The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - The Lars Tiffany Saga: Facts, Rumors & Lies; Did UVA Fire Lars Tiffany Or Did He Quit On His Own?

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: The Lars Tiffany Saga: Facts, Rumors & Lies Did UVA Fire Lars Tiffany Or Did He Quit On His Own? What Drove UVA & Lars Tiffany To Divorce? What Role Did UVA Players Have In Tiffany Ouster? What Role Did Assistants Have In Tiffany Ouster? What Role Did Parents Have In Tiffany Ouster? What Role Did Fundraising Have In Tiffany Ouster? Who Is Carla Williams Interviewing For Lax Job? Is The UVA Lacrosse Job Still A Premier Position? Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Welcome to the Jerry and Jerry Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us. We are here in downtown Charlottesville, less than two miles from, goodness gracious, the epicenter of a soap opera that has captivated Wahoo Nation. We are less than two miles away from the John Paul Jones Arena, from Scott Stadium, home to the National Lacrosse Championship. Princeton dominating victory against Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the University of Virginia, not a part of that championship on its home

soil on its home grounds. Still fans have been captivated with lacrosse and it's for all the wrong reasons. Lars Tiffany, was he fired? Lars Tiffany, did he quit on his own accord? Lars Tiffany. Was there a signed three-year contract? Lars Tiffany

was the contract only signed by Lars himself? Lars Tiffany. Did his assistant coaches oust him, coordinate, game plan to remove him as the skipper of the men's lacrosse team. Large Tiffany did the players a coordinated effort,

a coup to get Lars Tiffany ousted as men's lacrosse coach. Lars Tiffany did the parents of the players strategize, organize, galvanize against the coach to have him pink slipped. Carla Williams, Lars Tiffany, what's the relationship like? Carlo Williams, who will replace Lars Tiffany? Carlo Williams, is this job a premier and prestigious gig still, despite the depoccal, despite the perceived dumpster fire? We have truths, we have lies, we have rumor mill,

and we're going to try to decipher it all today on the Jerry and Jerry show. And before we welcome the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, a household name in Atlantic Coast Conference households, a household name for the past 50 years, the source of the source. I want to highlight something for the viewers and listeners. There's been one man who's broken the two most significant stories of late

as it applies to the University of Virginia Athletic Department. Coach Mox, toxic turmoil, pink slipped, Virginia women's basketball, Jerry Rackliff broke that story. First to write it, first to report it, first to publish it, Jerry Rackleff.com, then all the national media jumped on board, including ESPN, including the New York Post. The Lars Tiffany story, first to publish it, first to break it, first to report it.

Jerry Rackliff, Jerry Rackleff.com. The guy has more sources than the FBI. Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Judah Wickhauer, it's time we welcome a man that needs absolutely no introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, the namesake of Jerry Rackleft.com, if you're not paying $8 a month for his content, you are not getting the best content possible as it applies to UVA sports, $8 a month, the price of a cup of coffee at jerry rackliff.com. Hootie, you have been crushing it, my friend. Thank you, my friend. And I want to thank all the sources that have and continue to cooperate and help me try to put some of these pieces of the puzzles together.

And there's still a few missing pieces on this one. and hopefully we'll fill them in as we go along. My friend, we start with scatter shooting. The whole show is this soap opera. Where do we begin? Yeah, it's dominated everything, even though the baseball team, we talked to Chris Pollard yesterday.

They begin play this week in Hattiesburg. We've had a story on that yesterday, and we'll have some more. talk to Bowen Sargent. They're out in California in pursuit of another national championship for Virginia.

They'll be playing this week and national runners up last year. The track and field team's doing well. Getting ready for, I guess, the NCAAs. But this is a controversial topic

that has dominated the the local sports news cycle over the past week or so. And again, there's still a few missing pieces of the puzzle that every now and in we'll find a piece talking to another source. We thought we had an interview with someone who could have filled in all those pieces, but I think an attorney got involved, and so that was postponed at least. least if not canceled. So, uh, we're still trying to figure this one out. Have you seen a,

first off, what's the word you just, you use to describe what we're going through here. A debacle, soap opera? I mean, how do you describe what's happening? Soap opera would be the better term. Soap opera. Yeah. Okay. Have you seen a soap opera like this in your 50 years of covering sports? Uh, probably several. Yeah. But, uh, uh, none. lately like this. It's rare, particularly at a place like UVA who, but these are uncommon times with more financial pressure than ever before on not only the coaches, excuse me, but also the athletic department.

I mean, we saw this week that Louisville came out and said that they are operating at a $30 million dollar deficit and are trying to figure out a way to do that. And it's not uncommon at all. Almost every athletic program in the country is losing money. And even though the ACC got more money this year than I think it ever has, most of the athletic departments are operating in the red. And, you know, it's going to cause tension and pressure and, resignations, firings, et cetera.

And, of course, we're seeing, I think, the tip of the iceberg on that, not just here, but around the athletic world. Viewers and listeners, ask questions if you have them. We will try to answer as much as possible. You are watching and listening, Jerry Rackleff of Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, a man who has more awards and accolades on the UVA sports beat than anyone and everyone. Olivia Branch says this show is the best part of my week. This show is very informative and insightful.

I look forward to this. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, Olivia. Queen of Keswick Olivia Branch. William McChesney is watching the program. We've modicered him the mayor of McIntyre. I like that. We appreciate you, William McChesney, for watching the show.

truth lies and rumor mill first we'll try to go with the truth the truth that we know large Tiffany is not the head coach of UVA anymore that is very true the truth that we know a statement was issued that was terse short less than 40 words the truth that is what we know large Tiffany won an ACC championship this year then got bounced by georgetown in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Some would say a down year that includes an ACC championship is still a good year. Some would say losing the way they lost against Georgetown, especially after last season where they finished below 500, shows that the program is on a slide and it's time for a change.

