The start of classes Tuesday signals an end to fall camp and two-a-days for the Virginia football team, and a transition to morning practice outside the McCue Center. Only two Saturdays away from hosting Richmond in their first game of the season, the Cavaliers are under the clock, with head coach Bronco Mendenhall acting as precise timekeeper and assessor.
“We are racing the clock with the execution, and rightly so,” Mendenhall said. “But in terms of the willingness, and the work ethic and the desire, as long as that remains, which I think it will, we’ll get the other part right.”
Missing that “other part” — which Mendenhall later drilled down upon as consistency of execution — is what frustrated Virginia fans throughout the London era, as poor clock management, silly penalties, untimely turnovers, blown coverages, missed tackles and overthrown and underthrown passes, among other miscues, often abetted the Cavaliers in somehow snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Similar to a perceptive businessperson focused on how to increase profit margins, Mendenhall obsesses over the ways in which those factors determine outcome.
“Having the capability is one thing, but doing it over and over and over again, regardless of circumstance, that reflects maturity,” Mendenhall said. “The best teams and the best programs are consistent.”
Offensive continuity begins and ends with the signal caller, his leadership, decision-making and abilities on the field. Finding a reliable, polished quarterback has proven difficult for Virginia the past decade: since 2006, 11 different Cavaliers have started at the position.
Word on the street is Mendenhall and staff will make it 12 as early as Wednesday, opting for the gunslinger Kurt Benkert — the transfer from ECU whose arm strength and toughness as a scrambler have made an impression during camp — over senior leader and previous starter Matt Johns, and fifth-year journeyman Connor Brewer.
Assistant head coach Ruffin McNeill, while serving as head coach at ECU in 2015, named Benkert his starting quarterback following fall camp. But a right knee injury this time last year sidelined the Baltimore, Md. native for the entire season. McNeill expressed his disappointment for Benkert, though trusting then that the player he’d met at the age of 16 would seize another opportunity.
That opportunity has surfaced in Charlottesville, with a fresh program bent on rising to new heights, yet with that familiar face from ECU who still believes in him.
“Coach [Robert] Anae and I come from the same offensive background about accuracy of the quarterback, being able to distribute the football, and being mobile,” McNeill said. “Kurt earned that spot for us down there [at ECU] during fall camp and had become a great leader for us. And he’s doing a great job of blending in now with his Virginia Cavalier team.”
By all accounts, Benkert — with his dual-threat skill — has most likely claimed the starting spot for the opener against Richmond, but that doesn’t mean the end of competition. Mendenhall recognizes positional depth is most beneficial to a team when those taking fewer snaps are hungry for more and press the starter in practice to prove his superiority on a daily basis.
Depth shouldn’t be confused as one of those hesitant in-game rotations of Rocco and Sims, Watford and Lambert, or Lambert and Johns. Ideally, there emerges in practice the same top dog.
“[Everyone is] still pushing,” Mendenhall said. “And I think that will happen the entire year, and I think it elevates each player and the entire position group… It’s one of the only positions we have where we have that kind of depth and competition. That’s why I think the position is playing well.”
Elsewhere, where in-game depth perhaps becomes more critical to fill entire defensive and offensive lines, a special teams group, linebacking core and secondary, Mendenhall readily admits his Virginia team lacks numbers. So even standouts like junior linebacker Micah Kiser and free safety Quin Blanding will be expected to fill voids in other areas. The same can be said for Cavalier fixtures on the other side of the ball.
“We won’t allow a player to start offensively or defensively unless they start on a special team,” Mendenhall said. “So our best players, and we’re not a program that has great depth right now, but our best players will have to be in phenomenal shape, because they’ll be starting on up to two other units per man.”
Kiser, Blanding and other stalwarts of the Virginia defense will have to be mentally engaged also, as their unit up front adjusts from the traditional 4-3 — four down linemen and three linebackers — to a 3-4 this season.
An extra linebacker will allow the Cavaliers to disguise pressure or to take away short passing routes in the middle of the field, while the three down linemen — senior Donte Wilkins, redshirt freshman Eli Hanback and junior Andrew Brown — will need to be more fleet of foot to get to the quarterback and to control gaps. Front and center will be the 6-1 300 lb. nose tackle Wilkins blowing up the opposing line and driving as many of their men backwards as possible.
“Donte is playing with great explosion,” McNeill said. “He’s one of the quarterbacks of the defense… He understands the front decorations. He understands the technique, responsibility, the what, whys and hows of our defense. Really a leader for our team, and I go by the mantra for him, ‘Well done is better than well said.’ He does it, not just talk about it.”
Wilkins could have moped about the coaching change that saw the well-respected London part ways with Virginia after six seasons. He could have transferred to a comfortable fit. But instead, Wilkins has bought into the Mendenhall way and become the rock that his new coaches cannot stop raving about. Meanwhile, more and more of his teammates answer the call.
“Our players are handling it well,” Mendenhall said. “We don’t make them do anything, but we’re asking a lot. They’re responding… Lots of work to go, but man I like their attitude.”
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