Bronco Frustrated Team Isn’t Controlling Line Of Scrimmage

After reviewing game tape of Indiana romping through his defense Saturday night, Bronco Mendenhall told media at his weekly presser Monday that he was disappointed and frustrated that Virginia didn’t win the football game.

Part of that frustration derived from his offensive and defensive lines’ inability to control the line of scrimmage for most of the rain-plagued game. Indiana running back Stevie Scott pounded out 204 of the Hoosiers’ 237 yards rushing on the night, a 5.4 yards per carry average. Meanwhile, Virginia managed 188 on the ground, only 63 of that from running back Jordan Ellis, while mobile quarterback Bryce Perkins ripped off 123.

“I think the gap has been closed from our game against Indiana a year ago to this one,” Mendenhall said of the back-to-back losses to the Big 10 opponent. “They were still the more physical team, offensive line and defensive line especially.”

That aspect proved to be the biggest factor in the game as I reported from Bloomington after the game Saturday night after the Hoosiers dominated the line of scrimmage.

“That really kind of held the context of the game,” Mendenhall said Monday.

Defensive end Mandy Alonso said Monday that Indiana essentially blocked UVa defensive linemen out of the gap they were supposed to fill, allowing Scott to run wild most of the game.

Mendenhall said that inconsistency hurt Virginia’s defense all night long because when the defensive line couldn’t carry out its assignments, that added extra pressure onto the linebackers and safeties to get the job done.

“Between Richard Burney developing, Mandy developing, Jordan Redmond and Aaron Faumui, there was enough inconsistencies up front to then back the backers and be inconsistent off the front’s fits,” Mendenhall explained. “That usually mean there was one gap to be found.

“[Indiana’s Scott] with a little bit deeper set, was finding that. And the inconsistencies, when I say gap integrity, that just means we could be one gap off, and [Indiana] found that gap frequently,” Mendenhall said. “That usually was because the defensive line was off a gap, which meant the backers were off a gap, which then led to yardage.”

The coach did say that Burney is rapidly becoming a bright spot, and that Eli Hanback was where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be there the majority of the game, meaning there’s promise at both defensive end spots.

Meanwhile, Ohio State transfer Dylan Thompson, who could add depth to that defensive line, still has not earned his number yet. Mendenhall said that Thompson has finished his five acclimation practices and did sustain a slight knee injury last week but that should not prevent him from practicing this week.

“We’ll see what role he earns and if he’s ready to possibly get game time,” Mendenhall said. “You need a jersey to play, so he’s earning. He has potential and he has capability otherwise we wouldn’t have brought him, and he’s already shown that. I wish I could anticipate or say how long it’s going to take, but we’ll see.”

End of Game Controversy

Mendenhall didn’t elaborate much on the pass interference call on the next-to-last play of the game that prevented Hasise Dubois from catching the ball. Officials ruled it a spot foul, a four-yard penalty rather than the customary 15 yards and allowed one untimed play to be executed by Virginia at game’s end, an unsuccessful Hail Mary attempt to the end zone in UVa’s 20-16 loss to the Hoosiers.

Asked about the situation again Monday, Mendenhall repeated the same thing he told a hand full of media after the game Saturday night.

“All I know is we were told it was a spot foul and we have one untimed down,” Mendenhall said. “That was what I was told.”

Asked if he would file a report to conference officials about the ending, Mendenhall said that the process allows him to submit any plays he and his staff thinks were missed or if there is a play in question.

“We send it in, and what they do is make an assessment,” the coach said.

ACC coordinator of officials Dennis Hennigan takes a look and gives his assessment of whether the officials were right or wrong. Officials are evaluated based on the volume of those complaints, but that’s not going to change the outcome of a call or a game.

“There is just I agree or don’t agree,” Mendenhall said.

Lacking at Wide Receiver

Virginia isn’t putting the ball in the air that much (24 times at Indiana), but when it has, there hasn’t been much production coming from the wide receiver spot other than junior Hasise Dubois, who has caught seven passes for 85 yards and one TD.

No other wide outs have caught more than two passes, leaving slot receiver Olamide Zaccheaus with the bulk of production with 11 receptions for 116 yards and two TDs.

Highly touted true freshman wide receiver Tavares Kelly has not caught a ball in two games nor has sophomore De’Vante Cross. While we’re on that subject, tight end Evan Butts, a big target last season, hasn’t been a big part of Virginia’s game plan in the first two contests, catching only two passes for 10 yards.

Can the Cavaliers win ACC games without more ball distribution among its receivers? From the pressbox on Saturday night, it appeared that Virginia’s receivers simply weren’t getting open against Indiana’s coverage.

