Virginia football coach Bronco Mendenhall’s first full recruiting class has been pieced together with immediate needs in mind. Of the 22 commitments on the board, 8 project to the offensive and defensive lines. That accounts more than one third of the slots and the staff would like to add more linemen, particulary on the offensive side of the ball.

The class goal of rebuilding the trenches then seems to be hitting on substance, but it lacks in splashy style. Among the two most familiar ranking servies, 247 Sports and Rivals, UVA does not have a single 4 or 5 star recruit. 247 Sports breaks down the 22 commitments as 19 3 stars and 3 2 stars, while Rivals assigns 15 3 stars and 7 2 stars. 247 Sports ranks the class overall at No. 9 in the ACC and No. 52 nationally. Rivals ranks it No. 48.

When you average out the two services, Virginia’s 22 commitments average 2.77 stars. The class averages out to spot No. 50.

Still, the recruiting class does address needs and, perhaps more importantly, meets the grading scale outlines used by Mendenhall and his staff. In a wide-ranging December interview with reporters, he provided a glimpse of what the strategy looks like inside the UVA recruiting room. Unlike the ratings services, Virginia coaches build their own composite score on recruits based on a handful of categories.

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