Ouch! Bronco Throws Team Under The Bus | Syracusefan.com

Ouch! Bronco Throws Team Under The Bus

TexanMark

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“I believe we have 27 ACC-caliber football players on our roster today,” Mendenhall said.

Virginia football coach Bronco Mendenhall: Only 27 of our players are ACC-caliber


“I want to play the worst power-five team that we can play... That’s what the ACC requires, you have to play one other power-five [team in nonconference play]... I want to find the worst one we can play, so we can get another win... I want to find three other games that are close and beatable.”

Virginia football coach Bronco Mendenhall: 'I want to play the worst power-5 team that we can play'


“If you were in business, it would be less than taking over a start-up. It would be a program that was in bankruptcy."

Virginia football coach Bronco Mendenhall on first team meeting in 2016: 'I've never been more sad in my life'

Well then. I'm not sure that'll inspire the other 2/3's of your troops when you ask them to lay it out on the line for you in the fall coach. If my math is correct, he's also admitting that he's swung and missed on some of his own recruits, because it's not as if he inherited zero ACC level guys.

H/t:. College card at csnbbs.com
 
geese...dont hold back...
I see a few kids looking to transfer or go grad transfer. UVA is an excellent school so some of them might look at the Ivy and Patriot Leagues
 
Wow. Just wow. That can't be real, right?

I'm almost 40 and have never heard a coach speak like that.

I guess there are some things new under the sun.
 
"The truth hurts the most." Our opponents knew this all along. He's just saying out loud what they had in their scouting reports.

Our recruiting was really lackluster in the last years of the previous regime. Some would even say that trend started during the last years of Al Groh because he had a real knack of alienating HS coaches and our administration (because of disciplinary problems and poor academics). London would get a 4- or 5-star (usually from the Norfolk area) that would boost the overall rating of the class but did a terrible job when you looked at it position-by-position. The offensive line needed total reconstruction from scratch, and Bronco is doing that. It was almost like London didn't recruit any linemen. Bronco has a plan that gets some people who can play now and more that can play in the future. Unlike the two previous regimes, he has a plan and follows it. If you look at what he's done as converting a G-5 team into a P-5 team, he's really doing a great job. We have too many Vah-jen-yans on our board screaming about the lack of in-state recruits. Too freaking bad. IMO, they refuse to understand that a 3-star from Georgia or Florida is at least as good as a 3-star from Virginia and the only people who should care about where a recruit is from are in the Virginia Athletics Foundation who has to pay a higher tuition bill. The opposition is all keyed to the fact that Bronco and most of the staff are "from Utah" with all that entails.

This is what our board's ultimate "adult in the room" says about this (he's way beyond being called just "a board guru"). He is extremely well-connected to the Board of Visitors (the trustees).
 
"The truth hurts the most." Our opponents knew this all along. He's just saying out loud what they had in their scouting reports.

Our recruiting was really lackluster in the last years of the previous regime. Some would even say that trend started during the last years of Al Groh because he had a real knack of alienating HS coaches and our administration (because of disciplinary problems and poor academics). London would get a 4- or 5-star (usually from the Norfolk area) that would boost the overall rating of the class but did a terrible job when you looked at it position-by-position. The offensive line needed total reconstruction from scratch, and Bronco is doing that. It was almost like London didn't recruit any linemen. Bronco has a plan that gets some people who can play now and more that can play in the future. Unlike the two previous regimes, he has a plan and follows it. If you look at what he's done as converting a G-5 team into a P-5 team, he's really doing a great job. We have too many Vah-jen-yans on our board screaming about the lack of in-state recruits. Too freaking bad. IMO, they refuse to understand that a 3-star from Georgia or Florida is at least as good as a 3-star from Virginia and the only people who should care about where a recruit is from are in the Virginia Athletics Foundation who has to pay a higher tuition bill. The opposition is all keyed to the fact that Bronco and most of the staff are "from Utah" with all that entails.

This is what our board's ultimate "adult in the room" says about this (he's way beyond being called just "a board guru"). He is extremely well-connected to the Board of Visitors (the trustees).
I thought the team played pretty good last year in his second year as coach. Beat Boise, Duke, UNC and GTech. And went to a bowl. That would be a dream season for the Orange.
 
I thought the team played pretty good last year in his second year as coach. Beat Boise, Duke, UNC and GTech. And went to a bowl. That would be a dream season for the Orange.
Agree. It was a very good season considering it was Season 2. It was a great improvement. We have a lot of naysayers on out board, though. Most of them didn't want him in the first place, but I'm not one of them. Anyone who did not see progress was probably intentionally looking the other way.
 
I'll let everyone judge for themselves. This is an SB Nation blog written by someone who heard the recording of what Bronco said. The guy who posted the original Tweets is the new beat writer for the Charlottesville paper and was going by what someone told him. Bronco's pressers could become very interesting.
 
Agree. It was a very good season considering it was Season 2. It was a great improvement. We have a lot of naysayers on out board, though. Most of them didn't want him in the first place, but I'm not one of them. Anyone who did not see progress was probably intentionally looking the other way.
I thought London recruited very well but couldn't seem to coach at the ACC level. I thought the reason he was retained so long was because he was doing well recruiting, even though his record was bad.
 
