Bronco Mendenhall, asked about the Virginia defense, is Kevin Bacon in “Animal House,” trying to convince you, “Remain calm. All is well. All is well!”
“It all appears worse or better right after the game than it really is. You just get to work on the things that need to be corrected, not only from a schematic and coaching standpoint, but then from a playmaking standpoint, and then where you’re highlighting and who. So, that’s what we’ve tried to do,” said Mendenhall, addressing the historically bad results from Virginia’s 66-49 loss at BYU two weeks ago.
That came before Virginia’s bye week, which you assumed might be a crash course in getting things fixed involving the defensive staff and two-deep.
Not exactly what happened.
“Different when you have a bye week at Week 10 than earlier in the year, so I opted for recovery, renewal, and getting our team as fast and fresh as possible for the last three weeks, which is really a brand new season with every single goal that we set out with at the beginning of the year still available,” Mendenhall said in his weekly Monday presser.
Fair enough. Virginia is 6-3, 4-2 in the ACC, which puts the ‘Hoos in the position of, win your last two, at Pitt and at home against Virginia Tech, and you’re in the ACC Championship Game.
Flip side of that is, it can be hard to win with a defense capable of allowing 66 points and 734 yards, and opponents like Notre Dame and Pitt, in particular, being able to break down how it was done.
And then, that one wasn’t the only poor showing from the UVA D. Think back to the North Carolina game in Week 3, a 59-39 loss in which the Cavaliers surrendered 699 yards.
“We’ve had two games that really got away from us, North Carolina and the BYU game. The rest have allowed us to get to the record that we are, including even how maybe we all possibly viewed our loss to Wake Forest. Maybe we’re not viewing it like that anymore, where we probably held them to some of the fewest yards or points all year. So, before it becomes this thing, which is easy, especially after the game we just played, right, and I’m not minimizing that, but there have been two that really got away from us,” Mendenhall said.
Remain calm. All is well. All is well!
“Man, so many things are correctable,” Mendenhall said. “The team sees that. I see that. Now, it’s consistency and capacity in those settings. The rest of it, man, whatever ranking Wake Forest has now, that becomes the loss where actually the defense in the rest of the time played good enough for us to win with our current model of how we’re playing football.
“Again, I am not looking to minimize, but I am looking to specify and frame to accurately, which is the very first thing when you’re leading young people and leading a team,” Mendenhall said.
So, now the Wake loss, a 37-17 setback, was one where the defense played good enough for Virginia to win.
I’ve read and re-read that statement several times, and I think that’s what Mendenhall is getting at.
The current model of playing football has 37 as the over/under for the offense to be able to get a win.
Neato.
A reporter asked Mendenhall in the presser if, based on what he was saying, we shouldn’t anticipate any major scheme tweaks or anything of that nature.
“No,” was the short answer.
The rest: “So, there is so much in terms of preparation. First of all, players play as they’re prepared. They always will. I own that completely. Then each side of the ball owns the next level of preparation, and they own that completely. If you said that’s where it stops, that would still be enough.
“We added a third layer. Players, if they are unblocked at the point of attack, then we need to make plays. So, that’s where the partnership starts to form. So, anything where we don’t have the right people in the right place at the right time, then that’s coaching, right, and preparation.
“Any time there are people there to make plays, unblocked and in great position and don’t make the play, that then leads to fundamentals, and some of the responsibility has to be claimed for any of us.
“And that’s parts of growing young people, too. Our team is doing a really nice job claiming whatever is theirs, but that’s how I do it. I’m responsible for it all, and then it kind of works like that.
“So, we’re continuing to look at where and are we putting them in the best position possible. If so, great. If not, right, that’s on me and us.”
Remain calm. All is well. All is well!
Story by Chris Graham
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