This Year’s Team Doesn’t Get Down After A Loss; They Get Angry

Changing the culture of Virginia football took some time, but there’s a sure sign of how things have transformed in Year 3 of the Bronco Mendenhall regime.

When the former BYU coach took over the Cavaliers’ program for the 2016 season, one of the first things he noticed was how beaten down mentally and emotionally his team was. If anything went wrong, the team was automatically dejected. Kind of a “here we go again” attitude.

No longer.

Standing at 3-2 overall, and 1-1 in ACC play, Mendenhall noticed a change in the team’s psyche during a bye week, following a loss at N.C. State.

“Our team is angry,” Mendenhall said. “Our team now is angry when they lose. They’re not dejected or down. They’re angry.”

It’s kind of like anger management in reverse. An angry football team is a good thing if harnessed properly.

Most of George Welsh’s best football teams were always angry after a loss, usually aware after the fact that they allowed a win to slip through their mitts.

Ask any guys from that era of Wahoo football, and they’ll readily tell you that anger is a good thing. Ask Charles McDaniel, Barry Word, Shawn Moore, Chris Slade, Thomas Jones, The Barber Twins, Aaron Brooks, James Farrior, Ray Savage, Mark Dixon, Ray Roberts, and more. They were always angry when they lost a game. So, Mendenhall accepts that as a huge improvement.

“There were plays left on the field they think they could have made,” the UVa coach said Monday during his weekly press conference. “They know a handful of those, like any game, possibly would give them a different outcome.”

Virginia has been in every game it has played thus far, falling behind at Indiana and at N.C. State, both steps up in the level of competition, but rallied to make a game of both losses. The Cavaliers lost 20-16 to the Hoosiers and 35-21 to the Wolfpack.

In both cases, UVa got off to slow starts, trailing 20-7 at halftime in Raleigh, and 20-9 at the break in Bloomington.

“That’s becoming clearer and clearer to them,” Bronco said in reference to his players recognizing a handful of plays made the difference in both defeats. “I think they’re determined and there is resolve … that’s what I sense from them.”

Quarterback Bryce Perkins was asked how the Cavaliers can use that anger to improve performance, and Perkins didn’t hesitate with an answer.

“You look at what went wrong, you get angry about it and then be more deliberate at practice,” the junior QB said. “How you practice is how you play, so when you lose, the following week you have to come back angry and take every play angrily, so you can get more production from all the guys and then that will translate to the next game. Keep that same intensity.”

Virginia will have the opportunity to unleash two weeks worth of anger on Saturday night when the Cavaliers host 16th-ranked Miami, fresh off an impressive comeback win against rival Florida State last weekend.

This will be UVa’s Homecoming game, a 7 p.m. start on ESPN2.

Injury Report

One of the benefits of a bye week, particularly close to midway through the season, is recovery.

Virginia is banged up, particularly on the defensive side of the football, and while the bye week helped, it certainly was not a cure all. However, the Cavaliers are expected to have a couple of players back to near full strength.

Malcolm Cook, an inside linebacker that has missed the last three games, should be back for Miami. Meanwhile, safety Brenton Nelson (profiled on this site last week…see our archives), is expected to clear concussion protocol and return to action.

“[Cook] is practicing,” Mendenhall said. “Based on what I saw today, there’s still a significant way to go. He’ll be listed I’m sure as probable, but he’s going to have to look different than he did today.”

Nelson suffered a concussion against N.C. State, but Mendenhall said he’s been told that UVa’s medical staff believes he will be ready for Miami.

“Any time you’re dealing with concussions, though, it’s hard to know,” the coach said. “Again, what I love is the protocol because it protects the player and makes sure that he’s safe and ready before he comes back. So we’re all relying on the protocol, which I completely support.”

Speaking of concussions, Ohio State transfer defensive lineman Dylan Thompson, who is yet to play in a game for the Cavaliers this season, suffered a concussion in practice last week and will not be available for this week’s game.

Redshirt freshman cornerback Germaine Crowell, yes, that Crowell family , was also diagnosed with a concussion.

