When Bronco Mendenhall had his first meeting with the Virginia players, he was not prepared for what he encountered.

“The team that was in front of me when I arrived at UVA, their eyes would not make contact, their heads were down, and they looked right on the verge of despair,” Mendenhall said at the ACC Kickoff in July. “I remember changing what my message was to them, what I prepared, when I saw that, and worked to inspire at that point.”

Fast forward eight months and once again, following an improbable 17-point loss to Richmond of the Football Championship Subdivision, Mendenhall says he again saw glimpses of that team in front of him Saturday. The Spiders won 37-20 and similar body language to his earlier meeting with players crept in.

“There were stretches during the game with similar body language [to that first meeting],” said Mendenhall. “I think they want to be resilient and I think they want to believe and have new habits. But there is some history and so there was some reversion to that today, maybe by what they know, but again my job is to help them build great habits. And when things don’t go as well as you hoped and don’t go according to plan, that’s usually when some of that reversion comes back.”

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