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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 12, 2016

Bronco Mendenhall

Greensboro, North Carolina

BRONCO MENDENHALL: Coming off of a bye week, we're anxious to play football again. I think our team is rested but also has improved through the process and anxious to play and resume conference play.

With that, I'll take any questions anyone might have.

Q. Kurt has shown a knack for knowing when to run, when to not, and to look downfield and throw even while on the move. Have you and Coach Beck found that that is something that is teachable and is difficult to coach, or is that more instinctive from the player himself?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: I think it is a combination of both. It is coachable, and it is something that can be improved, but there's also a primary place that quarterbacks and players operate from, and some are more instinctive in running and want that as their first option, and some are more instinctive about throwing, and that's their first instinct. Others their first instinct is to extend, and Kurt is more in that category, where his first instinct naturally, at least to the point when he arrived here at UVA, was to extend, and we really like that, number one, simply because it's nice to have consistent and the same quarterback playing the entire year, so running does increase the risk of that.

We liked the chance of extending plays which is what he does natural, which is what we have fostered and developed, but we were working there from a starting place that was quite different, meaning he wanted to do that anyway, so run really is the second or third option. It would be throw, extend, then run is how I would describe how he operates.

Q. When you play a team like Pitt that wants to establish the run and be physical, do you have a level of comfort in the fact that you have a couple of pretty physical safeties on the back end? Are they more suited maybe to play this style of offense, Quin and Kelvin?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Well, I like our safeties a lot, and I think they're both strong tacklers. I think the thing that anytime a defensive coach -- once you start relying on your safeties, I think the offense is feeling pretty good, because if they can block a play to the safety, which means the safety is the first contact, that normally is a pretty successful play, and if it's 1st down, it's probably 2nd and 5 or 2nd and 4, something like that, and so I take solace from the fact that we have solid tacklers in our secondary.

Pitt will require the safeties to make plays, and again, what they've shown to this point is it's difficult to get them in 3rd down, certainly difficult to get them in 3rd and long, and you kind of use your safeties at your own risk. The more aggressive that you use your safeties, the more possibility there is of play action and the ball going over your head.

And so they basically are just looking to play that kind of cat-and-mouse game and monitor where your safeties are and how many plays they're making as the game goes on. And then predicated on that, they determine how many shots and deep throws they take.

Q. On the other side of the ball, what are you seeing from facing Price? Obviously he leads the country right now in sacks. What's the game plan against him? Do you have to double him, chip him, whatever, to prevent him from causing too much havoc?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Well, I won't really disclose what our plan is, other than he's a dynamic player, and you don't have that kind of production on accident. He's certainly well-coached. He plays in a good scheme. But he's a young man that tries really hard and is dynamic and has a natural skill set for coming off the ball and being slippery and elusive and getting to the quarterback.

It's certainly not something you can just say, well, we'll just put one guy on and see how that works. There has to be a plan in place, and hopefully that mitigates some of what his strength is.

Q. Kind of along those same lines, when you look at them defensively, and particularly their front, your offensive line has improved as the year has gone on. We talked about the splits and all that. What do you see in that match-up for your line as a whole against Pittsburgh, their run defense, and their ability to get after the quarterback?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, I think it's an intriguing match-up. Again, ultimately what I gauge any offense or defense on is how many points, and so yards are secondary to me. So Pitt is a team that is scoring about 37 offensively and giving up around 31 defensively. They're playing close games. They play a physical style of play. We focus first and foremost on what has that production been, why has it been that way, how has it gotten there, and then we work to personnel from there.

We'll make the splits and the plan in relation to what our best chance is to give us enough chance to win the football game, and that might include a number of different things, including splits.

Q. And then on the back end of that defense, they've obviously struggled not just with yards but giving up touchdowns via the pass, and you guys have really come on of late with the pass game. What do you see as what's been giving them a hard time?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Well, the style of play is aggressive and very well-thought-out. So when you play aggressively in the secondary in terms of coverage concepts, what is sacrificed in terms of possible number of coverages and scheme answers is then -- you move that to technique and the personal competency of each player, and sometimes there's just really good match-ups for the opponent and sometimes there's really good schemes, and offenses are getting better and better, and players -- seems like each team has capable players, and sometimes a match-up here or there or a scramble play or just a player being one step off seems like the margin for error now in college football is smaller than it's ever been.

So I think it's just more of that collectively than Pitt specific.

Q. I was wondering, when you were first hired at UVA, I was wondering when you met with your players, what was the number one concern they had and the number one thing on their minds when you had your one-on-one interviews with each guy?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: So the way that my -- when I was hired, I met with the team collectively. It wasn't really until after spring ball that I had a chance to sit down with each player. So in that context, man, so many concerns had been resolved that there really weren't many that they either had, or put it this way, were willing to express to me as the head coach. What clearly came out is they wanted success, and they were hopeful -- not believing yet, but they were hopeful that any methods, any strategies and structural things that we brought and coaching methods we brought would be helpful to them in establishing UVA as a successful football program and a winning football program. That was really what came out more than anything in the one-on-ones was not so much any concerns, which most, if any, had been resolved, but it was just the sincere hope that they could have success.

Q. Have they responded to you in the different things you've tried that might have been different than what they were used to?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: They've tried really, really hard and have been so receptive to pretty radical changes. I'm an effort-based coach and discipline oriented, and with accountability at every turn. That's been the greatest surprise is just how fast and willing they were to embrace that.

I've been happy to see as of the last two weeks that they're having some tangible success to show for that, and I want more than anything to keep helping them.

Q. I was a little surprised to look at the NCAA stats and see where Virginia ranks, 125th in pass defense. I real some of those stats can be deceiving. As a defensive coordinator and a guy who believes in analytics, what do you look at as the most important defensive stats?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, the most important statistics to me are still points allowed, and that really drives everything. From there, then we kind of look at the how and possibly the why. That really tells a more clear story in terms of reaching our ultimate goal, which again is points.

Man, a lot of different scenarios through our secondary, a lot of continued advancement in scheme understanding, technical development, personal skills, and just simply consistency. And it's fun to see the progress being made and the growth that's happening with still a long, long, long ways to go.

Q. Since your defense has improved against the run seemingly more and more every week, how much more important has Donte Wilkins been to that improvement, and how crucial will he be this week against a team that has had a lot of success in a variety of ways?
BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, he's essential, and really Donte's play has been consistent from the beginning. The moving parts around him have become more coordinated and more effective, but when you're a 3-4 team, the nose is where everything starts, and without the ability to control that position and the gaps that he's responsible for, you really can't have consistency, and because he has been, we've been able to focus on the parts around him and getting those more shored up in terms of assignment and execution, and that's allowed the entire front seven to be playing more effectively than what we were.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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