickoff at Scott Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe human element of it is that I spent a large part of my career there as an assistant coach and a head coach,\u201d London said Monday, \u201cand there are a lot of people there that I know and I appreciate. There were experiences there. Some good, some bad, but mostly good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, London led the Cavaliers to an 8-5 mark in 2011 with an appearance in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. That season, UVa won at nationally ranked Florida State for the first time in school history and won on the road at Georgia Tech, which was ranked, too.<\/p>\n

He also had two separate stints as a UVa assistant under Al Groh.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I look forward to connecting with people I\u2019ve known over the years,\u201d London said, \u201cbut also the task of getting my team ready to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

To do so, he said, he\u2019ll lean on his staff, which features plenty of ex-UVa players in Tribe co-defensive coordinator Ras-I Dowling, defensive line coach Keenan Carter, special teams coordinator Darryl Blackstock and running backs coach Perry Jones. London said his assistants\u2019 pasts as players at UVa aids with logistics and helping their players understand what they\u2019re walking into against the Hoos.<\/p>\n

He said Blackstock has the large responsibility of assembling a plan to slow down Cavaliers speedster Cam Ross, who has earned ACC specialist of the week honors in each of the first two weeks of the year.<\/p>\n

Ross had a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in UVa\u2019s season-opening win over Coastal Carolina and 84 punt-return yards this past Saturday in the Hoos\u2019 loss at NC State.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does a phenomenal job,\u201d London said of Ross, \u201cbut that\u2019s why coaches have tape and that\u2019s why you can game plan. \u2026 So, the game-planning is on and we just want to make sure we do enough to give the players an opportunity to be competitive up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

London has proven in his three different stops as a coach at the FCS level \u2014 at Richmond, at Howard and at W&M \u2014 that he can do more than that against FBS opponents. London guided the Spiders to a win at Duke in 2009, and he helped Howard beat UNLV in 2017. Under London, the Tribe knocked off Charlotte in 2022.<\/p>\n

Even two years ago, they were competitive with the Hoos until the fourth quarter, when former Cavaliers star wide receiver Malik Washington\u2019s 27-yard touchdown reception broke the bout open.<\/p>\n

London said he\u2019s concerned most with UVa\u2019s running game led by running back J\u2019Mari Taylor, paired with the way quarterback Chandler Morris can throw, run and has thrown on the run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got our work cut out for us,\u201d said London, who goes into Saturday with 99 career victories, \u201cbut there\u2019s the exciting part about traveling and playing a team like them and then just savoring the moment for opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

London said he\u2019s figured out about the resolve of the Tribe through their first two contests, which were decided by a combined three points.<\/p>\n

They lost 23-21 at Furman in Week 1 and beat Maine 28-27 this past Saturday when cornerback Jalen Jones\u2019 interception with 2:28 to go secured the Tribe their first victory. London said linebacker Luke Banbury tipped the ball before Jones picked off the pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019re going to continue to keep doing things where it\u2019s not just one player,\u201d London said, \u201cbut it\u2019s about the multitude of players that are up front, in the secondary, in the linebacker core and on special teams to experience success. It was a great learning lesson for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also new to the Tribe defense this season is UVa alum Aidan Ryan, a graduate transfer safety. He has five tackles through the first two games, and London said Ryan has fit in well. Ryan spent his first four years with the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done a really good job,\u201d London said. \u201cHe is a leader, and a guy who has been there and done that, so I know he looks forward to having an opportunity to play as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTESVILLE \u2014 Mike London has made this trip three times previously as William & Mary\u2019s head coach. Still,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,12058,393,94,4884,257,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-413074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115179919038140704","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}