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One of this morning’s first e-mails came from former Charlottesville sports reporter and rivals.com honcho Andrew Joyner, who wanted to know the identity of Virginia’s next defensive coordinator.

I think a lot of people had the same question when they heard that 65-year-old Bob Pruett was retiring.

They needed to read the fine print.

At the time of the announcement Wednesday that he was retiring for good, Pruett was the Cavaliers’ assistant head coach for defense.

That had been his title since Dec. 8, when head coach Al Groh announced a series of changes that involved assistants Mike Groh, Steve Bernstein and Levern Belin “stepping down” from their positions.

That was the big news of the day, but the news release also indicated that linebackers coach Bob Diaco would become the Cavaliers’ new defensive coordinator and that Pruett would serve as assistant head coach/defense.

In rereading the release today, I noticed that there was no indication whether Diaco would or would not remain as linebackers coach.

Al Groh has served as de-facto linebackers coach since the 2005 Music City Bowl, when the departure of assistants Al Golden, Ron Prince and Danny Rocco left the Cavaliers short-staffed.

Diaco also was  the Cavaliers’ special-teams coordinator, so, if Groh wanted to devote special attention to the linebackers, he wasn’t really interfering. Diaco had enough to do.

Now, Diaco has even more to do, although there’s a chance that somebody else will get the special teams.

But, just take a look at UVa’s defensive staff as presently constituted.

Diaco, the first-year coordinator, turns 36 next Thursday.

Anthony Poindexter, 32, was an All-America safety as a player for the Cavaliers who will coach the secondary for the first time this year after working with the running backs since 2004.

New defensive-line coach Chad Wilt, 30, has five years’ experience in the Groh version of the 3-4 defense but was a Cavaliers’ graduate assistant as late as 2005.

Compare that to the Cavaliers’ 2008 defensive staff, which had Pruett and 64-year-old Steve Bernstein.

Pruett and Bernstein both had backgrounds coaching in the secondary, so I’m thinking that turning that group over to Poindexter might be a little much in his first year as a defensive coach.

I offered that opinion to Pruett on Wednesday and he didn’t disagree with me.

So, here’s what I’d do. I’d move Bob Price back to the secondary, his original area of expertise, and bring back Danny Wilmer, 61, to take over the tight ends from Price.

Wilmer coached the tight ends under former coach George Welsh and recruited the Tidewater area where Pruett was so well-received and signed seven players this year. If Pruett could still have an impact as a recruiter at 65, so would Wilmer.

Does it need to be said that Wilmer signed the likes of Shawn Moore, Thomas Jones, Tiki and Ronde Barber, Mark Dixon, Ray Roberts, etc., etc.?

There are readers of this column who have grown tired of the Wilmer references. I can’t say that I would expect Groh to go down that path. He had the opportunity once before, when he took over as coach in 2001, but got so many mixed messages in exit interviews with the Welsh staff that he didn’t keep anyone but Price.

He also might think that a Diaco-Poindexter-Wilt-Price might require too much Groh intervention. Can Diaco coach the linebackers and be the defensive coordinator? Maybe not in Year One.

You can’t really take away Diaco’s coordinator title at this point, so how do you woo another Bob Pruett? The title of assistant head coach for defense might not excite some people but a $250,000 salary and a multi-year contract might.

New offensive coordinator Gregg Brandon is signed for more than one year, not surprisingly given the insecurity that comes from two losing seasons in three years.

Pruett didn’t come to Virginia as a 3-4 guy, but, from all indications, he and Groh were a good match. UVa had a pretty good defense last year and Groh won’t want to change that.

He does have recruiting to consider, too. Wilt recruited the Tidewater area while he was at Liberty and Price recruited South Hampton Roads until this year. With the inroads made this year at Chesapeake’s Oscar Smith High School, which returns the state’s No. 1-ranked junior in quarterback Phillip Sims, any indecisiveness would be dangerous.

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