Revisiting Four Trends Bronco Mendenhall Must Break For Virginia Football

Virginia opens the season against William & Mary.
Bronco Mendenhall faced some challenges when he arrived at Virginia. ~ Kris Wright

In August of 2016 I wrote a four-story series entitled Four Trends Bronco Mendenhall Must Break For Virginia Football. The story focused on four leading factors (among dozens) that I felt were necessary for the new head coach to alter if Virginia were to begin winning with any consistency again.

Before Mendenhall arrived in Charlottesville, the Hoos had suffered losing seasons in 7 of their last 8 years, watched seven quarterbacks exit the program (with eligibility remaining) in a 29-month span just before the 2015 season started, and filtered through four different offensive coordinators from 2006 to 2015 with an average tenure of 2.25 years with none serving longer than three seasons.

The 5 years before Bronco Mendenhall added up like this:

  • Wins – 23
  • Losses – 38
  • Bowl games – 1
  • Bowl game record – 0-1
  • Road wins – 5
  • Road losses – 20
  • ACC road wins – 4
  • ACC road losses – 16
  • Home record – 18-18
  • ACC Coastal Titles – 0
  • ACC Championship appearances – 0
  • New Year’s Day Six Bowl – 0
  • Record vs. VT – 0-4

Since Mendenhall and most of his BYU staff arrived in Charlottesville, the Cavaliers have had a lot of firsts (or first in a while) and become somewhat relevant again in college football. Those 5 years provide highlights like this:

...