When anyone asks quarterback Kurt Benkert what to expect for the Virginia football team this season, he doesn’t mince words. In fact, the newly elected team captain’s words are simple and very clear.
”I just tell them wins,” Benkert said. ”You can expect us to win games and I just leave it at that. We have our own expectations in the locker room, but from the outside, just expect us to win games.”
Benkert made that statement during the season’s first pregame press conference, held the Monday before each week’s game. The Cavaliers open their season Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against William & Mary at Scott Stadium.
That kickoff, of course, comes exactly one day shy of last year’s season opener. The Hoos opened the Bronco Mendenhall era in 2016 with a disappointing – and really many observers would say jolting – 37-20 loss against Richmond. The Cavaliers sputtered to a 2-10 finish the rest of the way, including the season-ending ostrich effort in a 52-10 loss to rival Virginia Tech.
So why do the Cavaliers less than a year removed from those season bookends feel much more confident about 2017? Benkert, after all, answers the expectations question without a hint of bravado or second-guessing. It wasn’t a proclamation like ‘we’re back baby!’ or even a prediction of numbers and bowls and such.
To be sure, the mood was similar at this point last August with coach Bronco Mendenhall boldly saying don’t plan for the holidays during the annual Paint The Town Orange event. Preseason optimism is popular everywhere too of course. Benkert pinned the difference for the Hoos right now on the foundation built last season.
The August 2016 confidence came from a completely transformed way of doing things as the program transitioned from Mike London to Mendenhall. The players worked hard over the first eight months of the Mendenhall era to reboot expectations, culture, and conditioning. Hard work isn’t enough, though. The Cavaliers had no experience with Mendenhall’s schemes, the new coaches’ gameday adjustments, and the like.
While the hard work gave the Hoos hope going into the opener, things changed quickly with the on-the-field product.
”I wouldn’t say it’s a false confidence like it was last year,” Benkert said. ”I think there’s a good edge to us and I think we really believe that we can do this.”
In other words, one thing the Cavaliers hadn’t done enough of as the 2016 season dawned was play football the way Mendenhall wants it to be played. When things got tough on the field, the Hoos didn’t have enough responses. UVA’s coach has noted many times this offseason, including during Monday’s press conference, that things didn’t sound right last year. The Hoos simply didn’t play physical enough either due to sheer size and strength or due to playing too slow due to inexperience and new schemes.
Both of those areas received heavy attention from December through August. The Cavaliers have added strength and bulk across the roster with every starter on both lines on the depth chart checking in at 285 pounds or more. Contrast that to last season when only one offensive line starter, tackle Eric Smith, sat at 300 and Eli Hanback started at end at 270 pounds. Hanback himself is now up to 305 as he shifts to nose tackle and the smallest offensive lineman on the starting line for William & Mary is Dillon Reinkensmeyer at 305.
That theme carries across the roster. The retuning players say they feel stronger and faster than a year ago and with that comes confidence. Safety Juan Thornhill, who moved from 190 to 200 pounds, said the defense can see the proof on video. A year ago, defenders noted how often they hit someone and moved them backward vs. that player falling forward through the tackle. Now, he says, the defense is pushing people back in practice in those same situations.
Mendenhall said the sounds of football have improved too. There’s more pop to it.
”Oh yeah. It’s going to be a huge difference,” Thornhill said. ”We’re a lot stronger. We look like a complete different football team. We know our assignments. We look like we’re playing a lot faster. We actually know what we’re doing and we’re making a lot more plays. So maybe it will be a lot more violent out there on the defensive side and the offense will make more plays.”
Will all of that pay off on the field or is this merely preseason optimism? Nearly one year to the day from Mendenhall’s Virginia debut against Richmond, the Cavaliers are about to find out. After all, as Mendenhall himself pointed out Monday, you don’t really know until you play the games.
Benkert and the Hoos believe things are different. He reminds his teammates of that often. That and to expect wins.
”I think my main focus is just telling guys to look around and look at how much different we are,” Benkert said. ”Look at how completely different of a team we are top to bottom. I think that’s something I really try to focus on with those guys. Understand last year happened but it’s not us. That’s not us anymore and to get past it.”
