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Is Brennan Armstrong set to play on Saturday against #7 Notre Dame?

Chris Graham
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Brennan Armstrong and Bronco Mendenhall. Photo courtesy UVA Athletics.

You want to hear that Brennan Armstrong is 100 percent a go for Saturday’s game against seventh-ranked Notre Dame. Bronco Mendenhall does, too.

“No, I don’t have an update on Brennan,” Mendenhall told reporters at his weekly Monday presser. “Man, I’m planning on him being our quarterback. Yeah, I probably won’t have an update until the ball is kicked off, and we all look out there and see who our quarterback is.”

Virginia (6-3) is a five-point underdog at home against the Irish, which, reminder time, comes to town as a football independent, so this one is a non-conference game for the ‘Hoos.

Armstrong suffered an apparent rib injury in the fourth quarter of UVA’s 66-49 loss at BYU back on Oct. 30. Virginia hasn’t addressed the nature of the injury or Armstrong’s status, mostly because it hasn’t had to, with last week being the bye week for 2021.

It’s clear that Mendenhall and his offensive staff have a feeling one way or the other, and that the lack of information for the media and the general public is more a need to know basis kind of thing.

“It means just collectively where I don’t really plan to address it because I don’t think it’ll help you, me, or anyone else in terms of preparation. It helps our football team best to let Brennan heal, recover, and our team get ready to play,” Mendenhall answered another question on the topic.

Another indication as to Armstrong’s availability was a response from Mendenhall on the challenge the staff could have trying to prepare for multiple options at QB.

“You try not to prepare multiple options. You try to find everything that’s similar and use all of that. Then if there happens to be a change, you’re ready either way. Especially when, and this is for any team right now at Week 10, and especially at the quarterback position, yeah, you do your best for crossovers. Once you start, even with the bye week, once you start designing two different plans, you run out of practice time. So, that’s kind of just the reality,” Mendenhall said.

So, reading between the lines, offensive coordinator Robert Anae would seem to be proceeding with developing a game plan that would work for Armstrong, and on the chance that the backup, true freshman Jay Woolfolk, gets the start, Woolfolk runs the offense from Weeks 1-9.

This would be a departure from how things were done last year when Armstrong had to miss the Wake Forest game with an injury, and Anae crafted a three-QB system with Lindell Stone, Ira Armstead and Keytaon Thompson that actually moved the ball decently well in what turned into a 40-23 loss in Winston-Salem.

“No, it certainly wouldn’t be a hodgepodge. It’s becoming closer to exactly what you’re saying. It would be more so that, especially if there is one more year under Jay or Ira’s belt. So, that has to mentioned. This isn’t Jay only. We really like Ira and have been using him at other places,” Mendenhall said. “As Brennan, right, is re-becoming for this week, right, in the meantime it gives us a chance to play and train other quarterbacks that we really like. So, that’s not nearly as much of the hodgepodge-ish that we had a year ago when we were trying to do whatever we could.

“This is much more intentional, and I think our succession plan is better. And needs to be because it’s year six, right? It has to be. So, I feel much better about that,” Mendenhall said.

Armstead has been more in the mix at the Football Player position that Anae has been using Thompson and another freshman QB, Jacob Rodriguez, in this year than he has been at quarterback.

“So that doesn’t mean we don’t like Ira, because I really do. He throws well and runs well and is active, dynamic,” Mendenhall said. “Less alterations for Jay, right, in relation to Brennan than for Ira. So Ira is still training at quarterback, as well as the other positions, but there is more carryover. So that really was one of the main determinants.”

And so it was that Woolfolk got the call when Armstrong went down in the BYU game, leading one fourth-quarter drive – a seven-play, 41-yard possession that ended with an incomplete pass on a fourth-and-4 at the BYU 31.

To his credit, he was ready for the moment, more than you’d expect from a guy who’d only had garbage-time snaps as a collegian to that stage.

“I’m not sure if you remember when Bryce Perkins went out against Georgia Tech (in 2018). We were on the road, and Brennan came in for a series and took the team down and scored a touchdown. He acted like he had just gone to Baskin & Robbins and got a milkshake and then came back to the game. It was just like totally fun to him,” Mendenhall said.

“Jay, in a good way, is wired similarly, where you almost want to say, You know what this is, right? This is college football. This is a big deal. He’s like, yeah, that would be a mistake. He’s just going out there to play. That endears him to me as a young person, but, man, he’s really capable. Bright, bright future ahead for him.”

Mendenhall has, in the past, emphasized that players need to be able to practice to be able to play on Saturdays.

He was asked if that would be the case for Armstrong, or if rest would be better for him, to make it more likely that he’ll be able to play in prime time Saturday night.

“Brennan has earned every opportunity to play, even if he just looks out over the field from the balcony,” Mendenhall said. “He trains so hard in mental reps, et cetera, so it literally is day-to-day, and we’re going to give him every minute right until the ball is kicked off to be our quarterback.

“The team knows that. I know that. He knows that. He’s earned that chance,” Mendenhall said.

Story by Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].