Other elements to this story, there's an associate head coach that's in the running for the open job. Other elements to the story is players are considering the transfer portal, will they enter, time will tell. What other truths am I missing that need to be out there before we get to the lies in the rumor mill? I guess the portal is open now, right? I think you pretty well covered it. There's still a lot of things that we don't know that happened behind the scenes that we hoped would be filled in. But unfortunately, rumors, are, you know, they just continue to grow. And it's hard to put rumors to rest if the people who know the truth don't come out and clear those up.

And so that's what we're striving for is to try to clear up those rumors and present facts because I don't like, I mean, nobody likes to print rumors. They like to go with the facts and the truth. how much of this has to do with responsibility asked of Lars Tiffany, with fundraising, with endowing his program, with driving any kind of NIL revenue, basically taking his attention away from recruiting and being the head coach and producing victories and championships, and then allocating that limited attention to basically creating new revenue or funding to sustain his program because the money from the athletic department is going to be few and,

far between for Olympic sports. Yeah. Well, you know, something happened behind closed doors, and we still don't know exactly what. After that Georgetown loss, certainly he was bummed out, and they got out played. There was no question about it. And he was talking about how forward he was, how looking forward he was to, how looking forward he was to, well, welcoming a lot of that team back and a great recruiting class. Apparently, he expected to be the coach through 2009,

which apparently he had agreed to a contract back in, I guess, December, that he signed and sent to the athletic department, according to sources. And apparently UVA didn't sign it. There was no place. Supposedly on that contract, there was no place for anybody else to sign it, which is kind of weird. I don't know that much about contracts, but... Can I jump in? Yeah.

No, I think how we, how, and you know this, the viewers and listeners that are new to what we do here, how we make our living is the real estate, is real estate. Yeah, you know more about contracts than I do. would seem to me that a contract that doesn't have a place for both parties to sign and date is not a contract at all. It's invalid. Yeah. So this is the question I have for you. Why would you send a contract to someone for them to sign it and return it if you weren't going to honor it?

That's the question. Or what happened from when you sent that contract to the head coach Lars Tiffany to sign, offering a three-year extension, what happened? after you hit send of an email to implode the relationship? Yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's the $64,000 or million dollar question is what happened after that because nobody's talking on either side. What were there demands from the athletic department that he wasn't willing to agree to? I mean, he has raised plenty of money in the past. there was pressure to endow his program.

Something happened behind closed doors that we're not privy to, and again, it hasn't been divulged. Was he not happy with the terms of that contract? Did he expect more than a three-year deal? There were rumors that the two parties have not gotten along well, for quite some time. We don't know how valid that is because neither party has confirmed or denied that at this point.

So something happened behind closed doors and obviously it didn't go well. We've been told that he walked out and we've been told that he did not walk out that he was fired. Well, he sent a text message to legacy media that the demise of my termination. The old Mark Twain quote.

Yeah. Give it to us. The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. Yeah. The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. Yeah. That leads you to believe the man is bullish on his future at the University of Virginia as the men's lacrosse head coach.

One would think. And then you break the story that, all you know what hits the fan. Yeah, and the terse release that you've mentioned, we've only seen one other like that come out. Another story you broke. And that was when Coach Mock's was fired, and this was very similar. So I'm assuming that he was fired in all the aftermath that we've heard,

but can you fire someone who's not under-contracting? I mean, is that a firing? I mean, you're not under contract. You're negotiated a new contract. You think you've signed a contract. The other party hasn't signed the contract or agreed to it. The coach wants to stay on for additional time. The coach is texting media that he is going to stay on,

that his termination or demise are greatly exaggerated. That, from my standpoint, has all the indications of a firing to me. Well, yeah, just that and the press release, it does seem like firing, which we weren't clear on at the beginning of this. But I think that's probably what you would have to classify it as at this point is that he was fired. One of the rumors that is so mainstream that it is almost part of the Wahoo Nation vocabulary or lexicon. Conner conversation is the role that UVA active lacrosse parents, most notably a very established father in the lacrosse world, a former player himself, collegiate and professional, who's got talented athletes, plural, sons on the team, led a coup, like strategize, organized,

and galvanized parents and players in a strategic coup to get Lars Tiffany pink slipped at UVA. Where are we going with this? Yeah, I mean, we've heard that. That's everywhere.

I pretty much think it's been confirmed in some corners. But then yet again, there are people who have talked to a lot of the players former and current who supported Lars Tiffany

and didn't want him to be removed as head coach but yeah there's strong rumors out there about a coup we still haven't had it

totally confirmed that players went to Carla's office and said that if coach Tiffany's coming back we're not. There's rumors of that, but I still haven't heard anybody. Nobody has told me that to my face yet, that that's a true story, and it may very well be true.

I mean, we hear about things like that happening in football and basketball around the country. I don't know that that's happened here. other than maybe there was some of that going on with the coach mocks thing where some of the players were going to leave because of the coach. I don't know if they went to the AD and asked for a removal or not. But apparently some of these players did. Current players went to the AD. If not, they were represented by somebody who, went to the AD and whether that was a parent or a group of parents in coordination with

a staff member or again that's it's all up in the air as his hearsay but we nobody's denying it I'll play I'll play devil's advocate with the active UVA parent parents organizing strategizing and galvanizing against Tiffany in cahoots with the athletic director. Here's the devil's advocate to that. The alpha dog parent in this scenario has, and this is rumor mill that's everywhere, folks, has two sons on the team that are key players on the team. Right. That are focal points of the offense.

