Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 31, 1993                   TAG: 9308310034
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NEW DEFENSIVE LINE COACH HAS TAKEN UVA BY STORM

Never mind the takeoff on assistant coach Larry New's name. This guy is definitely an original.

"[Teammate] Bill Curry said they called him `Big Dog' at Kentucky," junior Ryan Kuehl said. "From what I had heard, I envisioned this 300-pound bald-headed guy with tobacco juice trickling down his cheek. Aside from the bald head and the tobacco juice, that's pretty close.

"He's very flamboyant. He demands a lot from his players, he expects a lot and he gets it. On the practice field, he's like Hurricane Emily, with a lot of rain and 100 mile-per-hour winds."

Clearly, New has taken the UVa program by storm since arriving from Kentucky, where he was defensive coordinator for the past three years. He was replaced at Kentucky by Mike Archer, previously the UVa linebackers coach.

"It was almost like a trade," Kuehl said. "Taking nothing away from Coach Archer, but I think [the defensive line] we came off better in the deal. If I'm not mistaken, coach [Bob] Petchel was the only assistant responsible for four spots last year. Sometimes, it was all he could do to get us all on the field."

Defensive coordinator Rick Lantz has assumed Archer's linebacking duties, with Petchel concentrating on the defensive ends and New taking the tackles.

"Those two [Petchel and New] will make an interesting combination," defensive end Mike Frederick said. "New's a little bit of a wildman, but I think he's going to help toughen us up front. I don't think anybody's figured him out yet."

So much for any questions whether New, who recently turned 49, had lost any of his drive after 28 years of coaching. In that time he has coached defensive linemen at Missouri, Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky.

"Don't get the wrong impression," said Lantz, who has known New for more than 20 years. "He's not a big mover. He was with [head coach] Bill Curry at Georgia Tech and, when Bill went to Alabama and then Kentucky, Larry went with him. If Jim Carlen had stayed at South Carolina, [New] might still be there."

New had not been a defensive coordinator until he was elevated to that spot by Curry in 1990. It was not a pleasant experience as the Wildcats went 11-22 and finished the 1992 season with five consecutive losses.

Accounts have differed as to whether New was demoted or voluntarily resigned as coordinator.

"I made the decision at Kentucky," New said. "I had been with Bill for 11 years and that was not his decision. I did not feel I was getting the job done that needed to be done and, as the coordinator, I was the one that was accountable."

It was no sure thing that he would remain in coaching.

"I could have stayed there as a coach," New said, "[but] I don't think that's fair to the next coordinator. I was offered some opportunities immediately, but had the right situation not come along, I would have gotten out of coaching."

New was prepared to enter business with fathers of several of his ex-players when Lantz and Virginia head coach George Welsh contacted him.

"I was not tired of coaching," he said. "I was never tired or burned out, [but] I was not happy. When you spend the hours and energy on a profession that we do, you don't want to be miserable.

"I didn't get involved here till late February. Ever since December, I had been thinking about getting out of coaching, but this opportunity came up and I felt comfortable with it. I had coached in this league before and knew Coach Welsh was a proven winner."

The Cavaliers could not have gotten a defensive line coach with a more impressive resume. In his four-year stint at Arkansas, New's fellow assistants included future NFL coaches Jimmy Johnson, Joe Gibbs and Raymond Berry, as well as current Georgia Tech head coach Bill Lewis.

"It sure gives him a lot of credibility," Kuehl said. "He's always telling me things I've never heard before. If you do things his way, he lets you know it. If you don't, he really lets you know it."

The addition of New gives the Cavaliers a recruiting presence in Georgia that they previously lacked. He also spent time in Florida this past spring and has helped keep in touch with junior-college prospects.

"I was out for three straight weeks last spring and loved every minute of it," he said.

New will have some responsibility for special teams - "Any time you've been coaching 29 years, you've spent some time with special teams," he said - but it is the defensive tackles that will get most of his attention.

"There's a lot of ways to skin a cat," he said, "but if a guy is having trouble, we want to take a look at why he's having trouble. It's like I tell them, `Let me take you where you can't take yourself.' "

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