Virginia Hires Bronco Mendenhall As Football Coach

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UVA announced its new football coach on Friday. ~ Courtesy of Virginia Athletics Media Relations

In search of an experienced coach to rejuvenate its football program, Virginia landed one of the nation’s winningest coaches over the last decade. The Cavaliers announced Friday that they had hired Bronco Mendenhall from BYU where he compiled a 99-42 record in 11 seasons.

The announcement came just five days after the resignation of coach Mike London, who finished his UVA tenure with a 27-46 record.

“Bronco Mendenhall’s teams have consistently won at a high level and he’s demonstrated the ability to create a strategic vision to build a program and then implement his plan to be successful,” director of athletics Craig Littlepage said in a news release. “His emphasis on the overall development of student-athletes and a commitment to academic achievement is in line with our goals of Uncompromised Excellence. We’re excited to begin a new era of Virginia football and support Bronco and his staff.”

Mendenhall ranked 12th in total wins among all Football Bowl Subdivision teams during his 11 seasons with the Cougars. His winning percentage (.702) ranks 13th among active coaches in the nation. BYU is one of only 11 programs to advance to a bowl game each season over the last 11 years (Alabama, Boise State, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon, Virginia Tech, and Wisconsin). Only FSU has more bowl wins (7) than the Cougars’ 6 bowl victories in those 11 years.

BYU has posted seasons with 10 or 11 wins five times in 10 years and the Cougars can add 2015 to the list with a victory in the Las Vegas Bowl (Dec. 19, 3:30 p.m., ABC), where Mendenhall will coach the program for the final time. He will appear at his introductory press conference at Virginia on Monday then return to Utah to coach the Cougars through that bowl.

Mendenhall, clearly emotional throughout a BYU press conference Friday evening, said that he was looking forward to the challenge with the Cavaliers, who have experienced 8 losing season in the past 10 years.

“Virginia reminds me a lot of BYU when I was named the head coach here,” Mendenhall said. “I see tremendous chance for growth and opportunity. I like to build. I like challenge. I like growth. I like learning. I see a fantastic challenge and opportunity with real and tangible results that can happen. I’m passionate to help the student-athletes, the players, there experience that. College athletes, they work hard. I would love to have that team see what it feels like to win and win a lot and get great grades and learn and grow as people. I’m anxious for that to happen and I see that capability. I like that opportunity.”

UVA moved quickly to bring Mendenhall to Charlottesville as the 40th head coach in program history. The Hoos lost to Virginia Tech last Saturday, while BYU defeated Utah State. After they announced London’s resignation on Sunday, there was an interview in place with Mendenhall for Monday. The Cavaliers also made contact with Mark Richt, who took the open Miami job, but by Friday afternoon they had offered Mendenhall the head coaching spot.

Mendenhall said that once the “true offer” and terms of the contract were extended on Friday, he thought it over for about 3 hours before accepting the deal. The two sides agreed to a 5-year deal with annual compensation beginning at $3.25 million per year. With past contracts and other current UVA coaching contracts as a guide, the deal likely will include bonuses for performance as well. London’s contract, for example, included a $25,000 bonus if named ACC Coach of the Year. Mendenhall said that he has the freedom to bring in whoever he prefers as assistants. No details on those selections have been determined at this time.

Mendenhall said Friday at the BYU press conference that a search firm had him on a list for Virginia as early as this past summer if the program’s head coaching position potentially became open.

“Virginia didn’t contact me until after Utah State [last Saturday] and my interview with them was on Monday following the Utah State game,” Mendenhall said. “Search firms now handle most of these hirings – it’s a whole different world – and I’ve been targeted before by search firms. This particular search firm thought even going back to the summer because of the unique standards at BYU and the unique academic standards at the University of Virginia that should [a change] happen that might be a fit. So that was kind of on their radar from the beginning, but nothing happened for me until Monday after the Utah State game.”

After a whirlwind week of coaching rumors, Mendenhall’s hire surprised elated Hoo fans and many around the college football landscape. When asked why he decided this was the time to leave BYU after such a long tenure, he said it just felt like the right time to him and his family.

“I can’t tell you that other than I think it’s just time,” Mendenhall said. “I’ve been so fortunate here and we won so many games and there’s been so many challenges … it’s just time. I’m ready for a different and unique and fierce challenge and to help other players. And I think BYU can also benefit from change and I think that’s part of growth and progress and advancement.”

Some of Mendenhall’s press conference can be seen here courtesy of KSL Broadcasting in Salt Lake City:

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  1. Congrats to UVA on the Mendenhall hire. Definitely a wise decision after VT’s hire. Whether or not VT gets a leg up on recruiting initially, it’s a great sign for the state overall, and will most definitely ratchet up the competition between our schools- and probably even by the time we all play again next year.

    Let the recruiting wars begin! Let’s keep Virginia recruits in Virginia! Good luck Hoos!

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