Right. The devil's advocate against this storyline is why would you strategize, organize, and galvanize against the coach that's making the program and the offense around your two sons? That's a good question, and I don't know. I don't know the answer to that other than they don't like the way that the team performed or the offense was working. I know that we talked to Lars the week before the Georgetown game and I guess the week of the ACC tournament and he talked about how he had a change in philosophy in last fall when they practiced basically on fundamentals a lot

for much of the fall before they ever really I guess installed the offense and that Cassis, the assistant the offensive coordinator and

Schellenberger perhaps the greatest player in UVA history, arguably were both the instrumental in making that offense more effective.

And part of it was asking one player to become more of a team player and not taking all the responsibility on himself. I guess Lars put it as when they lost Schellenberger it was like trying to be Kansas City without Patrick Mahomes

and that this particular kid had put it on the burden on his shoulders that he had to try to be Patrick Mahomes and he was taking on too much responsibility and needed to share the wealth, so to speak, and be more of a guy who could contribute and help raise the other players around him, their level of play.

whether that struck a nerve somewhere with that parent or with the assistant coach or with some of the players or the player remains to be uncovered but that could be the boiling point behind everything if all these rumors are true and viewers and listeners put your comments in the feed

I'll relay I'm live on air. Comments are coming in quickly now. I'm going to highlight some of the localities, cities, and some of the states that are watching the program. Charlestville, Crozet, Louisa Orange, Richmond, Short Pump, Georgetown, McLean, Arlington, Alexandria, Southwestern Virginia, the Baltimore, Maryland area, the D.C. area all over the talk show right now. Viewers and listeners are watching in Florida, North Carolina,

South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts on the program right now. This question's come in. This one's from North Carolina. I don't buy that Mark Millen led the charge to get Lars Tiffany fired. I think there may be more to the story of assistant coaches not getting along with Tiffany, who is clearly very demanding as a head coach. You even see some of the outbursts during actual games from the stands. Can Rackliff speak to the challenges the assistant coaches were facing with Lars Tiffany, who looked like he was under a lot of pressure? Well, he was under a lot of pressure.

Even he used the word blasphemy to describe not this past season. but the 2025 season, it was their first losing season in seven or eight years and didn't make the NCAA tournament, which is blasphemy, considering the resources that Virginia pours into that sport. And as one of the traditional powers, I would think Virginia is probably one of the top five lacrosse jobs in the country, if not higher. Is it still? We'll get to that question. I'm taking you off track. I apologize.

But so I'm sure he was under pressure. And a contract year, you want to do well. They got off to a very rocky start at three and four. Lost a couple of home games to people they normally wouldn't lose to, particularly Towson. It was just a rough journey. And I'm sure there was a lot of pressure on that coach. staff and the players are probably

feeling some of that and there are stories out there that that Lars had become testy and that's probably that's kind being kind yeah I don't know that I didn't attend practices I didn't really see

that many games because there's so many spring sports and basketball and spring football extended nearly the entire length of the lacrosse season. So there weren't that many opportunities. But sometimes if I head coach can, under pressure, can let that pressure get to him.

I mean, even the great Vince Lombardi felt incredible pressure at some point in his late in his career, which led to him. stepping down on his head coach, then he missed it so much he came back into football. But no matter how tough you are, you can crack under that kind of pressure. And sometimes that divides coaching staffs because there's differences in philosophies and approaches,

and that could have been part of the situation here. Viewers and listeners, put your comments in the feed. I'll relay them live on air to Jerry Rackler. Let's take the timeline of the schedule and what you reported yesterday, which really is driving the new cycle. Jerry Rathcliffe, guys, is driving the new cycle on this story. The headline on Jerry Rackleff.com, Lars Tiffy's agent is seeking compensation from UVA. And then the second part of your story, the athletic director is interviewing three potential coaching candidates. Really, this is in some ways.

stories here. UVA starts the season off with a victory against Colgate. Second game of the season, they lose to an extremely talented Richmond team. Richmond Spiders, their head coaches on the shortlist for this job, why he would leave Richmond in a program that he built. I'm going to ask Hootie Rackleff, that question.

They lose to the Richmond Spiders on the road, makes them one-in-one. They beat the brakes off of Stony Brook, UVA to go two and one. They lose to Johns Hopkins in the Doyle Smith Cup. They're two and two. Nail biter lost to Johns Hopkins, two and two. They beat the brakes off a high point. They're three and two.

Then they have Towson in Charlottesville should be cruise control. Lose 13 to 9 to Towson. Then they lose to Maryland in triple overtime 13 to 12 in College Park. that makes UVA three and four overall during the aides of March. You report that the contract is signed by Lars Tiffany and return to the University of Virginia in late March. I'm just going to try to use common sense here. You start the season at three and four overall following last year's debacle, which they were sub-500. You go three and four overall.

You have a contract that's been in your inbox for a little one. while would make sense inking that contract as quickly as possible with Utah, Dartmouth and the number one team in the country, Notre Dame on the near horizon, would create some kind of job security, some kind of recruiting stability, and some kind

of transfer portal security. He sends that contract off during the aides of March. Then they rattle off Utah, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Duke, loose to Q, Syracuse at North Carolina, beat Drexel, Notre Dame and North Carolina

win an ACC championship but then get bounced to Georgetown. The timeline adds up, three and four overall to start underachieving, get that contract to Carla Williams as quickly as possible. Yeah, and he said he felt that the Maryland game was the turning point of the season when the team really showed fight and that really he saw something in his team at that point. as well. Yeah, I mean, apparently that was the second time they had sent him the contract, I guess.

