Home Game Notes: UVA hosts Richmond Saturday in season opener
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Game Notes: UVA hosts Richmond Saturday in season opener

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Virginia vs. Richmond • #URvsUVA
Date/Time Sat., Sept. 3, 2016 | 3:30 p.m.
Location Charlottesville, Va. | Scott Stadium (61,500)
Television ACC Network Extra
Radio Virginia Sports Radio Network |
Satellite Radio — Sirius 134 | XM 201
Multimedia Gametracker | WatchESPN
Twitter @UVA_Football | @UVACoachBronco | @VirginiaSports
Game Notes Virginia | Richmond | ACC | UVA Depth Chart
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2015 Season Stats |
Coach Mendenhall Weekly Press Conference Transcript

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UVA Opens 127th Season of Football
• The University of Virginia opens its 127th season of
football Saturday against Richmond.
• Richmond is ranked No. 4 in the nation in the preseason FCS poll.
• It is the 86th season the Cavaliers have played in Scott Stadium.
• UVA is 80-37-9 (.676) all-time in season openers.
• The Cavaliers are 74-20-7 (.767) in home season openers and have won 17 of their last 21 season openers in Scott Stadium.
• In his career as a head coach, Bronco Mendenhall is 8-3 in 11 season-openers. His last loss in a season opener came in 2013 at Scott Stadium (19-16) to Virginia, snapping a streak of six straight season-opening wins.
The Mendenhall Era Officially Begins
Bronco Mendenhall makes his Virginia coaching debut Saturday. He is the 40th head coach in program history.
• Virginia coaches are 28-9-2 in the first game of their UVA head coaching career.

Virginia vs. Richmond, CAA
• Virginia owns a 28-2-2 edge in the all-time series with Richmond. UVA has won the last 10 meetings, including a 45-13 win the last time these teams met in 2014.
• Richmond’s last win in the series came in 1946, a 19-7 victory in Richmond.
• The Cavaliers own a 58-9-3 record against current members of the CAA.

Five Top Storylines
• Virginia is opening its season against Richmond for the sixth time. UVA is 5-0 all-time when opening a season against the Spiders with wins coming in 1893, 1894, 1979, 2010 and 2012. All five of the previous season openers against Richmond were also played in Charlottesville.
• During UVA’s current 10-game winning streak against Richmond, the Cavaliers are outscoring the Spiders 328-74.
Bronco Mendenhall is facing an FCS team for the ninth time as a head coach. He is 8-0 all-time against FCS competition. Eastern Illinois (1-0), Eastern Washington (1-0), Idaho State (2-0), Northern Iowa (1-0), Savannah State (1-0), Wagner (1-0) and Weber State (1-0).
• Virginia returns the ACC’s top two tacklers in 2015 with Micah Kiser (9.8) and Quin Blanding(9.6). Besides the ACC, none of the other nine FBS leagues in 2015 had teammates finish No. 1-2.
• Richmond head coach Danny Rocco is a former UVA assistant head coach (2001-05).

Richmond Coaches Familiar with UVA
• There are various connections between UVA and Richmond, Commonwealth institutions located 70 miles apart.
• Six of Richmond’s coaches have a direct link with the Virginia program. Five have coached at Virginia and two have played for the Cavaliers.
• Richmond head coach Danny Rocco was an assistant coach at Virginia the first five seasons of the Al Groh era (2001-05).
• UR associate head coach/running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Sparky Woods served as quarterbacks coach at Virginia from 1997-98, tutoring future NFL quarterback Aaron Brooks.
• UR offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach John Garrett spent three years working at Virginia as the wide receivers coach from 2004-06, serving as assistant head coach for offense in 2006.
• UR defensive line coach Levern Belin spent four seasons at Virginia as the defensive line coach from 2005-08, highlighting his time on Grounds was coaching consensus All-AmericanChris Long.
• UR wide receivers coach Fontel Mines is a 2007 graduate of UVA and was a wide receiver for the Cavaliers. Mines finished his career with 68 receptions for 737 yards and five touchdowns before a short career in the NFL with the Chicago Bears.
• UR assistant linebackers and defensive line coach Clint Sintim is a 2009 graduate of UVA after earning first-team All-ACC honors at linebacker in 2007, totaling 77 tackles and nine sacks. Sintim spent the 2014 season as a graduate assistant at Virginia.
• Rocco, Garrett and Belin all coached at Virginia together during the 2005 season, while Mines and Sintim both were letterwinners that season for the Cavaliers.

Tale of Two Brothers
• Virginia freshman defensive back Jordan Mack and Richmond senior defensive back Charles Mack are brothers.
• The Mack brothers hail from Lithonia, Ga., and both played high school football at the Wesleyan School.
• Their father, Charles Mack, played football at Georgia Tech from 1983-87.
• Their cousin, Jimmy Coleman, played football at Tulane.

UVA Players from Richmond
• Virginia has 11 on its roster from Richmond and its surrounding areas: Cole Blackman (Glen Allen), Malcolm Cook (Richmond), Doni Dowling (Richmond), Jack English (Richmond), Ross Gardner (Mechanicsville), Eli Hanback (Ashland), Tim Harris (Richmond), Reed Kellam(Richmond), Andre Miles-Redmond (Richmond), Tyler Shirley (Midlothian), Connor Wingo-Reeves (Midlothian).

Virginia Faces Nine Teams in 2016 that Played in Bowl Games Last Year
• UVA’s 2016 schedule features nine teams on it that appeared in bowl games in 2015.
• Only USC (11), BYU (10), Colorado (10), Ohio State (10) and Ole Miss (10) have more.
• Virginia and Syracuse lead the ACC with nine games against 2015 bowl teams.
• Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, LSU, Northwestern, Purdue, Texas, Utah, Utah State and Wyoming also have nine 2015 bowl teams on its schedule.

Mendenhall Brings Fast-Paced offense to Charlottesville
• When UVA offensive coordinator Robert Anae rejoined Bronco Mendenhall’s BYU staff in 2013, he brought a faster pace to the offense. Virginia will follow that lead and run its offense at a faster tempo in 2016 as it looks to increase the offensive output from recent years.
• In Mendenhall’s 11 seasons as the head coach of BYU, his teams averaged over 400 yards of total offense per game for a season 10 times. UVA has only averaged over 400 yards of total offense twice over the last 16 seasons.
•  UVA averaged 404.8 yards of total offense per game in 2010 and 423.4 yards per game in 2004.
• Under Mendenhall, BYU had a quarterback throw for over 3,000 yards in six of his 11 seasons in Provo. UVA in its history has never had a 3,000-yard passer in a season. The program record for a season by Cavalier quarterback is Matt Schaub’s 2,976 yards in 2002.

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