UVA football coach Bronco Mendenhall talks with reporters on Wednesday on the ACC coaches teleconference.
BRONCO MENDENHALL: It’s good to be with you and talking football again, and it’s really fun to be immersed in football right now. Our team is improving. We are making slow and steady steps toward building a program of significance and consistency. I like the culture, and I like the execution that’s starting to manifest, in addition to the culture, and I think we have the makings and the foundational element of what a good program might look like with time, which will be needed.
Q. Chris mentioned yesterday that it took him to about midway through last season to become the student of the game that he felt like he needed to be. What have you seen in terms of his preparation, skills improving, and then how has that improved his on-the-field performance?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: I agree with Chris’s assessment, which it’s fun always for a coach to hear something that is accurate in terms of his development. Most of us, when we self-assess, we’re not accurate, so it’s always fun to hear a player be on the right track.
Chris, his experience as a first-time starter and what that looked like, and I would say most of the cases for the eight and up to nine first-time starters on defense last year, so much of it came to what does the preparation of a college football player look like and what’s required just to perform in the game, let alone perform at a very, very high level and at an intuitive level, and about midway through, Chris started to grasp all, and Micah Kiser, I think, had a role in helping him with that, but he started to grasp not only is this additional time going to be necessary, but there’s a difference between spending your time and investing your time, and he started to learn more about the investment part and more specifically what are the detailed things he needed to be looking at, and it’s been fun to see this spring the players that played significant amounts last year, just how much more consistent and how much more detailed they’ve become than what they were a year ago, which is a necessary step for our program and for him personally.
Q. You mentioned accuracy of self-assessment; another thing that he said was he felt like he needed to get much better against the run in terms of setting the edge; would you agree?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, and I think that’s not only for Chris, but it’s something our defense could use in general and our outside backers are a huge part of that, and Chris has taken the biggest jumps from what he needed to do from a year ago to what he’s currently able to do, meaning that his assessment and our assessment to him he’s taken to heart and he’s improved it. So size and strength and physical play in relation to his performance on the edges of our defense has taken a significant jump from where it was a year ago and from where it was even maybe the last game of the season. That really is the fun part about having a developmental component of your program and having kids back for another year after you’ve worked with them once already.
Q. One of the guys who did not play significant minutes last year was Tim Harris because of his injury; you’ve talked about how much Malcolm Cook was able to grow in his understanding of the defense in your system, being on the sideline last year. Did you see similar growth from Tim, and how has he looked this spring kind of in a semi-limited role?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Sure. Yeah, so Tim Harris is a very unique story, and during the season last year, my relationship with Tim was different. That doesn’t mean less significant than the one with Malcolm, but it was different, and Tim, I wasn’t able — and my relationship wasn’t as strong to where I didn’t know how far — how much he was progressing while the season was going on. What has manifested, though, now, is after I’ve seen the off-season and this spring, wow, has he matured, meaning he’s much more physically resilient, physically tougher, with higher thresholds of pain tolerance and more mentally tough, meaning he just is able to handle so much more volume and so much more workload, and after putting him in tough and unique positions and him smiling and going through it, where a year ago and when we first got here, literally his threshold for fatigue and/or drama was really low. So that part, he’s been remarkable to me in transforming himself into steady, durable and consistent, because he’s already very fast and very tall and an excellent cover player, and we would have loved to have had him a year ago as we lost two or three corners, as you know, early in the year.
I’ve been most impressed not only with the physical ability. I already knew about that. But his, again, durability and consistency and resiliency. Those things to me were things that needed to be addressed for him to be an exceptional player, and that’s, I think, what’s starting to happen.
Q. Kurt it seems like from the practices we’ve seen it seems has taken about 99.9 percent of the reps. I assume that’s because of lack of other options, things like that, but have you had a quarterback like that or a spring like that where the No. 1 quarterback has gotten that much action, and how much is that by design, and how much has he benefitted from that?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, it’s partly by design and partly by need, and certainly he’s benefitted immensely because of that. We have a first-year quarterback in our system in De’Vante Cross, who’s a dual-threat quarterback, and you’re right, 99 percent is probably close. I won’t give you the exact percentage, but it’s probably close to what the real percentage is.
