On Monday, FootballScoop broke the news that Virginia Union fired head football coach Mark James, despite a 6-4 record this season and a 26-15 mark in the 4-year James era, including the program's first trip to the Division II playoffs in 24 years in 2015.
On Tuesday, a meeting between Virginia Union's AD and football players reportedly turned ugly. According to a report from WRIC-TV, Virginia Union AD Joe Taylor ripped into players' behavior as part of the program's issues. From the report:
According to multiple sources who were in the meeting, Taylor used “disrespectful” language to tell the players why the program was not headed in the right direction and needed a change. These sources claim Taylor called the players “[expletive] idiots” and “undisciplined thugs” and used other explicit language to describe their unacceptable behavior.
Taylor denied the claims. "Anybody that knows Joe Taylor knows that's not me." He did, however, criticize the players' behavior to the station, stating that he had heard reports of players using profanity in the classroom and disrespecting women on campus.
The subtext to all this is that Taylor's son, A.J., served as Virginia Union's running backs coach until last season. WRIC-TV reported A.J. Taylor was fired, but Joe Taylor stated his son resigned to take a position with the federal government in Washington, D.C.
Linebackers coach Mike Fanoga currently serves as Virginia Union's interim head coach, and the program hopes to have James's full-time replacement named by Dec. 15.