Mendenhall has been somewhat surprised that Kelly, a speedster from Florida, hasn’t made an impact thus far.

“Yeah, from what I saw in training camp I would’ve expected more production through two games than what’s happened so far,” the coach said. “We’re still looking for that, to find the right niche, the right touches, the right role, the right usage, because capability was shown in training camp.”

Joe Reed and Cross haven’t been used much either.

“Yeah, we would love them to be integrated more, but simple separation from defenders, getting open more frequently to where they can be targeted more … there is still a lot of work that has to be done on both their parts to create enough separation for the ball to get to them,” Mendenhall said. “So position mastery is still something that both need to increase.”

Perkins’ Touches

Junior quarterback Bryce Perkins is UVa’s leading rusher after two games with 231 yards, 6.1 yards per carry average, and two TDs. He has 38 rushing attempts, some by design, some via necessity.

Running back Jordan Ellis has 32 carries for 209 yards (6.5 per rush) and two scores.

Mendenhall was asked if Perkins’ 25 rushes against the Hoosiers on Saturday night were too many.

“I think it’s about where that’s going to be when you put scrambles in, which there is always going to be some of those based on protection holding or not holding, as well as designed runs,” the coach said. “I think that’s about where we’re going to be.”

Mendenhall has not backed off his comments from preseason when he said that in order for Virginia to have a good year or phenomenal year, then Perkins needs to have the same.

Virginia fans tend to fret a bit over Perkins’ amount of carries, but then the Cavaliers haven’t really had a quarterback who carries the ball in decades. The last QB who was as much a running threat as Perkins was current wide receivers coach Marques Hagans, but “Biscuit,” Hagans’ nickname, never had a 100-yard rushing game.

Perkins has already had two. In fact, Perkins became the first UVa quarterback to rush for 100-plus yards multiple times in a season since Bill Dudley in 1941, and we’re not even sure that Dudley was a QB, but rather a halfback who took direct snaps on passing downs because he had a better arm than the quarterback.

It’s not unusual in college football for option teams to boast a quarterback who carries the ball often without injury.

“Bryce is doing a good job of not taking clean shots, not taking violent hits and sliding and getting down,” Mendenhall pointed out. “So fingers crossed at this point.”

Hurricane Preparation

With hurricane warnings in the forecast for this week, Mendenhall said his team will practice outside every chance it gets in case the Cavaliers have to play in another game with rain.

It rained the entire game at Indiana, and the week before that the start of the Richmond game was delayed because of inclement weather (lightning in the area but no rain).

“We have been doing [practicing outside] that consistently offensively,” the coach said. “Any time there is inclement weather our defense practices inside and our offense practices outside for the ball handling, which I think it affects that side of the ball more. We’ve got two [weather games] under our belt already. We’ll just be outside in the elements again.”

Polynesian Connection

Virginia has five Polynesians on its roster, including starting left guard Chris Glaser, a 6-3, 300-pound sophomore. Glaser was born in Honolulu but played his high school football in Solon, Ohio.

While BYU, Mendenhall’s previous coaching assignment, had strong recruiting connections in Hawaii and Samoa, he wasn’t aware of Glaser back when the coach was in Provo.

“He was highly recruited and we felt lucky and privileged to get him [at UVa],” Mendenhall said. “He gives us depth at up to three positions offensively, which we certainly need on our offensive line.”

Mendenhall said that even though he initially thought his staff would likely not recruit Polynesia after it arrived at Virginia, he has since changed his mind.

“We really didn’t anticipate, nor was it a point of emphasis,” Mendenhall said about that recruiting strategy at UVa. “We were surprised that there was a willingness based on what we had done at BYU and existing relationships for coaches in Hawaii and families to want their sons to play for us. We thought [Virginia] was too far as a matter of fact.

“But what we found is after some visits, even with players not coming, the word was back that [Virginia] is an amazing place,” the coach said. “They already knew about our staff. What we’re finding is for the right players and the right fit, this could be a really good place.”

Short Yardage

• Mendenhall has never coached against Ohio coach Frank Solich, who has headed up the Bobcats’ program since 2005. Solich succeeded Tom Osborne at Nebraska from 1998 to 2003. Mendenhall and Solich both served on the college football coaches board of trustees and has gotten to know him. “Very good offensive mind,” Mendenhall said.
• Mendenhall said it has been interesting that he hasn’t seen the new kickoff rule affect college football so far this year. “I haven’t seen teams purposely take fair catches or fair catching the football to take it on the 25. I think almost every team believes they can return it past that,” the coach said.