We have a transfer quarterback coming from the University of Missouri that has two years remaining, and we’re also playing De’Vante Cross at wide receiver in addition to some of his quarterback duties.
I’ll let the plan kind of speak for itself there. We also have a very, very good first-year quarterback coming in in Lindell Stone, and so the succession planning at that position, it very well could be Kurt and then Marvin Zanders coming in with two years remaining and then a great first year coming in and De’Vante possibly playing a role at quarterback and possibly playing a role as receiver. Having said that, Kurt is throwing the ball very, very well, he’s making very good decisions, and he’s improved his game from a decision making and game management standpoint. I would say significantly he’s trending upward, and he’s healthy, and he’s more fit.
So significant progress, which needed to happen; significant improvement, which needed to happen, and I’m comfortable with what I’ve seen from him this spring, and I really like the direction he’s going.
Q. And just as a follow up, I think one of the first plays he had yesterday in that scrimmage situation, he went 30 yards to the end zone and I think he said afterward was that was maybe something he couldn’t do last year. Have you seen him be different in that way, his mobility, maybe his possibility presence, because he’s removed now from the injury, he’s lost some weight, things like that?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, he’s lost weight, about 18 pounds. His body fat — he’s just very lean, so all of those things are helpful. I think the most impressive or the most significant factor, and I think any coach or any player that’s had an ACL recognizes this, when you’re cleared to play, it doesn’t necessarily mean mentally that you believe you’re ready to play, and there’s a confidence level that comes with time and consistency, and so Kurt was not able to escape or elude defensive linemen or any rushers a year ago, and as a result took more hits than what we would have liked him to as our protection was struggling here and there. So he is able to extend the plays longer than he was a year ago. He’s able to get out of the pocket and at least find a receiver that might have broken free and the defensive back didn’t plaster on, but he just looks more fit and healthy mentally, as well, in relation to his confidence and his ability to move. It’s just one more year of progress, and time helps, and so I think that’s the easiest answer, what you and I are both seeing.
Q. When you met with us in December, you talked about the graduate transfer process, that there were a couple times during the year, including the spring, when players made decisions like that. You’ve lost a couple players recently. Are you hearing from graduate transfers now, still hearing from them, and would you entertain that possibility for the next couple weeks?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: So the answer is yes, we are hearing from them. I received two releases just yesterday, and so again, in the world of college football, there’s that time frame after exit interviews after a season. That kind of initiates one cycle. And then there’s a cycle at the end of spring at the end of exit interviews where a player who might have thought his role would be increased doesn’t find it necessarily so, and/or just a system change, a coaching change, something then just promotes not the fulfilling experience that a player was looking for.
At this point, it’s unlikely for me to entertain any other graduate transfers. I feel good about our current players that we’ve signed.
Now, after the end of our spring game, which is this upcoming Saturday and exit interviews complete, based then on if a player or two still chooses to move on, I won’t rule it out, but I’d say it’s unlikely at this point.
Q. The assistant head coach and defensive line coach, Ruffin McNeill, obviously you’re wanting to bring him onto the staff last year. What do you take from him and what he’s done as an assistant coach on your staff at this point.
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, Ruffin McNeill is possibly the best human being that I’ve ever been around in the world of coaching. He’s compassionate, he’s caring, he’s insightful, he’s wise, and he’s just genuine and authentic and has the players and the program and his colleagues’ best interest at heart. He just is — he was one of the first to be integrated in his high school. His parents were the first to teach in integrated schools, and he has amazing life experiences from cropping tobacco when he was a young man to about every kind of experience you can imagine, and he has a way to connect with young people that’s unlike anything that I’ve seen. And he’s so much fun to be around. But he’s also so wise, and he has head coaching experience.
For myself, he and I are different personalities but are united in purpose, so with Coach Ruff, I have the ability to cast a broader net across our team in connecting to players and having our message delivered just simply by unique personality differences between us, and I love that complement. I cherish every single day that I get to be with him. He’s an amazing person, and I couldn’t imagine actually coaching now without him. He’s just so, so much fun to be around, and anyone that would be lucky enough for their son to play for him, man, I would jump at that chance, and that would be if he was at UVA or not. I would just hope there’s more men in coaching like him, and I feel fortunate he’s with me.
