Mike London is upbeat about his uphill battle to rebuild Howard University football
By Harry Minium | The Virginian-Pilot
Mike London, pictured at the MEAC football media luncheon in Norfolk, is optimistic entering his first season as Howard University's football coach.
Keith Srakocic | The Associated Press
Virginia head coach Mike London works his team during an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015 in Pittsburgh.
By Harry Minium The Virginian-Pilot
Updated 20 min ago
NORFOLK
As a RICHMOND police detective, Mike London escaped death only by chance. He was working an undercover beat, wearing a beard, long hair and an earring when he jumped into a van full of young men suspected of pulling off a series of robberies.
A juvenile put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. The gun jammed. That’s the only reason London is alive today.
In 2003, when London’s daughter, Ticynn, was 7, she was suffering from a rare genetic blood disorder called Fanconi anemia. Without a bone marrow transplant, she would almost certainly die, doctors said, adding there was one chance in 10,000 that Mike London’s bone marrow would match hers.
He beat the odds, donated bone marrow to her at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and his daughter is now a senior at Old Dominion University.
London, a Hampton native and graduate of Bethel High School, has seven children and two grandchildren. He won a Football Championship Subdivision national title at Richmond in 2008. He’s mentored hundreds of football players who have become successful businessmen and fathers.
So don’t feel sorry for him that he didn’t quite cut it as head coach at the University of Virginia, where he was fired in 2015 after winning just 27 games in six seasons.
Wins and losses don’t mean nearly as much to London as life and death and family.
“I had a great time at U.Va.,” he said Friday. “I was very blessed in many ways there.
“But more important than anything else that happened there, my daughter is living. Whatever went on there, she’s a senior and I was the donor.”
At that point, his voice trailed off as he choked up with tears, as it often does when he speaks of Ticynn.
Nearly two years after being fired at U.Va., London is starting over again as a coach at a very different level.
He was safely ensconced as Maryland’s associate head coach with a salary and guaranteed bonuses of $400,000 this season. Then officials from Howard University called and asked him to come help the Bison rebuild one of the MEAC’s worst programs.
It was a hard sell. He would take a big pay cut, although severance from U.Va. would help. Howard has had just one winning season in the past 12. The Bison have gone 1-10 three times and 2-9 twice. Their facilities are ancient, including a stadium that hasn’t seen a significant refurbishment in decades.
But he was intrigued by the school’s academics – Howard is ranked by some publications as the nation’s best historically black college – and its location in urban Washington. And after wresting some concessions, including a promise to begin upgrading facilities, he took the job.
On Friday morning, dressed smartly with a Howard tie and pin on his lapel at MEAC media day at the Waterside Marriott Hotel, London was upbeat even though coaches picked the Bison to finish ninth out of 11 teams.
He’s assembled one of the MEAC’s most distinguished coaching staffs, one that includes former U.Va. and ODU assistant coach Chip West, former U.Va. assistant Vince Brown and his son, Michael Jr. Last winter, the staff quickly pieced together a 23-player recruiting class that was ranked first in the MEAC by recruiting services.
Recruiting was always a strong point for London, who dominated in that department in South Hampton Roads when he was at U.Va.
Asked about his record at Virginia, London said he prefers to look forward and not back.
But suffice it to say, his hands were tied by the school’s administration. The Cavaliers played an unrealistically difficult non-conference schedule that included UCLA, Notre Dame and Boise State in his last season.
Perhaps worse were the controls administrators placed on the hiring of assistants, especially his offensive and defensive coordinators, who were hand-picked by others.
He doesn’t have an indoor practice facility nor much of a TV profile at Howard, but at least he has a free hand to run his program the way he thinks it should be run.
“It’s critical when you’re assembling a staff that you have complete autonomy, that you can choose people you know, people you trust, people you’ve been involved with in good times and in bad,” he said, when asked about his Howard staff.
“I love Virginia,” he added. “It’s where my daughter played basketball for Debbie Ryan. It’s where my brother, Paul, played football.
“I won’t say anything negative about them because a lot of positive things came out of my time there. I wish them all of the success in the world.”
London surely winced when he saw the schedule he inherited. The Bison open with Football Bowl Subdivision games at UNLV and Kent State before travelling to FCS powerhouse Richmond, where he will be reunited with so many friends.
UR head coach Ron Huesman was defensive coordinator under London on that 2008 national championship team.
”Going back to Richmond will be a surreal moment,” he said.
London said he’s approaching his first season at Howard with all the vigor he had at U.Va.
“Being a role model, a mentor to young men and particularly to African American men at Howard, that’s what God has for me right now,” he said.
“Irregardless of records, I hope that we’ll be known for doing things the right way, for our character, for letting young men know they’re going to be fathers and employees and CEOs much longer than they’re going to be football players.
“I’m OK with where I am. I embrace it. I’m still energetic and passionate. You can have a life of significance or a life of success. I’d rather have a life of significance. I’d choose that every time.”
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Howard University running back Anthony Philyaw was selected as the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, while South Carolina State linebacker Darius Leonard was selected as the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
All votes were submitted by the MEAC’s 11 head football coaches and sports information directors.
A 2016 All-MEAC First teamer, Philyaw was the MEAC’s second-leading rusher last fall with 1,230 yards and nine touchdowns on 222 attempts. Philyaw averaged 123 yards per game and 5.5 yards per carry with his longest run spanning 68 yards. He ranked second in scoring touchdowns (9) and second in all-purpose yardage (144.5 ypg) en route to earning MEAC Player of the Week honors once. Philyaw had the highest single-game rushing output in the MEAC last fall with a 281-yard performance versus Delaware State as he was named STATS FCS Player of the Week. The Los Angeles, Calif. native also had 234 yards versus Monmouth along with four additional 100-yard outings, including 112 yards versus Rutgers of the Big 10 Conference.
2017 MEAC Football All-Conference Preseason Teams
First Team Offense
First Team Defense
Second Team Offense
Second Team Defense
Third Team Offense
Third Team Defense
Offensive Player of the Year: Anthony Philyaw, Howard
