It’s the first game of the Bronco Mendenhall era at UVA Saturday at Scott Stadium, and appropriately enough, the coach on the other sideline knows the place better than he will for a while.
Richmond head coach Danny Rocco coached at Virginia on the staff of former coach Al Groh for five seasons before running up a 47-20 record in six seasons at Liberty. He’s 33-18 in five seasons at UR, the most recent season ending in the FCS semifinals.
The Spiders also bring in more experience at quarterback with redshirt junior Kyle Lauletta (147.3 pass efficiency rating, 3,598 yards, 19 TDs, 15 INTs, 10-4 record in 2015) than Mendenhall will have in his starting QB, Kurt Benkert, an ECU transfer who has not started a college game.
If the Cavs have any advantage going in, it’s the factor of the unknown. Mendenhall and his staff basically ripped up the playbook and started over, which is what you’re supposed to do when your predecessor gets canned after five losing seasons in six years.
Key holdovers like senior tailback Taquan Mizzell (723 yards rushing, 4.1 yards per attempt, a team-leading 75 catches for 721 yards, with eight total touchdowns), linebacker Micah Kiser (117 tackles, 13 tackles for loss) and safety Quin Blanding (115 tackles, three pass breakups, one interception) are at least familiar names, but the look both offensively (Air Raid on tempo steroids) and defensively (a 3-4 with multiple looks) will be nothing like it was under London.
Get to know me: Richmond
Offense: The Spiders averaged 451.9 yards and 33.0 points per game in 2015. Lauletta’s favorite target in the passing game is 6’2”, 205-pound senior wideout Brian Brown (76 catches, 1,450 yards, 19.1 yards per reception, 6 TDs in 2015). The running game needs to replace tailback Jacobi Green (1,609 yards, 6.0 yards per attempt, 21 TDs in 2015).
Defense: Linebacker Omar Howard (136 tackles in 2015) and defensive back David Jones (an FCS-best nine INTs in 2015) are preseason FCS All-Americans for UR, which gave up 371.7 yards and 24.6 points per game in 2015. The rush defense was vulnerable at times (156.6 yards per game, 4.5 yards per attempt). The pass defense, honestly, gave up more than its share of territory (215.1 yards per game, 24 opponent passing TDs in 2015).
Richmond Notes
- Richmond enters the 2016 season as the preseason CAA favorites for the first time since 2009, the year after the Spiders’ 2008 National Championship run.
- The Spiders, who enter as high as #3 in the preseason national polls, enter the year ranked in the top-five for the first time since 2009.
- The Spiders return 16 of 22 starters from last year’s squad that posted 10 wins and made a trip to the FCS semifinals. Amongst that group returning for Richmond is two All-Americans inDavid Jones and Brian Brown, along with eight other players who earned All-CAA accolades last fall.
- Statistically, the Spiders return over 55-percent of their total scoring, over 65-percent of their total receiving yards and over 75-percent of their tackles from last fall.
- The Spiders boast the CAA Preseason Offensive Player of the Year in Kyle Lauletta and the CAA Preseason Defensive Player of the Year in David Jones. It’s just the second time in the past 15 seasons that one team has been named the concensus favorite and had both the preseason offensive and defensive players of the year.
- This will be the 471st time that the Richmond Spiders have clashed with an in-state opponent. All-time, the Spiders are 236-234 against opponents who hail from the Commonwealth. In the past 10 seasons, Richmond is 25-12 against in-state competition, including a perfect 5-0 last year and seven of the last eight such contests.
- In the past 10 seasons, Richmond has played an ACC opponent eight times, three times coming away with victories in those contests. The last victory over a BCS/FBS opponent for the Spiders came in 2011 when Richmond toppled Duke in Durham, 23-21.
- In four of the past five meetings (since 2001) between these two schools, the Spiders have posted double-digits in points, which only happened twice in the prior 27 meetings.
- The current Richmond staff has plenty of ties to UVA with Coach Rocco spending five seasons (2001-2005) on staff with the Cavaliers, serving as associate head coach, linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator during his time in Charlottesville. First-year offensive coordinator John Garrett, Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator Sparky Woods, Tight Ends Coach Bill Polin and Defensive Line Coach Levern Belin also all spent at least two seasons on staff in Charlottesville, while Fontel Mines (WRs coach) and Clint Sintim (OLBs coach) played their collegiate careers for the Cavaliers.
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