Q. On the recruiting trail, what can you say about how much of a tool he is, like you said, in that any son would love to go out there and play for him, what you can say about what he does on the recruiting trail.
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, he has this amazing saying that real recognizes real, and recruiting unfortunately in today’s world of college football, and there will be some offended by this, they’re not real, and they’re skilled at not being real, and unfortunately it hurts the players because they arrive at places that their experience is different than what they thought. Ruff is very, very good at saying exactly how it’s going to be, and then players wanting to do and be with him knowing that, and he says things like, I’m going to coach you hard but I’m going to love you harder, and it comes across in this way where they know both, holy cow, this is going to be tough, but he does really care, and he’s able to attract players that want that that I couldn’t attract personally without his help, and I think he’s just — I think he really is just exceptional in every day, not only from a schematic standpoint. I’ve already talked about the personal standpoint but the recruiting standpoint, and I use him more as another head coach on the road than more of that of an assistant and finder.
And so I work hard to leverage him and use him in the right way that fits his skill set and his maturity and his credentials.
Q. I know when you’re trying to build a program, one of the slow burns of doing that is trying to get the offensive line where you need it to be, just because it’s hard to get those guys in ACC shape overnight. As much as you guys kind of had to work with that last year, how much different has it felt this spring, and how close do you feel like that unit is to being where you want it to be?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, we’re not close yet, and I would love to say there was a significant jump from the season to the spring, but our forces are coming in the fall, and so, wow, fall camp is going to look different. We committed eight players including three grad transfers in our first class, which is the ’17 class coming in. We’ll go after at least seven probably the next two classes after this. Most times there’s a coaching change, two positions I think are of primary importance to that change that have led to the change. One is the quarterback and two is the offensive line, and I think we’re no different, and so we still have tons of work to do in terms of the talent acquisition and workforce planning to get the succession right for playing with the current group of players and developing others and the numbers and the quality of players that we need, and so we’re working on innovation and different things to use the players we have, but currently, like a lot of teams in the spring, we’re not in place, at least in our current stage of the program, where we’ll be able to divide up for spring into two separate teams that play against each other. We’ll get to that point somewhere along my tenure here, but right now what we have is very similar to what we had in the fall, and I don’t see a significant difference coming until fall camp when our new players arrive.
Q. Talk about the three graduates on your offensive line. You have three players that came from different colleges. Talk a little bit about them, the graduate transfers?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, so we have three graduate transfers coming at the offensive line. It’s not an accident that we targeted, number one, that many and at that position. It’s one of the biggest holes we have to fill in our program currently to provide the stability and the progress that we’re going to need, and so we have two players actually coming from Notre Dame, which I’m excited about, Colin McGovern, which was a starter for Notre Dame most of the season. I like his versatility. Played guard, we think he can play guard or tackle for us. A second team player for Notre Dame in John Montelus, who we like his athleticism, and we think he could play a role for us and get an opportunity that he did not have there but certainly could have for us, and we have another player coming from Oklahoma State, Brandon Pertile, which we knew about at Brigham Young University, recruited him, he then chose Oklahoma State, but we have a great relationship with him as an offensive tackle prospect. For us it gives us a great chance to immediately improve our program with some players with experience and maturity at positions of need while we also develop younger players, and it’s great for the players. They’ll get a graduate degree from UVA, which is an amazingly important step on their résumé, but they also were able to help our football program. I like the idea at this current place where I am and where we are at the University of Virginia for this thing to work and work well maybe for the next couple of years at a few key positions.
Q. You’re in the second season there in Charlottesville. What did you learn from your first season down there and is there a lot of stuff you’ve got to improve on?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, totally. Every area of the program in taking over isn’t in the exact same spot that I thought coming in, the amount of work that it’s going to take is something that I’m invigorated by, but it’s going to take everything myself and my staff has within the time frame that we all want to win and have success in, and so it’s just simply the perspective of not only what we currently have, what the ACC looks like, and what it’s going to take to accomplish our goals. We’re much more clear now of what has to happen now that we’ve seen a point of reference, an entire year’s body of work. So excited, invigorated, and absolutely know it’s possible, but also it’s going to be difficult, challenging, and we’ve got to get our roster managed correctly so we can practice and have enough depth to where we can develop the team the way we want.
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