Mike London

The Cavaliers finished the season ranked 6th in the nation in sacks with 40, and allowed the 19th-fewest rushing yards (106.7 yds/game) and the 16th-fewest points against (19.7/game) on the way to a 9-win season and a narrow loss to Texas Tech and Heisman Trophy candidate Michael Crabtree in the Gator Bowl.

Michael Wilson London Sr. (born October 9, 1960) is an American college football coach.

He is the head football coach for the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

He is a former defensive back and associate head coach and defensive line coach for the University of Maryland, College Park.

Prior to Maryland, London was the head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers football program of the University of Virginia.

Prior to William & Mary, London was head coach of the Howard Bison football program at Howard University in Washington, D.C. A native of the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, London played college and pro football as a defensive back for the Richmond Spiders and Dallas Cowboys.

He was a police officer and detective in Richmond, Virginia with the city's street crimes unit before pursuing a coaching career.

He has served in various coaching roles with Richmond, William & Mary, Boston College, and Virginia, as well as the Houston Texans.

Following the season, London enjoyed a strong recruiting class, pulling in what is widely regarded as UVA's best (and largest) recruiting class since Groh's first full season in 2002.

In 2006, London was named by Virginia coach Al Groh as the team's new defensive coordinator to replace Al Golden.

Virginia's defense under London was much more aggressive than it was under Golden.

Allowing just 289.5 yards per game, the Virginia defense under London gave up fewer yards than any Virginia defense had in the past 27 years.

London developed first year defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald, who by the end of the season had more tackles than any other freshman in the country.

The next year his defense was perhaps even better given the scope of the UVA football program.

A highlight of this season was when Virginia was scheduled to play the Miami Hurricanes in the last game ever in the legendary Miami Orange Bowl.

The Virginia defense, under the supervision of London, dominated the 'Canes and Virginia won, 48–0.

It was Miami's worst loss at the Orange Bowl in their 70 years of playing there.

At the end of the season, lineman Chris Long won the Ted Hendricks Award and was drafted second overall in the 2008 NFL Draft.

On January 19, 2008, Mike London was named the head coach of the Richmond Spiders.

Previous coach Dave Clawson had left to become the offensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee.

Sixteen starters returned from a team that Clawson had taken to the semifinals of the FCS Football Championship playoffs.

Soon after opening the season with a loss to Football Bowl Subdivision team Virginia 16–0, the team suffered heartbreaking losses to the James Madison Dukes and Villanova Wildcats by a touchdown or less.

After the JMU loss, London's team stood at 4–3.

The 2008 Spiders would not lose another game.

They rattled off nine straight victories including last-minute heroics against the William & Mary Tribe and Northern Iowa Panthers, a 33–13 dismantling of the heavily favored Appalachian State Mountaineers in Kidd Brewer Stadium, and culminating with a 24–7 blowout victory against the Montana Grizzlies in the NCAA Championship Game.

In his first season, the University of Richmond had earned its first national championship in any sport.

On September 5, 2009, Richmond upset the Duke Blue Devils of the Atlantic Coast Conference, 24–16, on their home turf in Wallace Wade Stadium.

After beginning the 2009 campaign 8–0 and riding a streak of 17 straight wins, the Richmond Spiders became only the third FCS team ever to receive a vote in the AP Poll (after Northern Iowa in 2007, and Appalachian State later in the same season).

Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the Spiders their AP Top 25 vote for the week of November 2.

The Spiders won the CAA regular season, but lost in the Quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament to Appalachian State.

Just two days later, Mike London was announced as head football coach at the University of Virginia on December 7, 2009.

Following the termination of Al Groh, London was hired to coach the Virginia Cavaliers and initially awarded a five-year contract paying $1.7 million per year.

He is the third African-American head football coach in the ACC, behind Wake Forest's Jim Caldwell and Miami's Randy Shannon.

He is also the second African-American head coach of a major sport at Virginia; the first was former men's basketball coach Dave Leitao.

In London's first season with Virginia, his Cavaliers went 4–8, with two wins coming against I-FCS opponents.

The best win of the season was over then-#22 Miami.

His most notable roles have come as defensive coordinator and later head coach at the University of Virginia, head coach at Howard University where in 2017 he coached his team to the largest point spread upset victory in college football history, and previously as head coach at the University of Richmond, where his team won the NCAA Division I Football Championship in 2008.

First hired as a linebacker coach at the University of Richmond, Mike London later coached the defensive line at the College of William & Mary, Boston College, the Houston Texans of the National Football League, and the University of Virginia, twice.

London worked closely with St. Louis Rams defensive end Chris Long while he played for the Virginia Cavaliers.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Long would later say of London, "when you get a coach who matches your intensity and emotion, you can just look at that person and know that at some level that coach is going to be with you through the thick and the thin."