Fans won’t be throwing golf balls and mustard bottles from the stands when former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall, now in his sixth season at Virginia, makes his way to the opponent sidelines at LaVell Edwards Stadium Saturday night.
BYU fans, sure, want their Cougars to win; but they also have been waiting since the schedule was released earlier this year for the chance to thank the guy who led them to a 99-43 record over 11 seasons as the head coach, and helped get BYU football, which had gone 14-21 in the three seasons before he took the job in 2005, back to CFB relevance.
Mendenhall, for his part, has made it clear from Day 1 that he didn’t want this game – going back home, not just himself, but the 14 families that he brought with him from Provo when he took the job in Charlottesville in 2015.
“BYU is near and dear to my heart. They gave me an opportunity to be a head coach. Thirteen years I was at Brigham Young University. My father played there. My brother played there. I lived close by. Yeah, it’s an amazing experience to now be able to return, but it’s been six years, and I’m the coach of the University of Virginia, and so thankful to be here and to continue to learn and grow and progress,” Mendenhall said Monday, at the start of a weekly presser that he hoped wouldn’t be almost entirely about the pending homecoming, but ended up being.
“I’ll always be thankful for the opportunities I was given, for the institution – I’m talking about BYU – and for the unique set of values that align with my faith and the development of young people,” Mendenhall said. “As you know, I have a son serving a mission currently, another one on his way out Jan. 3rd, so I’ll have two out at the same time, and my faith is really important to me, and to have been able to coach at a place where that is paramount, and a mission where you enter to learn and go forth to serve, that’s meaningful.
“Yeah, I would just to express gratitude for that experience, and that really allowed me to come to the University of Virginia and be ready, capable, and it’s been one of the most amazing experiences of my life,” Mendenhall said.
Power 5
Virginia (6-2, 4-2 ACC) enters the game as a 2.5-point underdog at #25 BYU (also 6-2), which means the folks in Vegas think these two teams are basically even steven on a neutral field.
The Cavaliers head out west on a four-game winning streak; the Cougars won 21-19 this past Saturday over Washington State, snapping a two-game losing skid.
BYU is coming off an 11-1 season a year ago, and is on its way to the Power 5, after accepting an invitation to join the Big 12 earlier in the fall.
The school’s status as a football independent had factored into Mendenhall’s decision to leave BYU for Virginia.
“I was probably the most aggressive in the push for the Big 12 in my time, and probably told to tone it down a little at some point, but I thought it would be the exact right fit, the exact right match, and besides planting seeds, I was trying to harvest seeds at the same time,” Mendenhall said. “I’m glad that there has been some realignment and that BYU is acknowledged, and I think it’s great for the institution. I think it’s good for college football, and man, did I want that to happen bad when I was there, and to see it finally come to fruition, yeah, pretty cool.”
Later in the presser, Mendenhall expanded on that line of thinking.
“BYU has earned their way in after all these years into a Power 5 conference,” Mendenhall said. “I remember, right, the University of Utah leaving to the Pac-12 and TCU going to the Big 12, and we chose to go independent, and I remember at that time saying, this is not sustainable, and I was kind of doing my own personal lobbying behind the scenes for the Big 12, and again, to see that happen, and the qualification happen for that, is really fun.”
Mendenhall is happy to see his successor, Kalani Sitake, flourishing after kinda, sorta, struggling out of the gate, going just 27-25 in his first four seasons, before last season’s turnaround that had BYU finishing 11th in both the AP and coaches polls.
“I’m thrilled. I think it’s awesome,” Mendenhall said. “There’s always learnings and uncovering and discoveries like what happened with me here, and you kind of get the right staff and you adapt and acclimate, and I think that most likely happened with Kalani as he took over at BYU, because you can’t know until you’re there. To have the year they had through the pandemic, man, that was tough, and to put a schedule together that they did, and then to have success, was awesome.”
Time
You could tell as the presser went on that Mendenhall would prefer to continue to admire what BYU was doing from afar, but fate – actually, TV money – intervened to get this game on the schedule.
“I do remember when I was announced leaving BYU that I wouldn’t play this game. I didn’t know how to make it any clearer, but that didn’t happen, and I just learned I’m not the one that decides,” Mendenhall said. “I don’t know all the workings of it, but that’s – I certainly know now in the world of college football, right, the resources and revenue drives so much of it, entertainment drives so much of it, and whatever happened contractually, I wasn’t aware.
