When Bronco Mendenhall accepted the Virginia job in December, it came as a surprise to many. Mendenhall, after all, had spent 11 successful seasons at BYU where he piled up 99 wins and 11 bowl appearances. He was born and raised in Utah.
Still, he took the UVA job and brought nearly his entire staff and their families across the country to try to revive the Cavaliers. Maybe Thomas Jefferson did the recruiting? The University of Virginia’s founder had some philosophies that seem to have resonance with Mendenhall.
Take for example, a recent thought from Mendenhall. A reporter suggested that players had said they weren’t worried about picking up the high demands and rapid pace because as soon as they reach the bar, it’s going to move higher anyway. The Cavaliers’ coach embraced that concept.
”I don’t think there’s a chance to reach perfection either in tempo or execution,” Mendenhall said. ”I love the idea of constant learning and growth and so this idea that you can reach a pinnacle, I don’t think that’s possible. There’s always another hill, there’s always another peak, there’s always another level and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”
Constant learning and growth? Mendenhall could be a U-Guide with that Jeffersonian line of thinking. As fans know, students at UVA call each other first-year, second-year, and so on instead of freshmen or the like.
Part of that tradition grew out of Jefferson’s thoughts on education. He too thought that learning was an ongoing endeavor and that a pinnacle was waiting at the end. In a writing to William G. Munford in 1799, he wrote ”I join you therefore in branding as cowardly the idea that the human mind is incapable of further advances.”
Later, he wrote to John P. Emmet in 1826 that schools should prepare students only to continue learning throughout their lives. “We do not expect our schools to turn out their alumni already enthroned on the pinnacles of their respective sciences; but only so far advanced in each as to be able to pursue them by themselves, and to become Newtons and Laplaces by energies and perseverances to be continued through life.”
Both of those quotes can be found in the Monticello website archives.
Of course, that’s not the first time that Mendenhall has sounded downright Jeffersonian. He came out of the blocks that way, saying in his introductory Virginia press conference that he would carve out time to ‘renew privately’ and to find time to exercise. He seeks out an hour and a half everyday for that purpose.
“So I don’t know what the waves are like, but I’m closer now than I was at Utah. I love solitude and renewal, and yeah, coaching is high pressure and high visibility, especially for an introvert, and so, yeah, this takes a lot out of me to be on stage, so to speak, and so I renew privately, and waves do it for me,” Mendenhall said. “I don’t know where I’m going to go and what the surfing looks like here, but I’ll find out in a short amount of time. I love to exercise, mountain bike, ride a Harley. Chrome and asphalt and no one can talk to me with the pipes and the noise. Fly fishing, anything that is solitude specific, that’s usually where I’ll be. I build an hour and a half into my day every day for that.”
Jefferson, of course, espoused similar thoughts on exercise. He highly recommended walking regularly and later in life took up horseback riding as his primary exercise when walking was too taxing. He wanted even more time than Mendenhall, setting the mark at two hours daily.
In 1785, again from the Monticello archives, he wrote in part to Peter Carr: “Encourage all your virtuous dispositions, and exercise them whenever an opportunity arises, being assured that they will gain strength by exercise as a limb of the body does, and that exercise will make them habitual. … Give about two of them [hours] every day to exercise; for health must not be sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes the mind strong.” And later to Thomas Mann Randolph: “Not less than two hours a day should be devoted to exercise, and the weather should be little regarded. A person not sick will not be injured by getting wet.”
