With less than a month to go before kickoff, Bronco Mendenhall opened his first fall practice at Virginia on Friday. The Cavaliers ripped through a crisp practice for approximately two hours at the McCue Center practice fields.
The players did not wear pads yet per NCAA rules and the jerseys remained number-free, but their attire did include navy blue shorts with a small V-Sabre – that’s the first piece of gear that the team has with the logo as Mendenhall establishes his version of an ‘earned not given’ culture in the program.
“It might not look like much to you, but you should have seen the celebration when they got something with a V of that size on it,” Mendenhall said. “Wait until they get bigger.”
The first-year coach continued to praise his the team’s buy-in with that process as well as the players’ willingness to work hard physically and mentally for that goal. Practice, for example, ended with a will development drill that saw units perfect a unified run on to the field followed by a sprint, flip, and roll conditioning run through the end zone and up the small hill by the University Hall fencing.
While the will finisher drill that ended practice featured little to no wasted movement, the skill portions of practice followed a similar pattern. The Cavaliers spent little time on individual reps with multiple players watching. Instead, groups faced toward opposite sides of the same field with two groups of 7-on-7 going simultaneously during one sequence – the top three quarterback contenders rotated through with each group after two reps each. Later during a red zone development series, multiple quarterbacks threw a pass at the same time with each assigned an individual target with a receiver running that specific pattern. The 11-on-11 segments bustled along at a similar rate as well.
All in all, the efficient model for practice that Mendenhall described upon his arrival could be seen from the opening moments through the final test of will. And the whole two ways to do things right or again phrase that fans have heard during the offseason? That’s true too. Numerous times during practice, Mendenhall blew a short but curt whistle that sent players scampering back to the previous spot to get the transition between drills done correctly with assistants pushing them the whole way.
”My team is willing. They’re well-prepared physically,” Mendenhall said. ”Even as well as they are prepared physically and the job Coach Wintrich has done with them in the offseason, practice is still different so that was challenging for our team but they adapted well. The chemistry is good and the preparation is good. So I think it was a solid start. I’m not as much focused on efficiency today or effectiveness, but I’m focused on willingness and I liked where our team was from that standpoint.”
A 3-4 Base Is Not A Solo Act
After practice, Mendenhall briefly caught up with reporters to discuss the first day. One of the topics that came up was his overall evaluation of his team’s personnel and skill set in order to transition to a 3-4 defense. As seen on BYU film, that’s only a starting point really. For example, fans could see only two down linemen with every one else standing up in certain situations or players in versatile roles during the course of the season.
”I love our team because of how willing they are to work and how hard they work,” Mendenhall said. “That’s something they’ve chosen to do and my responsibility as long as they keep that up is to put them in the very best position regardless of what the defensive scheme is called to allow them to have success. So I wouldn’t lock us into anything knowing a year ago [at BYU], we actually played more non 3-4 snaps than 3-4 snaps so you start somewhere but once I know who the best 11 players are then they’ll be aligned in some way to keep the points down.”
That theory is evident in some of the current personnel moves. Former safety Malcolm Cook is now at outside linebacker, for example, while Kirk Garner took some first-team reps at safety after spending most of his career at corner. Juan Thornhill was at corner but has the ability to play safety too; he drew a lot of praise this spring from the coaching staff. Those interchangeable skills are par for the course according to Quin Blanding.
”He’s very versatile – we’ve got a lot of people like Juan that can do a lot of things for us,” Blanding said. ”That’s a very big part of it right there, especially playing in this defense – if you know your role, you know your job, and you know your assignments, you’re going to play no matter which position they fit you in or what position fits you.”
The QB Derby
Reporters asked UVA offensive coordinator Robert Anae after practice how soon he’d like to settle on a No. 1 quarterback as Matt Johns, Connor Brewer, and East Carolina transfer Kurt Benkert divided reps throughout practice Friday.
“Oh dang – as soon as possible,” Anae said. “But there’s going to be no short-cut in the near future to that process. We’re going to take our time and let it sort and if it sorts, it’s kind of like the Red Sea parting – you go through, you don’t sit there and question why is it parting.”
UVA quarterbacks coach Jason Beck indicated that the reps were mostly evenly divided among the three candidates Friday. The hope, he said, is to have enough information to trim the race to two contenders and scale back on one person’s reps in a week or two.
Beck did provide a little more detail to the planned process, saying that “maybe give Kurt a few more [reps] because he didn’t get any in the spring so we’re kind of figuring out his skill set where we have a pretty good idea of the direction we’d go with Matt or Connor so we’re figuring out what he’s best at, but let them all get reps and see who emerges in the race.”
Worth Noting
Andrew Brown and Doni Dowling did not practice. Dowling did ride a stationary bike. Mendenhall said it is “minor stuff for both and they’ll be returning soon.”
In terms of the incoming class, Mendenhall said a little less than a third haven’t qualified to practice yet.
In the category for specialists, Dylan Sims took most of the field goal attempts in practice while Nicholas Conte took the majority of the punter reps. Conte and fellow punter Lester Coleman handled the holder duties as well. Taquan Mizzell was working as a punt returner.
R.J. Proctor is listed as the only other center on the roster behind Jackson Matteo, who snapped on all but one play last season. Proctor looked solid in his reps Friday.
During the red zone passing drill, Keeon Johnson made an impressive ladder-climbing catch in the corner.
Recruits spotted at practice: class of 2017 Good Counsel receiver Darnell Pratt, 2018 Hopewell running back Ronnie Walker, and 2017 Thomas Jefferson (PA) athlete Zane Zandier. All three players have UVA offers.
