Anthony Poindexter: Coaching stability, new 4-3 defensive scheme aid Virginia's recruiting efforts

Black Buzz Sports News Service
Charlottesville, Virginia
August 9, 2010

Cavaliers Journal

Coaching stability and a new defensive alignment made hitting the recruiting trail in recent months less complicated for Anthony Poindexter – Virginia’s special teams coordinator and safeties coach – than it had been in previous years.

After a 3-9 campaign in 2009 and a four-year stretch during with the Cavaliers went a combined 22-27, Virginia fired Al Groh and replaced him with Mike London.

“It's a lot easier when they ain't talking about getting rid of your head coach all the time,” Poindexter said. “Especially in the Northern Virginia region, for the last four years there's always been that talk of contract and stuff here. When you go out on the road, everybody wants to come to a place where it's stable. They want to know that people are going to be there. This ain't a hard school to recruit to once that's in place.

“So once Coach London got there and everybody in that area where I recruit knows Coach London because he used to recruit it himself and knows what kind of guy he is and what he stands for, it made it a lot easier. But our school is still the University of Virginia with a reputation of academics and the high standard here. People know the benefit of coming here. Kids know the benefit of coming here.”

Most high school players are more familiar with 4-3 schemes, which commonly are implemented at the youth league and high school levels. According to Poindexter, the defensive alignment switch has enabled Virginia’s coaches to cast a wider net when searching for new talent.

Poindexter said the 3-4 alignment is “a great defense. But it is a little bit harder to recruit to because of the size of the guys you have to get. The 4-3 gives you a little bit of flexibility to take one of those safeties and move them down to linebacker or take one of those linebackers and move them to defensive end.

“So I think a lot of that has helped us in our recruiting, as well. Some guys that we had to not recruited because of the way we were set up in the past years, now we can recruit them, and they add a little bit more versatility to our team and especially the special teams part of it.”

By Steve Yanda August 5, 2010; 3:38 PM ET