The Challenge For Virginia Over The Next Six Weeks Is To Finish

If you go back to last season at the midway point and look at what Virginia has managed to do at midseason this year, the Cavaliers have compiled a 9-3 record.

Of course the second half of last season wasn’t quite so grand, with UVa losing six of its last seven, including a loss in the Military Bowl to Navy.

So the challenge for Bronco Mendenhall’s football team over the next six weeks is to finish.

Certainly it isn’t quite the same. Five of those nine wins were nonconference victories, and the only impressive one was at Boise State in a stunner last season.

UVa still has one nonconference game remaining on the schedule this year, a home game against Liberty on Nov. 10.

This year’s backend of the schedule doesn’t appear to be nearly as loaded as the 2017 one, which included Boston College, at Pitt, Georgia Tech, at Louisville with Lamar Jackson, at No. 2 Miami, and home against rival Virginia Tech.

This season, the Cavaliers finish with this: at Duke (5-1), UNC (1-4), Pitt (3-4), and Liberty (3-3) all at home, before road trips to Georgia Tech (3-4) and Virginia Tech (4-2).

Looking back on the second half of last season and putting an emphasis on finishing stronger this season, Mendenhall sees only one common thread.

“What is similar is the depth on our roster is very similar,” the coach said Monday at his weekly press conference. “It’s affecting practice right now. It’s affecting rotation right now. It certainly will affect how we have to manage our team down the stretch.”

In terms of a difference between last year and now, Mendenhall said this year’s team’s confidence continues to grow.

“Our capability continues to increase, but it’s slow and steady and methodical,” he said. “Most of our ACC wins, if you look at last year, we were on the field right at the very end against Duke, against North Carolina, Georgia Tech, and the one we just had (over 16th-ranked Miami). That’s how this is going to evolve. We’ve only had one that wasn’t a last-minute type play and that was Louisville.”

Mendenhall realizes that all the remaining ACC games on the schedule are winnable, but they’re also loseable. As much as a muddled toss up the Coastal Division has been in the past, it’s even more of a wide open crap shoot this year.

With so many 50-50 games remaining on the schedule, games that could go to the wire, Mendenhall believes they’ll likely come down to a handful of plays.

“When we make them, we’ll win. If not, then it’ll be frustrating and sad and then we’ll refocus and again try to get the right players in the right spots at the right time in the right scheme to be able to deliver what they can do,” he said. “That’s where the roster is versus any opponent and what we’re working hard to do.”

Celebrate & Forget

Mendenhall said that while his players now believe they can win the ACC’s Coastal Division, he hasn’t encouraged them to say or think about it, even though that is the obvious goal.

“That they actually believe it enough to say it, that’s a significant step,” the coach said. “That doesn’t mean it’s boastful or bragging. That they think they actually have a chance in every game they have remaining on the schedule, that’s a powerful thing that’s come through a lot of work.

“It doesn’t guarantee or really predict anything, it just means they think they can do it,” he said.

Mendenhall believes that a times goals are better left unsaid, and that work speaks for itself.

If the Cavaliers are riding on too high a cloud after upsetting a ranked team, then he plans on bringing the Cavaliers back down to Earth in Tuesday’s practice.

“The best way to not have one win now affect the next game is by the head coach framing a real demanding practice [Tuesday] to where it’s almost all they can do to survive it,” Bronco said. “So that’s what I plan to do.”

He gave his team Saturday night and Sunday to celebrate Virginia’s first win over a ranked team since beating No. 21 Louisville in 2014. From that point on, it’s all about Duke.

Injury Update

The Cavaliers got three players back for the Miami game: offensive guard R.J. Proctor, defensive back Brenton Nelson, and inside linebacker Malcolm Cook.

Certainly the bye week came at a good time for Proctor and his Cavalier mates.

“I was just talking with (offensive coordinator) Robert (Anae) and (offensive line coach) Garrett (Tujague) on the way over here,” Mendenhall said. “I thought [Proctor] had the strongest game of any of our offensive linemen.

“It was the closest that I’ve seen him back to 100 percent since the injury,” the coach said. “Been a long haul. We need extra push at the guard spot. We need targeting and aggression and more movement.

“So he had a strong game and we needed him,” Mendenhall continued. “It was a bright spot to finally have a player returning to full health at a position of need. Had a lot to do with some of the runs we had.”

Short Yardage …

• Cornerback Bryce Hall has leapfrogged into the No. 1 spot in the ACC and No. 3 nationally in passes defended with 12, including 11 pass break ups (PBUs) and an interception.

• Slot receiver Olamide Zaccheaus extended his streak of consecutive games with at least one reception to 35, a streak that began in November of 2015 against guess who … Miami.

• When Virginia faces Duke on Saturday, the Cavaliers will be facing one of the nation’s most highly-regarded quarterbacks in Daniel Jones. While Jones has torn up some opponents, an eye-popping seven of his 22 career interceptions have come against UVa. Juan Thornhill has three of ‘em, Bryce Hall two, and former Wahoo Quin Blanding had two.

• We believed that one of the keys for Virginia having a successful season was finding a way to put a respectable running attack together. Well, through the first six games of the season, the Cavaliers have rushed for their most yards (1,098) in five years. The ‘13 team had 1,133.

• Virginia has a three-game winning streak against Duke and Bronco has a 2-0 record against Blue Devils coach David Cutcliffe, considered one of the most underrated coaches in the country.

The Juan & Only

Senior strong safety Juan Thornhill was honored with his second ACC Defensive Back selection of the season on Monday.

Thornhill made six tackles and intercepted two Miami passes to help lead the Cavaliers to a 16-13 upset over the 16th-ranked Hurricanes. One of his interception returns covered 62 yards and set up a UVa touchdown.

He now has 10 career interceptions.

Prior to the ACC plaudits, Thornhill was named Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week for his performance.

Carolina Kickoff Set

The ACC announced Monday that Virginia’s home game against longtime rival North Carolina, the “South’s Oldest Rivalry,” will kick off at 12:20 p.m., and will be televised on the Raycom Sports network (Channel NBC29 locally).