Meanwhile, Chris Moore, listed behind Joey Blount at the free safety position, has been lost for the rest of the season. UVa already lost inside linebacker Jordan Mack, originally a six-week diagnosis, which could bring him back as early as the North Carolina game, and also lost defensive end Richard Burney for the rest of the season due to an unspecified medical issue.

With all the injuries to inside linebackers Cook and Mack, that has put some strain on that position. Sophomores Zane Zandier and Rob Snyder have been starting at those two inside spots, backed up only by senior C.J. Stalker. If Cook can return, that would add a little more depth.

Asked how comfortable he was with Zandier and Snyder moving forward, Mendenhall didn’t pull any punches.

“I’m not [comfortable],” the coach said. “There is just not enough players. So I love those two. Two is not enough. We’re continuing to look and assess who else.”

The coaches have moved freshman T.C. Harrison of Lawrenceville, Ga., from outside to inside in hopes of building a little more depth.

“Yeah, that position is one play away from us being really thin,” Mendenhall said. “I’m completely comfortable with Rob and Zane. I’m not comfortable with the depth of the position to make it more clear.”

The Cavaliers staff has also moved sophomore De’Vante Cross from wide receiver back to free safety to replace the injured Moore.

“It’s hard to anticipate when you lose two players in the two deep either in the secondary or at linebacker or offensive line or wherever,” Mendenhall said. “It’s kind of like getting a call on the red phone where you’re close to being out of players.

“The two deep just went boom, boom, boom. Okay how what? Luckily, De’Vante has had some experience, and he’s been training there since the middle of last week.”

Good Timing For Bye Week

Mendenhall said that Virginia’s bye was almost perfect timing. Coaches would love to have a bye right smack dab in the middle of the season, so the Cavaliers’ was one week shy of that date.

As mentioned above, UVa managed to restore some health, but not enough to suit the coaching staff.

“It won’t ever be completely possible (to have everyone back), but to restore some health, to assess our personnel and our schemes to see where and how and who is most effective, and then certainly we got some recruiting done as well,” Mendenhall said of how the Cavaliers used their break from action. “From that standpoint I’m optimistic. I’m comfortable we got those things done.”

Mendenhall said it seemed liked a long time since Virginia had played football, but was glad the Cavaliers are back home (this will be only the third home game of the season due to the Ohio U. game having been moved to Nashville, Tenn., to avoid Hurricane Florence).

“It almost feels like a new season,” Mendenhall said.

In a way, it just might be.

The Cavaliers have seven games remaining, six of those all against Coastal Division competition (the lone non-Coastal game is against nonconference Liberty on Nov. 10).

UVa hosts Miami, then plays at Duke, hosts UNC, Pitt, and Liberty in consecutive weeks, then finishes the season at Georgia Tech and at Virginia Tech.

The Wahoos led then-No. 5 ranked Miami down 28-14 early in the third quarter at Miami Gardens last November before they fell apart and lost 44-28.

However, UVa has been generally competitive with the Hurricanes since they entered the ACC. Virginia has a three-game winning streak against Duke, and defeated Carolina 20-14 in Chapel Hill last season (the Tar Heels have won only once at Scott Stadium since 1994).

UVa has lost three in a row to Pitt, but is long overdue against the Panthers, and has won two of the last three against Georgia Tech. Then, there’s the Hokies, and everyone is aware of that streak.

Still, every one of the remaining seven games could be classified as winnable. Mendenhall acknowledged that Monday, but also said, “Conversely, you can flip it the other way.”

On the loss to Miami last season when former QB Kurt Benkert got off to one of the hottest starts every by a Virginia passer, Mendenhall commented:

“When you look at the game from a year ago, we played well enough, long enough to make it really interesting, but not quite well enough and long and consistent enough to hold on.”

Hot Note

Virginia senior slot receiver Olamide Zaccheaus is the only active player in the country with at least 2,000 career receiving yards and 450 career rushing yards.

Zaccheaus also has 34-game streak with at least one reception in each, a streak that began against Miami on Nov. 7, 2015.

Zaccheaus has 33 receptions in five games this season for 501 yards and six touchdowns. Last year at the same time, he had 38 catches for only 348 yards and two TDs.