But anyways, or he just let it set all that time and then decided to go ahead and, yeah, it was probably a good timing on his part to sign it and send it back in. again, I don't know if that's standard procedure that you would send a contract I mean that's somewhat confusing to me why would you send a contract and ask someone to sign it if you weren't planning on signing it yourself

as the AD or somebody from the athletic department unless you're the University of Virginia and you're playing chess when everybody else is playing checkers and you send a contract and you're like, oh, if we need to, here's our out, that this isn't fully ratified. Yeah. You play in the game.

But then if you're playing the game that way, oh, you signed it, we didn't sign it. That creates, that's disingenuous. In a very small lacrosse world and an even smaller lacrosse coaching world, folks are going to start asking questions, do I want this job? I mean, go ahead.

Would you do that with all your contracts to coaches or just selectively. I wouldn't do that with, if it was me personally, I wouldn't do that with any kind of. Yeah, yeah. But to answer your question, the relationship with Carla Williams and Lars Tiffany I mean, you know this better than I do,

appears to be one that was tenuous. Yeah, I would say that's a good description. So if Carla Williams, the athletic director's relationship with Lars Tiffany is tenuous, and that tenuous relationship is compounded by this new focus, on football, men's basketball,

women's basketball, and all Olympic sports in some ways, Carla Williams is given the impression that it's like, hey, go fund your own program with endowments because this $20.5 million,

this $21 million is only going to go to football, men's basketball and women's basketball. We know that's pretty much fact. That's fact. And I think that tenuous relationship was also compounded?

Well, I think it was also you could extend that back to Brian O'Connor. I think that was a similar relationship. And I still think that was part of the reason that he left. And that tenuous relationship isn't rooted in that these old school coaches are now expected to be not just wins and losses and X's and O's in recruiting, but basically chief fundraisers?

I think that's part of the equation. And I think some of it is also that they're not getting some of the things. they feel like that they need to compete nationally for their programs. You should explain the in-state versus out-of-state, the tuition with these players, and what some of the other teams they're facing, the lacrosse players are seen as in-state and get in-state rates. Well, we know that happened at North Carolina, that I don't know if it's in all their scholarships or just certain sports, but we know that for instance.

instance, they're a lacrosse team, all the lacrosse scholarships are being treated, even if the players from Baltimore or New York or any hotbed of lacrosse in the Northeast, they're all being treated as in-state scholarships, which is essentially half the cost of a scholarship. And that's huge money. That's huge money when you add up that many scholarships. And I think their lacrosse scholarships are endowed. I think maybe all their scholarships are endowed in the athletic department. I'm not quite sure about that,

but I think that goes back to the building of the deem dome. When they had so much excess money, they didn't know what to do with it. so they've, I think they end out as much as they possibly could. But, yeah, that was part of it. Where do we go from there? I think that, you know, the 80% of the house settlement, $20 plus million, $80% of that, I think pretty much sure is going to football. The other 20% are the majority of that $20,000.

percent is going to men's and women's basketball and whatever's left, which isn't very much, is scattered among some other programs. But generally, I think all those programs are being, they're under the gun to raise the money to endow their own programs. and all the head coaches were told that last fall. And I think that's one reason when Andres Padrosa was here recently last week, and he was reaching out to our audience. He gave a cell phone number.

He gave out his cell phone number. To donors out there to help endow his program. And he aggressively went out. That was aggressive. Yeah. I loved it. I loved it. And that's why we saw a $10 million gift for women's, for volleyball and women's soccer,

I believe it was last week or this past week, come in, a gift from, I think, a Charlottesville couple to help endow those programs. And I think we've seen some of that on and off over the past several months. And I think we will continue to see those kind of donations roll in because it's the lifeblood of these Olympic sports programs now. Comments continue to come in. This is from Bassett, Virginia, Donald Foley. Do you think the new lacrosse coach can retain current players and incoming freshmen, incoming recruits?

How long will take the rebuild? We appreciate Bassett, Virginia, watching the program. I see 11 different states watching the Jerry and Jerry show here. I appreciate the comment. I think before we can answer that question, we've got to get a coach. Yeah, and I imagine that will happen soon. Very soon. We know that they have interviewed at least three coaches.

Dan Shemati, the Richmond coach, who you mentioned previously. Kevin Cassice, the offensive coordinator on Tiffany's staff, and John Galloway, the head coach at Jacksonville University, who's apparently done a really good job in building that program. I think all three of these guys are former Duke players. Galloway, I think, was maybe a goaltender down there and a really good player. So I think all three are pretty well respected in the lacrosse world in terms of their coaching ability.

I think if any of those three guys are hired, I would imagine they'll be able to do a really good job in retaining the players and keeping the recruiting class. I've been told that one really good kid from San Francisco is coming regardless who the coach is because he wants to play at Virginia. I don't know if that's – I haven't heard that from the other recruits, but I would think that they would be pretty happy with any of these three guys. So I – you know, I'm not sure.

it's going to impact recruiting at all. I think they'll be able to keep most of that, if not the entire class. That's the segueing to the next question. Is it still a premier job? Is it still a premier program? Is it still a top five program? I mean, we've highlighted the fact that

the scholarship resources may not be what competitor scholarship resources are. They may not be in the same playing field. Tiffany's highlighted the need to upgrade the facilities and the infrastructure around the lacrosse program and in the very recent past. Last year it was a sub-500 performance, sub-500 record.

