Bronco Mendenhall's Virgina Cavaliers

So Virginia is pounding BSU tonight. Didn't take him long to get them playing good. They won't win the ACC this year but I expect them to go bowling. Quite a turnaround for a team that has been a doormat for many years.

frdbtr wrote:

So Virginia is pounding BSU tonight. Didn't take him long to get them playing good. They won't win the ACC this year but I expect them to go bowling. Quite a turnaround for a team that has been a doormat for many years.

a real shellacking.

Makes me long for the days when our defense used to make QB's uncomfortable.

A great game plan and execution. The offense for UV gave the Donkeys fits all day. They never knew what was coming next.



The defense completely out classed the Boise offense as well. The blitzes and play calling was exquisite.



An amazing turn around considering Boise was a 2 TD favorite.

Boise has been on the decline ever since Peterson left. Now that most of his players have moved on, BSU will fall off the cliff.

I always liked Bronco so good for him.I hope Virginia does well.It will be interesting to see how he does without some of the limitations that he had at BYU. If they go bowling I bet there will be a nice little raise and contract extension in it for him.

Woody3715 wrote:

Boise has been on the decline ever since Peterson left. Now that most of his players have moved on, BSU will fall off the cliff.

This may be the case but this is the worst loss for BSU at home since 2001. That is saying something. There have been some good teams play there and not given BSU that kind of whooping. I'm also happy for Bronco. They had a rough year last year, Virginia looks like a totally different team this year. He has turned them around. I figured after watching a couple of games last year that it was going to take at least 3 years for him to have a winning season but I think he gets them to a bowl game this year.

Virginia looked poor against Indiana, and I don't believe in Bronco as a recruiter, but wow, what a good win. The next question is how consistent Virginia can be. Going bowling is everything for them right now.

Mars wrote:

Virginia looked poor against Indiana, and I don't believe in Bronco as a recruiter, but wow, what a good win. The next question is how consistent Virginia can be. Going bowling is everything for them right now.

I get tired of beating a dead horse(The honor code)but it does impact recruiting.A question for everyone.How much is not having an honor code going to change/improve his recruiting at Virginia? will he look like a better recruiter? What kind of players will he be able to recruit without those limitations?Just curious about everyone's opinions on this.

screamineagle2 wrote:

Virginia looked poor against Indiana, and I don't believe in Bronco as a recruiter, but wow, what a good win. The next question is how consistent Virginia can be. Going bowling is everything for them right now.

I get tired of beating a dead horse(The honor code)but it does impact recruiting.A question for everyone.How much is not having an honor code going to change/improve his recruiting at Virginia? will he look like a better recruiter? What kind of players will he be able to recruit without those limitations?Just curious about everyone's opinions on this.

BYU is a destination school. The honor code is obviously something that affects recruiting, but so is the fact that people are lining up to get turned away by BYU because of the religious school affiliation. BYU is the third largest private school in the nation, and the first largest religious school.



Sure, the honor code hurts in some aspects, especially with elite non-lds athletes. But, we have people that turn down scholarships at other schools to walk on here at BYU because it is where they want to be. The better we get, the better those athletes get. The trick is to know what to do with that depth so we can win now, and what to do with those athletes.

Brayden Green wrote:

Mars wrote:

Virginia looked poor against Indiana, and I don't believe in Bronco as a recruiter, but wow, what a good win. The next question is how consistent Virginia can be. Going bowling is everything for them right now.

I get tired of beating a dead horse(The honor code)but it does impact recruiting.A question for everyone.How much is not having an honor code going to change/improve his recruiting at Virginia? will he look like a better recruiter? What kind of players will he be able to recruit without those limitations?Just curious about everyone's opinions on this.

BYU is a destination school. The honor code is obviously something that affects recruiting, but so is the fact that people are lining up to get turned away by BYU because of the religious school affiliation. BYU is the third largest private school in the nation, and the first largest religious school.



Sure, the honor code hurts in some aspects, especially with elite non-lds athletes. But, we have people that turn down scholarships at other schools to walk on here at BYU because it is where they want to be. The better we get, the better those athletes get. The trick is to know what to do with that depth so we can win now, and what to do with those athletes.

As far as I can discern, BYU is the largest private university, as measured by undergraduate student enrollment. BYU has 30k. NYU is next at 21k. What two schools do you think are larger than BYU? No big deal but am curious.

Sure, the honor code hurts in some aspects, especially with elite non-lds athletes. But, we have people that turn down scholarships at other schools to walk on here at BYU because it is where they want to be. The better we get, the better those athletes get. The trick is to know what to do with that depth so we can win now, and what to do with those athletes.

