ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFF

July 21, 2021

Bronco Mendenhall

Virginia Cavaliers

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Mendenhall.

Q. Where does your team stand with vaccinations, percentages, how that helps you move forward with a potentially normal fall?

BRONCO MENDENHALL: The University of Virginia has a unique policy. I'm not sure how widespread it is. All students are required to be vaccinated before they come back to Charlottesville. There are possibly two exemptions. Medical exemption is possibly one of them, religious exemption is the other. We don't make those decisions, the university does.

Every player on my team has 100% been vaccinated or been granted the exemption at this point.

Q. Five years and change now as you head into year number six. What can you say about assessing these last five years and what you've seen out of yourself as well as from what your plan was when you came in?

BRONCO MENDENHALL: Assessment and development would be growth and progress. In terms of the timing, I expected our year two to be year one. So year one in Charlottesville was year two post-season, year three was a bowl game victory, year four was the Coastal Championship then to the Orange Bowl, which is a pretty aggressive ascent in four years. I'm not sure where to put the COVID year right now other than in its own category.

Really I would view it as if we were going to a play where we've seen act one, four years, with the COVID not necessarily being intermission, but some different category, now act two is coming, which is the next four years.

I think aggressive success, incremental improvement, and now to apply the learnings from the COVID year will really determine the next four years, including the one coming up.

Q. Virginia gave up 304 yards a game last year. That's not characteristic of your defenses at all. How did it happen? Maybe COVID had something to do with it. What is the off-season tale to fix that problem?

BRONCO MENDENHALL: The biggest determinant on outcomes of games in the COVID year was our secondary's play, yards led to points in the secondary. A little bit of carryover from the year before. I would say the last year and a half.

The Orange Bowl year and our Coastal Championship, the end of that year injuries started to happen. There was a significant dropoff in our defensive performance. Some of those same issues occurred in the COVID year as well. Health, depth, then possibly implementation of I would say the best players at the best time, keeping them healthy, will have a lot to do with our success defensively.

So a characteristic, about a year and a half's worth of a similar result, starting with injury, then possibly not innovating far enough to address the injuries is how I would assess it.

Q. I'm a big Rocky Long fan.

BRONCO MENDENHALL: Me, too (smiling).

Q. I predict much improvement from New Mexico this year with the defense. I want to know his influence on you and his overall impact as a great defensive mind and how it's impacted you in your career.

BRONCO MENDENHALL: Thanks for the question. The coach that's had the most influence on me as head coach, but also maybe more importantly as a defensive coordinator, which I held both roles for a long time. Most of what I learned that was positive and effective about defensive football came from Rocky.

He thrives on an effort-based system, blitzing and unique looks that really are unidentifiable prior to the snap. But really the mindset is what sets his defenses apart besides the innovation.

That served me so well. His system, the 3-3-5, has been replicated and is having and has had a lot of success. It's what I chose to run at Brigham Young University when I first arrived there. The roots of that still have led to I would say my success as a head football coach. So I would attribute it directly to his influence.

No question at New Mexico they'll have more success, so Danny Gonzales, who is the head coach, was my graduate assistant when I was at New Mexico. I coached him as well as being a GA for me. Rocky taught me basically, I coached and taught Danny. It's really fun to see the next generation kind of emerging.

I love the idea of succession planning grown from within. Almost all of my coaches played for me or were GA, so I love that model. Really so much of it came through expectations. Rocky just would not tolerate you not trying hard. He could tolerate a lot of other things, but if you did not try hard, that was not okay.

I've loved and embraced that philosophy ever since.

Q. The team really struggled away last year despite the lack of fans. What do you think about the impact of fans coming back not only to Scott Stadium but to opposing stadiums as well?

BRONCO MENDENHALL: Our current program goes more than the pandemic year. 17-2 is what our record has been at home, we're second to last in the ACC in my tenure on the road. It's not just a pandemic-specific thing. Our program has been built very intentionally to become dominant at home, then we have to expand and be exceptional own the road.

The year we won the Coastal Division, again we were dominant at home, beat not only Pitt but UNC on the road. That's about what the model has called for on the Coastal Division where you have to be excellent at home and at least 50% on the road.

We are currently not doing that. That's the next level of expansion, to have consistency in our program, to maintain what we're already doing at home, which is very strong, then that has to travel, and that hasn't yet. That's one of the areas of growth. And it wasn't pandemic-specific.

Q. You've added some faces through the transfer portal, obviously some new faces coming in. In the secondary you have a couple new guys, potentially you could classify Ronnie Walker Jr. as a new transfer. How do some of these players fit into the system and what do you expect from them this season?

BRONCO MENDENHALL: I think framing how we consider a possible graduate transfer, and I love the idea of a grad transfer knowing that they have completed their eligibility but also have graduated, which is the primary reason to go to college anyway. So I love acknowledging and looking there because they've already shown, they've grasped the idea of doing both things that are really important.

But then it comes to, I think any one of us in any capacity wants to be needed and wanted. I won't consider a graduate transfer that we don't really need, but then I better like him as a person, otherwise what is a grind that is to be with someone you don't like every day. Those two criteria have to be met.

In Jelani's case at tight end, really a good fit and really a good player. We've already seen that in the fall. In the secondary, back to one of the first questions we had, we learned that injuries matter and that secondary controls points. We haven't been quite deep enough.

So we look to the grad transfer market to add some depth and stability, knowing that football is a physical game and injuries can happen. In a secondary, wow, does that affect outcome. So we needed more depth there, which we got.

Each of the choices have been specific, intentional, but also the players know they could be valued and have a chance to upgrade a role than maybe what they had elsewhere.

It really ends up being a win-win. Then a chance for a graduate degree at UVA, that's rocket fuel for their future. Besides football, it's a great thing.

Q. We've seen a lot of quarterbacks today, wide receivers, running backs, safeties, linebackers. Leads me to ask the question, how do you feel about your special teams this year?

BRONCO MENDENHALL: To be determined. So the reason you're asking is we're losing our place kicker and we're losing our punter. To be determined. Really like Justin Duenkel. He was our kickoff player last year, but he earned the job in the spring, which isn't the fall yet, in handling our PATs and field goals as well. Justin Duenkel could be handling all place kicking responsibilities.

Then our punter, Brendan Farrell, I really liked what I saw from him in the spring, but we did add a grad transfer. How far you kick the ball in field position does matter. A graduate transfer from Florida has arrived. There will be competition there.

What I've learned over time is competition usually drives performance. It doesn't allow complacency. Especially in positions of vital impact, yeah, we need that when we punt the football.

We haven't named a punter yet. We'll find out. Justin has the spot through spring. He has to carry it through the fall.

The return game is a whole other issue. Yeah, don't know yet on the returner other than Billy Kemp is our punt returner. Don't have a kickoff returner yet.

Q. You spoke about your grad transfers. One of those guys in the secondary is Josh Hayes from North Dakota State. Speak on his role for the team, what he brings to your locker room.

BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, a pretty simple principle as well I use when considering grad transfers. If I don't think they can start, I won't bring them. When you've played and been successful in a current institution, which he has, three FCS championship games, being a starter, doing really well, doesn't make sense to consider a player like that as a backup, really, or any grad transfer.

Again, we're looking to improve our play in the secondary, improve our play at corner and to improve our play, quite frankly, in managing points and yards through the air. We think, from what we've seen, he could do all of those things, will add a lot of value to us.

But then leadership skills and work ethic, all those intangibles -- kind of back to if I don't like a player, I don't want to be around him every day, I won't bring him -- instantly liked Josh and who he is. He's been a seamless fit to our program. So really excited about him.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.