This year, bounced in the NCAA tournament first round by Georgetown. You have the rumor mill swirling to levels I've never seen with Olympic sports. I mean, this soap operate, it's still very fresh in my mind the Brian O'Connor exit and the souring and how that played out in such sour capacity. Brian O'Connor, Carla Williams, UVA, Mississippi State, SEC, Godfather of baseball. Right.

This souring, this divorce is messier than that. This divorce. At least publicly. Publicly, that's what I'm saying. We know behind the scenes there was a lot of mess, but it didn't make it to, the mainstream to the mainstream. Is this still a premier job? Who would take this job?

Well, I think, well, that's a good question. It remains to be seen. I mean, I think it's still one of the better jobs in lacrosse in terms of all the things surrounding the program. I guess the question, mark is the funding and the facilities. They have a new, like all the Olympic sports, they have a home down there behind the McHugh Center or part of the McHugh Center now incorporated into the McHugh Center, which is very nice.

But the players, I guess, still have to, again, I didn't get to that many games this year because but I'm assuming that the players still dress down there and have to walk up to clock and walk through the parking lot which I think that's still the case if I'm wrong and somebody out there knows better please tell me but I know it's been that way for years that they've had to walk and the opposing team too I guess has to walk or had to walk from wherever through the parking lots up to Klockner Stadium. Not much has been done to Klockner since it was erected in the mid-90s. And I think they've added a scoreboard, they've added a video board, but not much else.

There's some other programs in the ACC that have nicer facilities. I can't even pretend to know that much about lacrosse facilities around the rest of the country. But I'm sure there's room for improvement. Is it still viewed as one of the top five programs? Well, after this, soap opera, as you mentioned, I guess we'll see. If they're going to have a hard time hiring a coach, that would be a red flag. It might be a red flag already that a guy who took them to four final fours, won two of them, was won the ACC just won the ACC championship, and all that was chased.

Not only chased, but humiliated. Yeah. There's a difference with, I mean, this is a profession. Like, we understand, what's the, what's the, the old adage in coaching, you take a job to lose a job? Yeah. I mean, it's the profession.

But the way the job, the way the divorce happened is, is humiliating, it's messy, will forever be part of Lars Tiffany's digital legacy. This will forever be a part of his Wikipedia page.

Yeah. His digital tombstone, this divorce will always be a part of it. The, the terse, statement from Carla Williams' office, everyone read into it. The rumor mill allowing it to spin to the level it has where an alpha parent, whether true or not, had more influence than a coach. The rumor mill, whether true or not, that assistant coaches organized a coup against him, whether

true or not, whether true or not that the players were utilizing the transfer portal as leverage to get the head coach canned, whether true or not. Whether true or not, Carla Williams doesn't care about Olympic sports and is only focused on football and men's basketball and women's basketball and now looks at the Olympic sports as the red-headed stepchildren of the athletic department, whether true or not. And I can continue. I mean, we could keep going.

The infrastructure, the scholarships, the resources. And I'll give Lars a lot of credit. Of taking the high road? about last Saturday night, I'm told that he showed up at the big fundraising thing at Klockner Stadium to help. I guess it was he and Dom Stasia. I know Doug Taring was supposed to speak. I don't know if he ended up speaking or not.

I haven't talked to him lately. But, you know, they had all their lacrosse alum. are a lot of their lacrosse alum there. And Dom and Lars were talking about the national championships that they had won. And it was a huge fundraiser for the sport and for the program. And I think Terry was supposed to speak about the national title team that he was on. But if that's the case that Lars, showed up for that and spoke.

That's class. That's a lot of class to come under those circumstances and expose yourself to the people that matter in your sport. Basically going before your, I mean, maybe you're backstabbers. Some of them probably. Yeah. And speaking in front of them to raise money for a program that you're not potentially a part of. Yeah. So I'll give him a lot of kudos for that. But I guess we'll see very soon whether

it's still considered a top five job or not. I'm sure there's some red flags that have been raised and these coaches will be asking questions or have asked questions during their interview process to find out if it's worth their time or not. Comments. You've touched on this one. on. And let us know where you're watching the program if you guys don't mind viewers and listeners. Gary German, what level of priority do, does who do you believe needs to be placed on facility upgrades? Well, certainly they could do some things to Klockner. I mean, everything is a bleacher seat, right? The Klockner experience needs upgraded. Yeah, for the kind of soccer and lacrosse programs they have, they could do better.

It's entirely too utilitarian, Klochner. And it has not, is not up to date with 2026 standards. Another thing that's happening is the pinnacle of lacrosse, and it's not across the board because you saw Norderdame, and the pinnacle of athletics at Notre Dame is obviously football. But a lot of these, University of Richmond is a good example. the University of Richmond, some of these smaller schools are making some of these secondary sports, their sport. Like we see this in squash, we see this in tennis, we've seen this in lacrosse, we've seen this in some of these, they're like, we're not going to ever be able to compete in football and basketball and in baseball.

Right. But we can take the money we have, which may not be to the same magnitude as SEC or ACC or Big Ten money. but we can take the money we have and we can razor focus it on one or two programs and make those one or two programs the best of the best. Here, a perfect example of this is the school Trinity and what it does with men's squash. This men squash team with Trinity is the pinnacle often every year with squash, national championships every year. If they don't win a title, it's a disappointment. UPenn is doing that with men's squash.

