UVA Players Have Not Forgotten 2016 Game Against Richmond

It was right around this time two years ago: The town had just been painted orange, and excitement was building around ‘Hooville and beyond in anticipation of the start of the Bronco Mendenhall era.

Then a bunch of Spiders came and spoiled the party.

In Mendenhall’s Virginia debut at Scott Stadium on September 3, 2016, Richmond came in and handed it to the Cavaliers. The Spiders dominated in just about every category, capitalized on UVa’s mistakes, and quite frankly made it look as easy as an FCS school taking the air out of an ACC stadium.

UVa senior captain Jordan Ellis was battling a hamstring injury at the time in the 2016 opener, but admits he and his teammates haven’t forgotten how embarrassing the 37-20 defeat was.

“We know [the Spiders] left a bad taste in our mouth when they came here last time, so we’re just trying to prepare a different way,” Ellis said at the team’s first press conference Monday. “That kind of shocked us a little bit when they came and beat us two years ago and we kinda just want to repay them for what they gave us.”

Richmond quieted the crowd, jumping out to a 13-0 start early in the second quarter that day and pushed the lead to 30-7 by the fourth before the ‘Hoos made it respectable.

Quarterback Kyle Lauletta, now fighting for a backup job behind Eli Manning in New York, tossed for 337 yards and three scores. Gordon Collins rushed for 114 yards and a score, and Tyler Wilkins caught a pair of touchdown passes.

The Spiders out-gained Virginia, 524-302 (UVa only mustered 38 yards on the ground), took advantage of three Virginia fumbles and a Kurt Benkert interception, and owned the time of possession, nearly doubling the Cavaliers (39:46 to 20:14).

The humiliating loss was the first of several that first season, as Mendenhall’s new troops worked through the growing pains to a 2-10 finish.

“It was probably the first and maybe the most impactful precalibration in becoming the head coach at UVa on exactly where we were at the start of that season,” Mendenhall said. “I’m not going to diminish the fact that it was against Richmond. Really it could have been any team. Me then seeing our team’s demeanor in Scott Stadium, how exactly we were prepared or had been prepared to play a game, and maybe some of the existing influences that I wasn’t aware of.”

As all involved will tell you, the Wahoo football program, albeit a work in progress, has come a long way in a short amount of time.

Ellis described the current state of the program as being “light years” ahead of where it was two years ago, not just in terms of on-the-field development.

“Just everything,” explained Ellis. “The whole program, the whole culture has flipped. We were just getting used to Coach Mendenhall’s ways then, and now everybody’s kind of used to it and we’re more mature as a team on and off the field and I hope it translates on the field this year.”

Starting third-year cornerback Bryce Hall echoed Ellis’ sentiments.

“We’re a completely different team from then,” said Hall, “and it’s fun to see how much we’ve grown since then and how much we’ve kind of just developed as players on and off the field.”

Junior defensive lineman Eli Hanback, who hails from Ashland just outside of Richmond, had friends on the 2016 U of R squad and still knows a couple of the guys, adding one former Spider recently texted him talking a little trash about this weekend’s edition of the rivalry, in which Virginia holds a 28-3-2 record.

As Hanback pointed out, the team was adjusting to a new staff and new system back then, and the best thing to do now is to leave the forgetful defeat in the past.

“I think we’ve come strides from that team two years ago,” he said. “I think we know the defense better, I think we know how to run it better, we know our assignments better. I think we’re a bigger, stronger team than we were back then.”

Yes, there is still a bitter taste from 2016, but this year’s group says they’re treating the season opener like every other game.

“It’s the first game, it doesn’t really matter who we’re playing,” said Hall. “We’re as motivated as anybody. We treat every single game like it’s the most important, we’re just trying to go 1-0 every single week. It is Richmond, they did kinda beat up on us two years ago. At the same time it’s like, we’re ready to just do something special this year and so no matter who we’re facing, we’re going to be determined and locked in.”