Welsh honored by enshrinement, but says 'I'm flunking retirement'

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) Former Virginia football coach George Welsh will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in South Bend, Ind. Then he&#39;ll go home to Charlottesville and try again to find a coaching job for next season.<br> <br> ``I guess you could say I&#39;m flunking retirement,&#39;&#39; the 71-year-old Welsh said.<br> <br> Welsh stepped down after 19 seasons as Virginia&#39;s coach in 2000, citing health concerns that included tightness in his chest brought on by the stress of coaching.<br> <br> But as he finally nears the end of a nearly 18-month celebration of his enshrinement, he admits he&#39;s still looking to return to the sidelines as an assistant either in the NFL or at a Division I-A program that isn&#39;t in a rebuilding mode.<br> <br> ``I&#39;m looking for something to do for three or four more years,&#39;&#39; he said.<br> <br> In the interim, Welsh attends most Virginia home football games, still gets a lot of phone calls from acquaintances in the business looking for input on coaching candidates or other help and chuckles about the events that brought him here.<br> <br> It was 1982, and Welsh had engineered a turnaround of the football program at Navy, going 55-46-1 in nine seasons and leading the Midshipmen to three bowl games.<br> <br> Weary of the stress of recruiting to the academy and ready to move on, the former assistant coach at Penn State was caught off guard by what faced him when he arrived at Virginia to take over a program that had come to be derided as the ``Cadavaliers.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> ``I underestimated the negativity in this state toward the Virginia football program,&#39;&#39; he said. ``They didn&#39;t think it was ever going to get done. I also underestimated the thing about the facilities. ... The facilities here were horrible, and we had to overcome that. It was harder than I thought it was going to be.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> It also almost ended a lot faster than Welsh expected after his first two teams were a combined 8-14 and his third team lost its season opener 55-0 to Clemson.<br> <br> ``I don&#39;t think I would have made it here if we hadn&#39;t had a good team in &#39;84 and went to the Peach Bowl,&#39;&#39; he said of the team that went 7-0-1 in its next eight games, finished 8-2-2 overall and made its first bowl appearance, beating Purdue 27-24.<br> <br> ``There were a lot of high school coaches that told me we finally made them believe we could win, and that helped us recruit after that,&#39;&#39; Welsh said.<br> <br> The Cavaliers had only one more losing season in Welsh&#39;s final 16 years at the helm, went to 11 more bowl games and made him the winningest coach in Atlantic Coast Conference history. His 134-86-3 mark included 80 victories against ACC opponents.<br> <br> The class going into the hall this weekend also included longtime Brigham Young coach LaVell Edwards, along with players that include punter Ray Guy from Southern Mississippi, quarterback Joe Kapp from California, safety Jack Tatum from Ohio State and running back Lydell Mitchell, who Welsh recruited to and coached at Penn State.<br> <br> ``It&#39;s tough to put into words,&#39;&#39; Welsh said of the honor. ``Obviously I&#39;m very flattered. It&#39;s been almost a year and a half since I was notified, so it&#39;s kind of warn off in a lot of ways. ... I guess you could say finally it&#39;s sunken in.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)