Even though he's the coach of my team's rival, I still have to respect Mike London, this year's ACC Coach of the Year. I first became aware of him during his final season at the University of Richmond (my wife's alma mater) shortly after he took that team to the FCS National Championship (something that my wife does rub in my face every once in a while when I start going on too long about "what-ifs" for VT to get to the title game). I was bummed when he left, but was even more bummed when he went to UVA, of all places, because Mike London is the kind of guy that you just can't hate and want to see do well.
Just check out the piece ESPN did on him during College Gameday and you can see how hard it is to not like the guy.
Of course, he can win any game he wants to, except during the last weekend of November (unless the ACC moves the rivalry game to a different weekend). So, congrats to him for making the VT/UVA game actually matter on the way to the ACC title game. That's a decent two year turnaround after Al Groh basically ruined the program.
I like that the ACC rewards teams that show a drastic improvement on and off the field, instead of just rewarding one of the coaches that reaches the championship game (although some years that could also be the case). There are a lot of good coaches in the ACC, but each of them faces different obstacles each year. As such, they can receive different rewards.
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