“It was always a fun game of chess against his teams,” Groh said. “You had to really be mentally into the game and be ready to adjust as it unfolded. You couldn’t just call the game off a sheet of paper.”

Groh was such a fan of how Welsh ran his program that he got on board with no hesitation when his son, Mike, decided to walk on with the Cavaliers in 1991. Mike Groh went on to start at quarterback, and he led Virginia to a pair of nine-win seasons in 1994-95, which included a historic upset of Florida State in 1995.

“We knew the values he was raised with at home were going to be consistent with the values and standards that were going to be expected of him at Virginia,” Groh said.

By the time Welsh retired following a 6-6 season in 2000, the Cavaliers were a year removed from a string of 13 straight seasons with seven wins or more. His 1989 team is still the only one in program history with 10 wins in a season, and in 1990, his Cavaliers became the only team in program history to reach No. 1 in the national polls.

In 1989 and 1990, former All-American linebacker Chris Slade was in the early stages of his career at Virginia, but he could sense expectations were high as soon as he arrived.