[/quote]



This season I haven't seen on the field any of the elite athletes that turned down other schools to walk on to BYU, or to take a BYU scholarship for that matter.

Woody3715 wrote:

Sure, the honor code hurts in some aspects, especially with elite non-lds athletes. But, we have people that turn down scholarships at other schools to walk on here at BYU because it is where they want to be. The better we get, the better those athletes get. The trick is to know what to do with that depth so we can win now, and what to do with those athletes.

This season I haven't seen on the field any of the elite athletes that turned down other schools to walk on to BYU, or to take a BYU scholarship for that matter.

[/quote]



I agree. I don't think that recruiting classes rated in the mid to upper 60's puts BYU in the "turn down offers from other universities to come to BYU" classification. I am trying to give Kalani a chance because he is the head coach of my favorite college football team but other than him being very personable, the only qualification I hear about him as head coach is that he is a "master recruiter". Frankly, I don't see it. We aren't getting any better recruiting classes then we had with Bronco and those same recruiting classes are performing a lot worse on the field this year. Everyone is saying that BYU should win 9 games this year because of the patsy's on our schedule the last part of the year but IMO, BYU is one of the patsy's. I hope I am wrong but I watch a lot of college football, including the Wyoming vs Hawaii game tonight and I don't see BYU beating either of those teams in their current state. Here's to hoping they improve a TON in the bye week.

I really don't get the Bronco-envy. Look--Bronco is a good coach. He did great things at BYU. Bronco went to Virginia and they have put together a decent OOC start to the year. Virginia is 3-1 with wins over FCS William & Mary, a UConn team with only 1 other game under their belt in a win against FCS Holy Cross, and beating Boise State. Indiana who beat them as expected beat Georgia Southern and lost to Ohio State. I don't think you can look at any of those teams and say who has "turned things around" or is performing above their schools' average performance.

Sitake has had a grand total of 1 full recruiting class. Of the 33 that have committed/joined since last year's first full recruiting cycle, only 8 have been on the field--5 of whom cracked the 2 deep and 3 are Freshmen (Ah You, A. Lee--sophomore, Tolutau, K. Tonga, Tuifua). Many are on missions, sitting out for transfer rules, or potentially redshirting. I'm waiting to see how things play out when we aren't facing ranked teams every week with our team that has obviously taken a step back from last year.

I don't get the Bronco envy either. The reason that BYU this season doesn't have any seniors or juniors performing at a high level is that Bronco's last recruiting classes were poor.

Don't expect for BYU to be too much improved after the bye week. They mainly took it off to heal up, no real practices.

Mars wrote:

Don't expect for BYU to be too much improved after the bye week. They mainly took it off to heal up, no real practices.

Total bronco move.

I'm not talking Bronco envy. I am comparing 2 coaching staffs. Bronco would never have left if he wasn't pressured out by alumni who wanted Sitake. Ken N from Navy said that he didn't feel like he was seriously considered as head coach when he was interviewed. Lance Anderson was never contacted as far as I have Knowledge (DC at Stanford). There were other candidates that I never heard were interviewed. Only Sitake. We ran off a coach who averaged 9 wins per year for a coaching staff who has not performed as well as the previous one. That is the point of this thread.

frdbtr wrote:

I'm not talking Bronco envy. I am comparing 2 coaching staffs. Bronco would never have left if he wasn't pressured out by alumni who wanted Sitake. Ken N from Navy said that he didn't feel like he was seriously considered as head coach when he was interviewed. Lance Anderson was never contacted as far as I have Knowledge (DC at Stanford). There were other candidates that I never heard were interviewed. Only Sitake. We ran off a coach who averaged 9 wins per year for a coaching staff who has not performed as well as the previous one. That is the point of this thread.

You can hardly make apples to apples comparisons at this point. We have to give Sitake and his guys time to get their recruits on the field and their system really in place. With that comes mistakes and growing pains.



And you know what? Even if it doesn't work out I would still be glad Bronco was gone. We repeatedly saw what his ceiling was and, in the later years, he often wasn't even hitting that. Like I said before, Bronco was a case of diminishing returns. His best team was in 2006. And he had 5 straight losses to Utah. Enough reason alone to fire him.

And comparisons to what end? Trying to say something else would be better than what we have? Giving Sitake 1 1/3 of a season to do what Bronco did at the peak of his performance over a dozen years or whatever? Bronco churned thru OCs and the offense struggled often as well. Or does that part of the memory fade...