BRONCO MENDENHALL: (Indiscernible) mid-terms, I would say, if you were a college student, we’re focusing on the health of our team, reestablishment of some fundamentals, personnel choices, scheme enhancement. And then we’ll be doing some recruiting. So great time for our program to grow, mature and advance and then in preparation for our next game and the ACC stretch run which comes up. So be glad to take questions.
Q. Obviously we got you for about eight to ten minutes after the game the other day, right after the game. Now that you’ve had some time to look over it, view the film, what are some of your takeaways now?
COACH MENDENHALL: The takeaways I would say in relation to that game specifically, I’m talking about our North Carolina State game, which, again, I stand by my statement that we played well enough to make it interesting but not well enough to earn the victory. That’s still what I saw.
There were slightly more plays made, offense/defense and on special teams, by North Carolina State than we made. But it was close enough that they were in striking distance the majority of the game.
And so the focus and the backstory would simply be our ability to run the football more effectively that has to happen. Our consistency in run defense has to happen. And the competitive plays downfield. That means contested balls that we need to catch more of and — offensively and we need to knock more down defensively. Not a whole bunch more to talk about other than that.
And those shrink down to simple one-on-ones. And so the percentage of one-on-ones that we win on any given play versus quality teams in our two losses — there are some similarities between our Indiana game and our NC State game — again in terms of establishing a run presence, playing consistent run defense and then the 50/50 balls downfield, making sure that again when it’s us on the contested throws we catch them and on the other side we defend them at a higher level.
Q. Obviously there’s been a lot of questions this season that you’ve gotten about Dylan Thompson. And I’m curious, when you’re looking at this offseason when you brought him and Cassius Pete (phonetic), two guys with very, I guess, poor track records in terms of actually playing college football games, how would you kind of assess that and maybe what you might look towards the future in terms of bringing in graduate transfers, JUCO transfers that don’t have great track records?
COACH MENDENHALL: Yeah, I think the best predictor of future performance is past performance when it replicates. In this case it has and it did. And so we’ve done really well with our other grad transfers that we’ve brought in in terms of the roles they’ve had, the contributions they’ve made and, quite frankly, their fit and their track record coming in.
If I did lead or make any mistake this year, the depth and the need for positions made us look harder, deeper and expand the pool to those that might be able to rather than those who demonstrated in the past that they were surely capable.
So we did extra work, dug deeper. And with people in both cases that I absolutely trusted and their endorsement carried a lot of weight for me to take those chances. And to this point in both those cases that you mentioned, neither has panned out to what probably their hope would have been in the transfer or ours.
So, again, really going back to the original principle, sticking to that the best predictor of future performance is past. When it replicates, that means when it’s similar. And that really is what we had done before and held more closely to it. And we assumed more risk this time still believing on endorsement from others that they were capable. But again in those two cases to this point it hasn’t panned out the way any of us would hope.
Q. With Dylan, is there a legitimate chance he will be an impact player for this team, whether it’s this season? I know you also put in a request in for sixth year. Is there a chance he could do something for this team?
COACH MENDENHALL: We sure hope so. And I think we’re getting closer by the week of his possible contribution. And, man, when we start gaining momentum the injuries crop up and that set him back. And so we’re still very hopeful in his case that that will happen. But too early to just tell you definitively that is going to happen.
Q. Kind of going off a little bit of what Doug was talking about, but at this point in the season two topics I want to look at. Why do you think the run game is as inconsistent as it’s been? And is it as simple as you struggle to run the ball against better teams?
COACH MENDENHALL: I think it’s really just the second part. We currently are struggling to run the ball against better teams and we’re hesitant, and I’ve been hesitant, to add Bryce more into the designed run just simply by trying to keep him healthy. And so we had expected and predicted that we’d be able, even though quarterback run can be part of it, we expected and predicted we’d be able to run it more effectively without that.
But what it’s proving is our match-ups up front and our performance up front isn’t as strong as we anticipated. So we’re having to recalibrate a little bit and look at some redesign.
Q. And the other thing, I know I talked to you about this a little bit last week, but the decision to kind of take on the CEO role, have Nick call the defensive plays, I know you mentioned you had tried that approach a couple times before and it wasn’t successful. I’m curious, what made this the right time at UVA with this staff for you to try that now? And do you think it’s going to be successful going forward?
COACH MENDENHALL: So kind of addressing it, maybe in order of how it was asked, simple time spent — time spent and competencies demonstrated under pressure. And witnessing that each day, the qualifications for Nick and the defensive staff I just think are at a level that is high enough to be very effective.
So I measure that part first and then when I look at this program and what really needs to happen within the timeframe we all want it to happen and in relation to the quality of opponents that we play, I thought my influence wasn’t spreading far enough.
And so to be able to add value in more phases, coach coaches which then coach players to magnify and accelerate the process is my hope. Going back to the original question of why is now the time, time spent, competencies demonstrated, additional trust established. And that’s why I did it and that’s where I think we currently are. And to this point I think the early reviews are solid and strong. Certainly room to grow and improve. But I think we’re on the right track.
Q. What kind of things do you get involved in in this role that you weren’t able to before when you were more hands on with the defense?
COACH MENDENHALL: Yeah, the simple analysis of every single player on every single play and every single play versus every single scheme, the opponent could use offense, defense and special teams. So I have a chance now to provide input and feedback on everything that happens on every play on all phases. And man when I’m acting as the role of defensive coordinator there’s really only one world from a football perspective and that’s the defensive side and trying to get that right.
When I came out of my office, it was then head coach duties that weren’t football-related. And that pressure is always there. So, man, I think the growth and I think our program is still improving despite our loss at NC State. I still think we improved as a team. But it also demonstrated the areas and the shortcomings that we still have.
Q. Can I go back to a time before you were at UVA? When you were head coach at BYU and also defensive coordinator, you played Notre Dame five times. And I just wondered, when you’re playing Notre Dame, with their storied football history, is there any aura that your team has to overcome to go up against them?
COACH MENDENHALL: I would say yes. There is not only as your team but possibly your staff. If you haven’t been there before, and it’s easy to have Notre Dame defined by, yeah, the coverage they receive, their history, the media reports. That can influence your mindset before you go play. If I remember right, we won only one of those five games and it was when they came to BYU, I may have been head coach and coordinator. (Audio loss) but there certainly was when people are asking our team who we’re playing when we’d say Notre Dame, the response from fans or others would be, oh, like there’s this expected possible defeat. And so you have to take that head on. Or what I learned it’s best to take that head on and simply frame it if whoever wins the game will be the best football team on that day. Not in their past, not in their recent history, not based on television coverage or anything else, reputation. It will be on that day. And that’s what I learned over time. That was helpful to our team framing it.
Share
Contributors
