The Virginia football team returns to action this Saturday at Scott Stadium, as the Cavaliers get set to kick off the season at home against in-state rival William & Mary.
After going 2-10 last season, the players are excited to get back on the field to play in regular-season games again.
“Coming off the season we just had last year, we’re just excited to get going again and get that bad taste out of our mouths,” sophomore inside linebacker Jordan Mack said. “We’re very excited to…Hit that field on Saturday.”
The Cavaliers have history on their side, having won eight of the last nine meetings between the two teams. However, after a disappointing loss in last year’s season opener against Richmond — another in-state FCS team — the Cavaliers know they have to be prepared for a tough battle.
“They’re a good team, and we’re not going to overlook them,” Mack said. “They have weapons that they can hurt us with so we’re just going to prepare effectively so we can be ready to play.”
On the defensive side, Virginia will look to improve on its performance from last season, in which they gave up more than 30 points each in nine of their games. Virginia’s defense featured a plethora of first-time starters last year, and with this year’s squad more seasoned and comfortable, the Cavaliers aims to improve defensively.
“They are more mature, the defensive group, more consistent, they are more experienced,” Coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “From practice to practice, I don't see any way ups, way downs, highs and lows — I see consistent work.”
However, Mendenhall knows that there is still more work to be done.
“The mindset is developing, the execution is developing — they are becoming a group that I really like to coach,” he said. “I think the yield will show that. It will really be up to them and me as to when — it's still going to take a lot of work.”
Though the depth chart for the William & Mary game was released early Monday afternoon, Mendenhall emphasized that there is a possibility changes may occur after this weekend’s game. Despite players having showcased their abilities throughout the summer, Saturday’s game will provide the coaches with an even stronger sense of where the players and the team stand.
“I can't promise there's not going to be changes after week one,” Mendenhall said. “Seems like there always is, no matter how much meeting time we put in, practice time, sometimes the lenses we see things through are practice lenses. Game lenses are different.”
As the season begins this Saturday, Mendenhall announced that the team had voted on captains last week — giving the honor to seniors quarterback Kurt Benkert, inside linebacker Micah Kiser and free safety Quin Blanding. He also said that there will be a fourth captain each week from special teams.
“The team voted on those three players,” Mendenhall said. “Again, there will be a special teams captain that will be the fourth each week, and that will be rotating based on performance.”
In analyzing the past season, Mendenhall said that last year’s emphasis on fitness may have prevented the team’s physicality from being where it could have been.
“Sometimes, I listen to the way we play rather than watch the way we play…There's a sound of contact with physically-prepared people, as well as mentally prepared, with the intensity,” Mendenhall said. “The number of times that I heard that a year ago, it was lacking...It was a wake-up call. We had spent so much time on just conditioning our players to where we could get through practice, the tempo we wanted.”
That’s why the team spent more time this offseason focusing on physicality and strength, Mendenhall said.
“Once that baseline has been established, we've been able to target more size and strength to where hopefully the game sounds and looks different than it did a year ago,” Mendenhall said. “That's our intent.”
When discussing this year’s team, Mack said that their cohesion this year has helped create a culture that emphasizes playing football together as a team, and getting the most out of every player.
“I would just say the team’s closer…It’s not just offense and defense, Mack said. “Everyone has a team. In the locker room, we’re very close and…We’re ready to play complementary football where we back each other up no matter what,” Mack said.
The game against William & Mary will begin at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and will be the first of three home games for Virginia to start the 2017 season.
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