And they understand. We'll see it with baseball programs around the country. You'll see in the 64 team field every now and you'll see a team you'll say... How are they here? Who is that? I've never heard of them before. Well, that's how. They invest their money where they feel like it can be most effective.

And some schools do it with soccer, some do it with tennis, some do it with lacrosse, some do it with baseball. Some even do it with basketball that don't have a big-time football program. it's you know you salute those schools for doing I love the model yeah I love the model it's like we're not going to compete with the big guys we're going to be the big guy in one or two sports right and I absolutely I think it's an absolutely genius model comments continue to come in here this is one we knew we were going to get Carla Williams has lost Brian O'Connor Tony Bennett Lars Tiffany, Julie Myers. When does this start being about Carla Williams, the athletic director? Well, I don't know that Carla was the reason that Tony Bennett left. I don't think that had anything to do with their relationship. Tony Bennett resigned for the same reasons that Jay Wright did and Jim Beheim to some degree,

Mike Shoshchewski to some degree. Nick Sabin, Jim Laranega, we could go on and on. They were old school coaches who did not like the model that they're presented with in college athletics today. It's not why they got into coaching, and it drove them out of coaching, because they didn't agree with the philosophy on and paying players millions of dollars to play

and that becoming the forefront. I know for a fact that back before NIL became huge, just in its early beginnings, if Tony Bennett went into a family's living room to recruit, and the first question out of their mouths were, how much can you pay me? me, he was out of there. That was in the conversation.

And it cost him some really good players. We know that to be true. So I wouldn't pin that on Carla. I think she tried to do what she could to convince Tony to stay. He just, it was against his mindset and as it was these other coaches. and I still think we'll probably see a few more eventually succumb to that. The other people, I think there's some validity to that. Again, I think we've touched on a lot of the topics why

and the fact that some of them just don't feel like that they're getting everything they need to compete on the level that they envision and some philosophical disagreements I guess but I mean that's the part of being an AD these days

everything falls into your lap obviously she has priorities in looking toward Virginia's future if she plans on remaining the ADA. A lot of people are targeting the year 2030. That's when a lot of the contracts and things begin to implode or expire. And some people are predicting a major shift in the collegiate landscape in terms of power conferences. Power conferences. I think that's going to

happen. The SEC, the Big Ten consuming the ACC, the Big 12, the Big 12, the the new pack whatever it is whatever it is now do you think that's going to happen i i fought that in my mind forever because i can't bear the thought of it but i'm beginning to believe that it's inevitable because of the money nothing but the money well now private equities in it yeah private equities and there's all kinds of stuff coming down the road the acc's having a hard time competing we're going to see ads on the field. We're going to see ads on the jerseys. Well, you just said, I mean, you mentioned Louisville.

You had this story on Jerry Ratcliffe.com. Folks, if you're not subscribing to Jerry Ratcliffe.com and $8 a month, you're missing the best sports content possible period. I mean, it's facts on facts here. Louisville's losing $30 million a year. And part of the money that they used to pay that deficit came from their hospital, the University of Hospital system. The 2027 budget...

Can't do that here. No. The 27 budget deficit will approach 30 million at Louisville. And this is a marquee brand. I mean, that's one of the larger cities in the ACC and without a pro franchise. That is the pro franchise. This isn't Wake Forest.

This isn't, I mean, who would be a better example that we would think the 30 million? This isn't Virginia Tech. I'm not trying to throw shade in the Hokies in Blacksbury. gear, but Virginia Tech has got massive problems ahead of itself. Right. Witt Babcock, the athletic director, said we need to raise a quarter of a billion dollars to

be relevant. And they just came out and said that their AD job is essentially going to be split in two. Yeah. One person is going to handle the fundraisers. Firings, that sort of thing. The other is going to be handling the money. Right. And the money guy will be the most important of those two guys.

Right. And Virginia Tech right now is in the middle of replacing its president. and its athletic director. The Board of Visitors of Virginia Tech is looking to replace, is replacing, not looking. They are transitioning out an athletic director and a school president at the same time because they see that Virginia Tech has fallen behind. My point is this. Louisville is a marquee brand, a sexy athletic brand, and their 2027 budget deficit is $30 million.

Imagine what is happening at Virginia Tech. Imagine what is happening at Wakefield. for us. Help me with some of the other schools. Boston College. There we go. These are the examples. This is that at those schools. Syracuse. Yeah. Even Georgia Tech. Right. The ACC model, I hate to say this because I'm a purist and an old school guy. The ACC model is not working. Well, nothing's working. It seems the SEC is working. Yeah, SEC and Big Ten is working. and the big 10 is full of schools that are huge schools. I mean, they're like small towns.

Well, take Michigan, you've got 100,000 plus people. Yeah. Look at Ohio State. Yeah. They don't have that here. They've gone through their campus, and it's like you're in a different city. Look at Alabama. Look at LSU.

I mean, Alabama, Will Wade, his recruiting class, LSU, former NC State head coach, now back to LSU. A slimy guy, my words here, slippery fellow. He's a scumbughey. Okay, there we go. Rack-Cliff Golds was going to. He's got a recruiting class that has two guys that have NBA contract experience. His recruiting class literally has two players that are pro basketball players in it.

I think that's going to be taken to court. Insanity, though. Yeah. We're talking about completely different worlds. and the SEC and a big ten or even thinking about separating themselves from the NCAA and coming up with their own rules. And that's probably private equity's influence right there. Yeah.

And so Carla, one of her focuses of her job right now, and I'll give her credit for this, is she's trying to position Virginia. So if that day does come, that Virginia will be in position. to go to either the SEC or the Big Ten because not all the ACC is going to be gobbled up into that. Some of them are going to be left out hanging out the drive.