“I wish I could talk more to it, but I made my stance early on clear, but here we are, and that’s OK.”
A reporter followed up, commenting that while Mendenhall didn’t want the game, it sounds like he’s comfortable with playing the game now.
“I am, and it’s much better – as comfortable as I can be, right, but I’m much better now because very few, if any, players are left. Brigham Young University’s quarterback, Jaren Hall, I recruited him, but there’s very few others on the roster that I remember, and that makes it easier. Not easy, but easier,” Mendenhall said.
A little later in the presser, Mendenhall was asked if there was any one factor that made him feel any more at ease about returning to Provo for a game.
“Just time,” Mendenhall said. “I can’t say that I’m at ease, but once it was clear that the game was going to be played early on, then yeah, it was going to be played. It’s six years, and that time is – it adds perspective, and it also sometimes has your heart grow fonder, but also at times it allows separation. Sometimes it just takes time.”
Family
Keep in mind that this isn’t just a homecoming for one.
“I invited 14 families or people, and all 14 accepted, and we have, from the statistics given me, the most stable staff in college football, and at that time we had the most little kids in college football, so it was the giant reverse Lewis and Clark migration,” said Mendenhall, referring to the fact that 14 members of his current Virginia staff made the move with him from BYU to Virginia.
“Man, there were some hard transitions. Young moms with little kids, and their moms, the moms’ moms are still back in Provo, and that’s tough because that’s the babysitter, and that’s a huge thing,” Mendenhall said. “There hasn’t been anything easy, but wow, has it galvanized our relationships. Myself and my staff were really close before, but not like this, and making this move together, and then in my faith, right, a local congregation is called a ward, and all but one of my staff members is in the same ward, so we’re teaching Sunday school classes to the others’ little kids and primary, and I’m teaching adults in gospel doctrine, which is the adult thing, and they’re the same guys I’m working with and their wives. It is absolutely transformed our relationships in a way that I couldn’t ever have imagined.
“I’m thankful they all came,” Mendenhall said. “I have a pretty simple principle, as you guys know, that I just won’t work with anyone I don’t like. These are my friends, and I think that’s pretty rare in college football, that you get to work with people that you are friends with, and I consider myself lucky.”
One other person followed the group to Charlottesville. Tailback Wayne Taulapapa committed to BYU in high school, then served a two-year mission to Nicaragua before beginning college.
“I don’t know exactly then the details of when he returned and BYU’s status, but he opted and wanted to come to Virginia, which I was so thankful for, and so it was Nicaragua to Charlottesville, and man, has he just been all I hope he would be, and the glue and the anchor that just gives another example of what an amazing young person looks like in the classroom and in the community, on the field and on Sundays,” Mendenhall said.
“On Sundays he actually attends – if it’s a smaller congregation than a ward, it’s called a branch. A ward would be like the tree and the branch is part of it, and he actually attends the Spanish branch because he speaks Spanish from his mission. And so every Sunday he’s attending services in Spanish and serving there, which is – wow, it’s pretty remarkable. He’s doing that — that’s what he chose,” Mendenhall said.
Emotion
If you’re curious as to how this road trip will go emotionally, Mendenhall is there with you.
“You know, I don’t have expectations, and I don’t think that – it’s a weird space because we’re arriving to play a football game, and I am charged with helping my current team. Everyone is doing the same thing,” Mendenhall said. “Yeah, to expect or want more than that, I don’t. I just think that’s not a controllable thing. To make more of that or spend more time or energy or effort into that, this is just about two teams trying to play well and to have great seasons, and anything more than that, even though I know that’s probably a topic, it just – I can’t say it can’t be acknowledged, but any acknowledgment it gives kind of takes away from the other part, and that really is paramount. I’m trying to keep the focus there, and will.”
That’s the plan, anyway, but, come on. You can guess BYU puts together a video tribute to run on the scoreboard, that the home fans will give him a standing O, that there will be some tears, on the sidelines, in the visitors’ family section.
Mendenhall, business-like to a fault, if you can say that, stresses that the moment won’t get to him.
“I’ve been through all the emotions. I’ve had six years to go through the emotions,” Mendenhall said. “My job is to do the very best that I can for my team and hopefully be an example and teach principles and guidelines that will help these kids in their lives.
“I really can’t control what kind of welcome I do or don’t receive, but what I can express is gratitude. That’s what I intend to do, and then do the very best I can to prepare my team so they can have success and continue on the goals that we have for this team and this program this year.”
Story by Chris Graham
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