As per decree of the Bronco Mendenhall administration, “The Adventures of Cavman” is dead.
Beginning in 2001, “The Adventures of Cavman,” a short animated video clip of Cavman defeating the opponent’s mascot, aired before the football team took the field at every home game. With humor and a healthy dose of school pride, these vignettes proved to be a major hit with all ages in the crowd and became a staple of Saturdays at Scott Stadium. In removing these videos, Mendenhall has made one of his first controversial moves as a head coach.
Here’s my unpopular opinion of the week regarding “The Adventures of Cavman” — good riddance.
In my opinion, these pregame videos served as a microcosm for everything that has been wrong with Virginia football throughout most of this decade. In the Mike London era, the team played the game in far too loose of a manner. Time after time, Virginia would either lose close games or get blown out by their opponents. The only time a Cavalier won was on the jumbotron, not on the football field.
The fact that Cavman always triumphed his opponent continuously gave audiences the impression that Virginia could win games. Unfortunately, the video represents the all-too- common Virginia football theme of falling short of expectations. Armed with athletic specimens at the running back and receiving positions, the Virginia offense put up a respectable 25 points per game in 2015. However, even with a presumably great defense which featured then-sophomore star free safety Quin Blanding, Virginia allowed its opponents to score around 32 points per game — which ultimately led the team to a 4-8 finish last season.
Virginia’s lack of success throughout much of the 21st century has come from a strict lack of mental toughness. Instead of staying focused on the game and improving, the players, under London’s poor leadership, could not muster what it took to become a successful team. While “The Adventures of Cavman” elicited cheers before games started, it was about the only thing about which the Cavalier faithful could be happy.
By eliminating the animated videos, Mendenhall is making his message loud and clear: it’s time for the Virginia program to take care of business on the turf rather than rely on Cavman in the pixels.
From the moment he was hired as head coach, Mendenhall has hinted he means business with his team. In training camp, he required his players to wear black until he determined that they had earned the right to wear their numbers and the Cavalier orange and blue.
Getting rid of the animated Cavman isn’t the only game day change Mendenhall is implementing in an effort to change the culture surrounding football. The Wahoo Walk, when players would walk down Engineer’s Way to Scott Stadium in front of adoring fans two hours prior to kickoff, is gone.
Now, before entering the field, the players will walk out holding hands to represent their unity. After taking three steps forward — for each letter of “U.Va.” — a group of players will yell “Hoos!” and sprint on the field as their teammates follow them.
For everyone who is worried about the actual Cavman, he will still be part of the pregame tradition as well. Like the rest of the team, he will come out onto the field sprinting with his horse. According to Mendenhall, this will represent the pace with which the Cavaliers intend to play the game.
In his 11 seasons at Brigham Young University, Mendenhall never missed a bowl game. Meanwhile, in that same time period, the Virginia football squad has only been to three such postseason games. In eliminating “The Adventures of Cavman,” Mendenhall is emphasizing the serious nature of the task at hand and reinforcing the notion that the only way his team can achieve success is through their own effort.
For now, people may be heartbroken without their former animated icon. Hopefully, though, the football team’s play can make up for the loss of the beloved pregame ritual.
Ben Tobin is a weekly sports columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at bjt5ed@virginia.edu or on Twitter at @TobinBen.
Read More
No. 4 women’s tennis makes fourth-ever ACC Championship match, falls to No. 5 North Carolina
By Grace Gould | 30 minutes agoFor the fourth time in its history, No. 4 Virginia women’s tennis made it to the ACC Championship match, defeating No. 28 Notre Dame and No. 23 Florida State en route to its finals appearance.
No. 2 men’s tennis falls to Florida State in ACC Championship
By Victoria Blankenship | 39 minutes agoVirginia will have to regroup heading into the ACC Tournament, with all eyes on a championship rerun.
Virginia baseball drops two of three in home series with Georgia Tech
By Ryan Weiner | YesterdayThe Cavaliers dropped a crucial series, and will need to rebound quickly heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