100%. You're 100% right. And that's the same way with the Big 12 and pack whatever. And I think UVA, because of its alumni base, because of its proximity to the SEC geographically, is in prime, because of its athletic prowess, because of the department's prowess. Look at the athletic department and hold.

Right. Because of the fundraising, because of the money, is in prime position to be a part of the southeastern conference. And some sports may go because if you look at most of the SEC schools, the majority of them only have between 18 and 21 sports. Virginia has 27 sports. Right. Some people say too many sports. I've even had a coach tell me there's too many sports at UVA. and now those sports those head coaches are are pitted against each other 100% fighting for money

because there's probably having to go to the same donors to beg for money 100% that's what's happening you're seeing that there's only so much to go around you're crushing it per usual you see that in the non-profit world in charlesville virginia charlesville in the charlesville metro area they call it the non-profit capital of the commonwealth because there's so much non-profit NGO activity here And the reason that is is because of the obscene wealth in the Charlottesville area. One very connected person told me that nearly 50, nearly 50, nearly 50 billionaires, billion with a B, had a residence, doesn't necessarily have to be a primary home, but a residence in some capacity in Charlottesville or Almar County.

Nearly 50 billion. I don't doubt it at all. I don't doubt that at all. Don't doubt that at all. So the NGOs, the nonprofits, are all fighting for the same dollars. And when things get a little tight, you start seeing layoffs or people losing their jobs or contractions or mergers of nonprofits, if you may, lack of better phrase. Same things happen with the Olympic sports. They're going to the same, whoever amount of people it is, or entities or family offices, whatever you want to call it,

and look at for the same low-hanging endowment fruit. and now the guy that was your next door neighbor in the coaching hallway is now the guy that you're putting a pitch deck, a PowerPoint presentation, together to compete with. Right, exactly. And that's why you had Andre's last Tuesday, one of the best interviews I've ever been a part of, thanks to Jerry Rackleff,

literally offering his personal cell phone number on a show that had 14 states watching. Yeah, and apparently he got some calls. The feedback is, We heard. The feedback was fantastic on the show. And thank you to those people out there who responded. Support the men's tennis team. I mean, goodness, we should just plug the team, the talent he has returning off the national championship.

He's got five starters back plus the top recruiting class in the country. So you're going to see a lot more trophies coming to Charlottesville in the future. The man won a national title. He's got five key guys, five. five guys on the ladder coming back. Plus the number one recruiting class coming in. Right. And he's got a couple of guys at Roland Garros having success right now.

Just won two matches. Yeah. Ridiculous. Yeah. And if you watch that show, audience, he saw his recruiting ability at work. I was ready to suit him up. My problem is my back hand sucks.

Half the people in the audience told me that, I was ready to jump in and play for coach right then and there. So you can see how effective he is one-on-one. 100%. It was absolutely, I had goosebumps sitting next to him. Jeremy Wilson at Eastern Tennessee is watching the program. Will Notre Dame join, be forced to join a conference in football? Only if things blow up.

They're going to hold out as long as possible, Jeremy Wilson. They will never. they will never relent unless it gets to the point where they have no choice. 100%. Where everything implodes and becomes one super conference like the NFL and have divisions. I believe. Or everybody's gobbled up by the SEC and the Big Ten, which one of those two things apparently is, sadly, is inevitable. You got breaking news that just hit the show.

How many times does this effing happen during the Jerry and Jerry show? This is breaking from two minutes ago. Kevin Cassis is the new head coach of the UVA men's lacrosse. Oh, there you go. Kevin Cassice, University of Virginia, Director of Athletics, Carla Williams, announced moments ago that Kevin Cassis has been elevated and is the new men's lacrosse coach at the University of Virginia,

the 18th head coach in program history. He is the ideal leader, Carla Williams says, person and coach to usher in the next era of Virginia men's lacrosse. He embodies the integrity and competitive excellence that have defined this championship program for many decades. Highly regarded as a fantastic coach and an even better person. He is a winner on and off the field. We are excited that Kevin, his wife, Katie, and their children, Drew, Anna, and Claire, will continue to call UVA and Charlottesville home. Casice pronounced Casse, has spent the last three seasons as UVA's associate head coach and offensive coordinator.

The release on his hiring is 100 times longer than the statement from Carla Williams on Lars Tiffany's departure. Well, congratulations to him. I kind of figured that he might be the frontrunner because he had the inside edge, I guess. And the immediacy that was needed. I figured they would probably do something today a day after the national championships. I don't think they wanted to take away from the weekend. And so I figured it would be either him or Shemati. And a lot of people said Shemati would be better off staying where he is because he has an ideal situation

and he doesn't have to fight for the endowment. to support his program that, like he might would have to do here. So congratulations to Coach Cassise, and I'm sure that Virginia lacrosse will march on. That's breaking news right there. Breaking news. That must have happened ten times on our show. At least, dude. It's like 100%.

Literally minutes ago on the wire. So the next chapter of the Lars Tiffany saga, And still chapters to come, does Lars Tiffany get paid for the final three years of his contract? Still chapters to come. Do any active players enter the transfer portal? Still chapters to come, does the lacrosse program endow itself and sustain itself financially? And still chapters to come, how does a team that seems to have slipped of late, losing record last year, bounce in the first round of the NCAA tournament this year, rebound to the pinnacle of,

of the profession, the pitnacle of the sport? Well, I think Coach Tiffany's situation will be decided in court or out of court, depending on how attorneys figure that out. We had heard last Thursday night or Friday that there perhaps was a lawsuit coming, but I wasn't allowed to give them permission to say that at that point. It was confidential. But I think the lacrosse program will roll on. I think they'll retain their players.

