After slowly building the defense into a stout unit over the first two years on the job, Bronco Mendenhall and his coaching staff saw the payoff of that process for the Virginia football team. For most of 2018 and the first half of 2019, the Hoos produced an attacking defense among the nation’s elite in multiple categories.

The payoff, however, was short-lived and its been mostly the opposite phenomenon since. UVA is still attacking, but the results have been far from elite. That’s the next article in the “50 Thoughts Before Virginia Football Kickoff” summer reading series – “Repairing Defense Must Be Virginia’s Top Priority.”

That’s no secret. Coaches, analysts, observers, and fans all have zeroed in on the defense in recent months. With good reason – after that short surge near the middle of Mendenhall’s current five-year tenure, the defense short-circuited in the most important area of all: scoring. It was even more stark when compared to the 2018 and early 2019 product that appeared to raise UVA’s defense to elite level.

When you take the full 2018 season and the first seven games of 2019, the Hoos that allowed more than 24 points just five times in a 20-game stretch. In 2018, that resulted in the 21st best scoring defense in the country (20.1 points per game). The start of the 2019 season improved on that mark as the Cavaliers allowed just 19.7 points per game, which would have been good enough for the 14th best defense nationally if they had maintained that pace.

...