.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
Less than two weeks from the start of the Spiders' football season, the University of Richmond on Tuesday accepted the resignation of head coach Latrell Scott after he was arrested for driving while intoxicated, school officials said.
Athletic director Jim Miller said Scott called him in the morning after his Tuesday arrest, and the second-year coach later tendered his resignation. Meetings were held throughout the day and the decision was made to accept the letter, Miller said.
Offensive coordinator Wayne Lineburg will serve as interim head coach for the season, Miller said. The Spiders open at Duke a week from Saturday.
''It's tough,'' Miller said in a telephone interview Tuesday evening. ''It's obviously tougher on Latrell. It's a difficult situation for him, for sure.''
An arrest warrant for Scott said it was his second DWI offense within a 5-10 year period, according to the Henrico County courts website. Miller told reporters that he knew of the prior arrest and there was an understanding when Scott was hired that another such arrest would not be acceptable.
Phone calls to Scott's home in Midlothian, Va., and to his attorney, W. Joseph Owen of Midlothian, were not immediately returned Tuesday night.
The change comes as Scott was preparing for his second season. A former assistant at Richmond under Dave Clawson and at Virginia and Tennessee, Scott was hired in December 2009 when Mike London left to take the Virginia job. Then 34, Scott became one of the youngest head coaches in the country.
The Spiders finished 6-5 and missed the playoffs during an injury-riddled 2010 season in which they started four different quarterbacks.
Scott and his players vowed during the team's media day on Sunday that they would turn it around and get back to being the team that had become a regular in the FCS playoffs - including winning the national championship in 2008, during London's first year as head coach.
Miller said the resignation of Scott likely threw the team for a loop, but he expects them to bounce back.
''The quality of the student-athletes we have on the football team and the quality of the men we have coaching the program, I think if you talk to our players, they still have high expectations,'' Miller said. ''They're disappointed, obviously, but they're still excited about the coming year.''
Lineburg, 37, is entering his second season on the Richmond staff after three seasons on the offensive staff at Virginia. Lineburg also was at Richmond from 2004-06 as the offensive coordinator and running backs coach under Clawson.
