UVA senior tailback Taquan Mizzell had seven carries for seven yards with two lost fumbles in Saturday’s 37-20 loss to Richmond.
Among the mea culpas offered by first-year Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall was his handling of Mizzell in training camp.
“In looking at what I possibly could have managed better, we kept Smoke out of all the scrimmages. We didn’t tackle him live through fall camp,” Mendenhall said Monday.
Looking back, Mendenhall would handle that differently.
“I should have allowed him to be tackled a little bit and get him a little more prepared for that game. And so I think that was a coaching and management issue,” Mendenhall said.
The two fumbles by Mizzell, who also had four catches for 24 yards in the loss, were momentum-changers, the first ending the Cavs’ opening drive at the Richmond 5, the second snuffing out a third-and-short in plus territory in the third quarter with Virginia trailing and efforting a comeback.
The thinking in limiting the hits on Mizzell in camp was to keep him fresh, and more importantly, healthy.
“I think that’s an overprotection of making sure we can get our most experienced and possibly the best players going into camp to the first game, but probably missed too far on the protection side. There was nothing unusual about the hits that he took,” Mendenhall said.
Story by Chris Graham
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