Former UVA football coach Bronco Mendenhall talked with Stanford about the open job there, but is now no longer in the running, according to The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel.
Mendenhall stepped down last December after six seasons at Virginia.
Mendenhall was 36-38 at UVA, building from a 2-10 season in Year 1, 2016, to get the program to the ACC Championship Game and an Orange Bowl berth in 2019.
He stepped down a few days after Virginia’s 29-24 loss to Virginia Tech in the 2021 regular-season finale, and insisted at the Dec. 2 press conference in which he detailed his reasons for leaving that it was his decision.
In the months since, it has emerged that there was some internal pressure on Mendenhall to make changes to his staff, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
The Virginia defense ranked 13th in the ACC and 122nd nationally in total defense, allowing 466.0 yards per game, which was a big reason that a record-breaking season for the offense could only translate to a 6-6 finish.
Mendenhall’s successor, Tony Elliott, hired former Air Force defensive coordinator John Rudzinski to overhaul the unit, and Rudzinski had immediate success – the Virginia D allowed 357.6 yards per game in 2022, seventh in the ACC and 44th nationally.
On the other side of the ball, the offense, under first-year offensive coordinator Des Kitchings, dropped off significantly from where the unit was in 2021.
The 2021 offense led the ACC and ranked third nationally, putting up 514.4 yards per game, but the 2022 unit averaged just 344.4 yards per game, 10th in the ACC and 102nd nationally, as Virginia finished 3-7.
Mendenhall’s name has come up with a number of job openings this fall, but the Stanford job is the first one that I know of that had him formally talking with a school.
He has made it clear over the past several months that he does intend to return to coaching, which would seem to reinforce the notion that has emerged since his departure from Virginia that he may have actually been forced out, or at the least given an ultimatum to make staff changes that he decided against making, and fell on his sword instead.
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