CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 SPORTS) -- Few have been around Virginia football longer than Clint Sintim besides longtime video coordinator Luke Goldstein, who surprised Sintim with a throwback at practice one day.

"Coach Sintim is like, 'Hey, how do I pull up YouTube? How do I pull up YouTube right here?'" junior linebacker Lex Long said, giving his best Sintim impression, "Luke comes up, runs over there and while he's talking to us, Luke's pulling up YouTube, he's pulling up Clint Sintim highlights of him in the NFL and we all recognize that, we all see that Clint Sintim is an NFL-caliber guy."

Sintim was an All-ACC linebacker for UVA, also winning ACC Defensive Freshman of the Year in 2005 and received All-American honors in 2008. Now the linebackers coach at his alma mater, sophomore linebacker Stevie Bracey could recite his coach's accomplishments off the top of his head because of his own curiosity.

"I knew a bit about Coach Sintim and he talks about Chris Long a lot and I decided to look up both of them and once I looked that up I called my dad immediately and was like 'So, this is the guy coaching me?' because he doesn't really talk about it a lot," Bracey said.

At a recent dinner over at Sintim's house was another reminder of his brief run in the NFL with the New York Giants.

"We had dinner at his house and he just ironically had the Super Bowl ring just sitting around," Bracey said, "So, he knew what he was doing with that one."

Hard to believe, but four years after returning to Virginia as the defensive line coach on Bronco Mendenhall's staff, Sintim is now the longest-tenured coach on Tony Elliott's staff and one of two alumni, along with defensive ends coach Chris Slade.

"I think there's a responsibility to be able to carry that flag," Sintim said, "I'm on a group thread with about 30 coaches and about 28 of them are graduates from the University of Virginia and I know a lot of them would want to be here in the position that I'm in, so I don't take that for granted."

In year two under Elliott, Sintim has grown even more comfortable around the McCue Center. Elliott says Sintim is no longer "looking over his shoulder" and his personality and humor has started to come out.

"If you spend any time around him, you know, he's a big imposing guy, probably not the first person you're just going to walk up to and start a conversation with," Elliott said about Sintim, "But when he starts to talk you realize there's a lot of depth to this guy, he's got a great spirit."

When Elliott first put together his staff, he kept Sintim and other UVA alums on board to act as "living, breathing examples" to the players in the program.

"The reason we're here is to build champion men and when you look at Coach Sintim, he's a champion man," defensive tackles coach Kevin Downing said, "So they got a real living breathing example for them."

Not only are Sintim and Slade the only two alumni on the coaching staff, but also the only two from Virginia. Sintim has become an asset on the recruiting trail, especially around the state.

"I'm amazed every time I hear him talk about the institution and just what it means to him," Elliott said, "So I learned so much about the University of Virginia just by observing him on recruiting visits when he's talking to recruits and families."

Sintim says he and his family are happy at UVA and Elliott has noticed his assistant bringing the family around more often. The former All-American Cavalier proudly carries the flag for his alma mater on Grounds and on the recruiting trail.

"When you go to these schools and you speak about the University of Virginia," Sintim said, "I speak with passion about this university because it's been such a great place for me and I think our young men who come through here grow and mature and they leave the UVA experience a lot differently than when they came in."