I'll let everyone judge for themselves. This is an SB Nation blog written by someone who heard the recording of what Bronco said. The guy who posted the original Tweets is the new beat writer for the Charlottesville paper and was going by what someone told him. Bronco's pressers could become very interesting.
The guy who posted the original tweets is Sam Blum, a recent Newhouse (SU) grad. Keep an eye on him; I think he is headed for big things...
 
I thought London recruited very well but couldn't seem to coach at the ACC level. I thought the reason he was retained so long was because he was doing well recruiting, even though his record was bad.
Some of his high rating was based on getting a 4-Star to boost the 2s and 3s. A good deal of why he was kept was no donor’s coming forward to pick up the cost of his buyout.
 
The guy who posted the original tweets is Sam Blum, a recent Newhouse (SU) grad. Keep an eye on him; I think he is headed for big things...
He’s already got people yelling for his head. Uh oh!
 
The guy who posted the original tweets is Sam Blum, a recent Newhouse (SU) grad. Keep an eye on him; I think he is headed for big things...
Like a job at the p-s?
 
How is this any different than a coach saying "We lack depth" or "We have no depth in many positions". 22 players start. If there's no depth in many positions, then that means you have 22-30 Div1 caliber players at that moment. BTW, didn't Babers pretty much use the depth argument the first season and to some extent, the second. Mendenhall was just more blunt about it.
 
How is this any different than a coach saying "We lack depth" or "We have no depth in many positions". 22 players start. If there's no depth in many positions, then that means you have 22-30 Div1 caliber players at that moment. BTW, didn't Babers pretty much use the depth argument the first season and to some extent, the second. Mendenhall was just more blunt about it.
Because he just told about 3/4 of his team they don't belong here. Also added, we need to play teams that suck.(because we suck).

Tell the board that? Fine. Having it go public, Telling the team you think they suck? Not so much. Can't help that lack of confidence he mentioned. If he thinks they'll use it as a chip on their shoulder? Ok. But it could just as easily cause issues.
 
Because he just told about 3/4 of his team they don't belong here. Also added, we need to play teams that suck.(because we suck).

Tell the board that? Fine. Having it go public, Telling the team you think they suck? Not so much. Can't help that lack of confidence he mentioned. If he thinks they'll use it as a chip on their shoulder? Ok. But it could just as easily cause issues.
Actually he didn't. From the SB Nation article (in the UVa version of "Nunes the Magician") written by Paul Wiley, who actually heard the recording of the meeting:

"Instead of repeatedly highlighting the discrepancy between 81 and 27, as Blum did, a responsible journalist might have provided some context on how many of those 81 players on the roster actually play in ACC games.

During the 2017 season, 59 players appeared in two or more ACC games—a decent indication of how much “ACC-caliber” talent a team needs. Those 59 players included 11 seniors, as well as four players who have either retired for medical reasons or left the team and the University.

Which means there are 44 players on the current roster who appeared in two or more ACC games. Even if there isn’t perfect overlap between 2017 appearances and Mendenhall’s talent assessment, that still means he thinks about half of the current players with meaningful ACC experience are up to ACC standards.

Is that really so shocking for a program that’s gone 4-12 in conference the past two seasons?"

As a creature of the State, all meetings of the UVa Board of Visitors have to have a transcript available to the public under Va's Public Records Act, so telling the Board is telling the public.
 
I thought the team played pretty good last year in his second year as coach. Beat Boise, Duke, UNC and GTech. And went to a bowl. That would be a dream season for the Orange.

Dream season is a bit much
 
Because he just told about 3/4 of his team they don't belong here. Also added, we need to play teams that suck.(because we suck).

Tell the board that? Fine. Having it go public, Telling the team you think they suck? Not so much. Can't help that lack of confidence he mentioned. If he thinks they'll use it as a chip on their shoulder? Ok. But it could just as easily cause issues.

Again, how is that any different then telling a team "we have no depth". It's just a nicer way of telling players that they're not capable. Babers said this multiple times over the last two years.
 
Again, how is that any different then telling a team "we have no depth". It's just a nicer way of telling players that they're not capable. Babers said this multiple times over the last two years.
I think publicly, players want to know that coach has their back. Lack of depth? Ok. We gotta work harder. Wanting to schedule teams that suck, or separating members of team - publicly- may not be the best choice. The media/message boards do that. Not your leader.

How'd it work out for FSU when they lost their locker room?
 
I was also told that players are separated, in S + C, by shirt color. New? Haven't accomplished much? White. The more you've accomplished, the darker the color. I don't believe in snowflake BS, but I do believe that a team "playing as one, winning as one,". And "we're together", is an important part of a successful team..

I'm not sure that separating them, both in workouts, and publicly is the best way to build that bond. Frankly, I think it's a good way to lose a bunch of your locker room. I wouldn't be surprised if recruits looked elsewhere, either.
 

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