I think they'll keep their recruiting class. What they do with it will be up to the coach and the coaching staff. and I'm sure that Virginia lacrosse will remain a player on the national scene, I would think. Under this direction, they seem to have everything going in their favor, and now it's a matter of nailing down the financial support that they need. and who knows what may have evolved from last Saturday night's function where they were fundraising. Who knows what kind of gifts may have been pledged or support. But I'm sure they're relieved to have that settled here before the end of the month.

Peggy Moore says Carla is not the problem. NIL is the problem. Cliff Dacey's watching the program in the eastern shore. my Virginia tech friends, Cliff Daisy, says, have mentioned they seem to believe Franklin's biggest problem is no amount of money is ever enough. He's always asking for more in Blacksburg. Half a dozen people are asking, are you going to have a follow-up story or analysis or commentary on the Cassise hiring? I'm certain that we will. I don't know that they probably didn't mention it in the press release, but they usually have a

some sort of a press gaggle when they hire a new coach. So we'll be able to go over and talk to him. I would imagine it would be soon. So yeah, we'll definitely have follow-ups on that. No question. We wind the show here at the 1130 marker. There's actually other news out there with Virginia Sports. That's on Jerry Rackliff.com.

We got a baseball team that's kind of, contending in the postseason. We got some recruiting news as well, Hootie. Yeah. We'll be writing about the golf team and the baseball team throughout the week and obviously more lacrosse. Recruiting, we have a story up right now that we posted before the show came on, for those of you who may not have seen the site today. Ryan Odom continues to recruit into the future. They just offered, and this is going to be a tough get here.

DeMarcus Henry, a 6-8 small forward from the class of 27. he's a five-star. He's been offered by pretty much everybody under the sun. He grew up in North Carolina. I was a North Carolina fan, and as soon as he reclassified to the 27 class, he was instantly offered by Michael Malone and the Carolina staff. So that is going to be a tough get for anybody.

He's the number 15 overall national recruit in that class, two agencies have him in the top ten, he came right out and said, I feel like I'm the best player in the country. And he comes from good stock. His dad, Chris Henry was a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals. His older brother, Chris Henry Jr., was the number one

wide receiver prospect in the country this past season and we'll be playing for Ohio State this year. So most of the offers we've seen from Ryan Odom and his staff in the last few weeks have been to some of the best talent in the 27 and 28 classes. And I think their philosophy is if we're going to offer high school kids, let's go after the best ones. Yeah. And if we don't get them, then we'll just continue to fill through. the transfer portal.

And if we do get them, that's icing on the cake. Sure. But, you know, it's, it's, I like the strategy. It's a good strategy. And I've heard one, I've heard one, I won't say who he is. But it's one college football coach that I've known for a long time, said, I don't care what other people sign out of high school. I'll put up my three stars from the NIL transfer portal against four star and out of high school any day.

So there's – I mean, heck, Rick Petino – Rick Petino at St. John said he's not recruiting high school players anymore. A lot of coaches aren't. Yeah. And as we've said on this show before, like George Wells used to say, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Yeah, 100%. And I'll tell you what. This man is crushing it at Jerry Rackleff.com.

He broke the coach Mock story. He broke the Lars Tiffany story. Subscribers are paying $8 a month the price of a cup of coffee for 40 to 50 fresh pieces of content per month. There is no one that is reporting UVA sports like Jerry Rackleff at Jerry Rackleff.com, period. Bar done.

40 to 50 pieces of content per 30-day period at $8 a month. It is absolutely fantastic. Just in the past few weeks, we've written about football, basketball. You've written everything. Men's and women's. Softball, baseball, baseball,

golf, tennis, scooter boy, lacrosse, probably something else. I'm not surfacing right now. Everything. Economics, et cetera. So we try to cover it as well as we can. And we're taking the content and we're publishing it

and syndicating it on every social media platform possible. Yeah, it's out there. It's everywhere. I know some people... And look at the traffic. Yeah, our traffic is... Through the roof.

It's at an all-time high. It's blown away every record we ever had when we were a free site. And for those who don't understand why we're no longer a free site, it's purely economics. I depended on seven years through Adam. advertising to make a living. And the advertising world is not what it used to be. And so like most everybody in the world now, we've gone behind a paywall. And you can't work for free.

It doesn't pay the bills. So I hope you understand and hope that you will subscribe. And we truly appreciate it because it's not easy covering, the world of sports these days, and especially when you have to go on the road and cover them, it costs a lot of money. So thank you for your support, and we hope you continue to support. $8 a month, folks. I mean, it's the price of a cup of coffee. I just don't even understand any resistance at all. You can't go through McDonald's for $8. You can't do anything. No. $8 a month is not even $2, $2 gallons of gas. No, it's not. I mean, think about that.

that. Yeah. You're going to get a gallon and a half at that. Gallon in three quarters, maybe. I just don't even understand the resistance from anyone about getting stuff that no one else has from a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer that's got 50 years on the beat in institutional memory and institutional contacts. He's Jerry Rackleff, the namesake of Jerry Rackleff.com. Judah Wickhowers behind the camera. My name is Jerry Miller. This is the source of the source of anything UVA sports related, ladies and gentlemen. This is the most watched and listened to UVA sports talk show as well. I mean, you saw it again today. The I Love Seville show is up in 54 minutes, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for watching the show. So long.