UVA football coach Bronco Mendenhall brutally honest about his team in presentation
BY SAM BLUM Charlottesville Daily Progress ·43 minutes ago
Virginia football coach Bronco Mendenhall believes that only about one-third of the players on the Cavaliers' current roster are ACC-caliber football players.
"I believe we have 27 ACC-caliber football players on our roster today," Mendenhall said.
Mendenhall made the frank comment, and many more, during an unscheduled U.Va. Board of Visitors speech on Friday morning. He dubbed it a "State of the Program" address, noting that he preferred to relay his philosophy directly as opposed to going through, in his words, an unreliable press.
Mendenhall spoke very candidly for about 27 minutes on a number of topics relating to his football team and his coaching philosophy.
Other topics that came up:
Scheduling
"I want to play the worst power-five team that we can play," Mendenhall said, emphasizing the word 'worst' as he said it. "That's what the ACC requires, you have to play one other power-five [team in nonconference play].
"I want to find the worst one we can play, so we can get another win."
As it stands now, Virginia has several difficult nonconference games on its future schedule. The Cavaliers will finish a series with Indiana this season, and will play at Notre Dame in 2019, face Georgia in 2020 in Atlanta, and have games against BYU and Illinois the year after.
"I don't want to go to Boise," Mendenhall said, referring to a game at Boise State on last year's schedule. "I don't want to go to UCLA, I don't want to go to Oregon. I don't want to go back to BYU. I'd rather them come here and lose."
ACC teams currently play eight conference games and four nonconference games. Included in those nonconference games is one mandatory game against a power-five conference opponent. That's the game Mendenhall said he hopes is "the worst one we can play.
In addition, for the three other games "I want to find three other games that are close and beatable."
Cavs were 'hopeless' when he arrived
The very first team meeting that Mendenhall had after becoming the head coach at Virginia was not one that he remembers fondly.
"I've never been more sad in my life," Mendenhall said. "These players were despondent, dejected and in despair. And the best players were on the verge of quitting. They could not and would not make eye contact.
"They sat with body language that reflected lack of confidence, lack of desire and hopelessness."
He spoke about how some players on the current roster were three years old the last time Virginia beat Virginia Tech, which was in 2003.
"The narrative for the in-state player, which are the hardest to get currently, when they choose Penn State, they are praised for it. When they choose Clemson, they are praised for it. If they choose Ohio State, that's celebrated," Mendenhall said. "When they say they're coming to Virginia - these are the best players - the first question is, 'How come? They don't value football.' That is the perception. And that is the recent history."
Mendenhall noted that the perception is slightly more positive for out-of-state recruits, who are often told about the high-caliber academic reputation of the university.
"The entire first year was nothing other than building habits of individual capability," Mendenhall said, lamenting the team he had to work with in his first season. "It had nothing to do with football, as you saw on the field.
"If you were in business, it would be less than taking over a start-up. It would be a program that was in bankruptcy. Then you build to start-up level. Year 1 just got us barely to start-up level."
Postseason ambitions
Mendenhall believes that it's "likely" his team returns to postseason play this upcoming season.
"What I'm interested in saying is, 'Where are we now?'" Mendenhall said, noting he isn't interested in an autopsy of why it's taken 13 years for consecutive postseason berths. "It is possible, and I would venture to say it's likely that that happens. That, in year three, we're back-to-back in postseason play."
It's been 13 years since the Cavaliers have played in bowl games in back-to-back years, but the third-year U.Va. head coach believes it will happen in 2018.
"It will be a stretch goal," Mendenhall said, comparing it to a vertical jump drill the team does in workouts. "It takes everything you have and you're reaching for the next tier. That would be the equivalent of that stretch goal for us."
Talent level
As the roster stands, there are 81 active players on Virginia's football roster, meaning Mendenhall feels that two-thirds of the players on the roster, as presently constructed, are not ACC-caliber.
"We have 85 scholarships to give," Mendenhall said. "That means that with our [recruiting class of 2018] arriving, that we think that number [of ACC-caliber players] will jump to the mid-40s this year."
Mendenhall said by the time the 2019 recruiting class arrives, he'll have "65-ish" ACC-caliber players.
"By the time [the Class of 2020] comes, we will have 85 ACC-caliber players," Mendenhall said. "In the meantime, my job is that I relish and I'm lucky to have to show a trend upward through success and winning with the existing resources we have - through motivation, culture and innovation."
Mendenhall also mentioned that his team played 17 freshmen last season, which was the fourth-most in the nation, he said. Mendenhall said he chose to honor the commitments of every player that was awarded a scholarship by former head coach Mike London, but that only one-third of those players remain with the program.
