Quote Of The Week: Smothered, Covered and Scattershooting…

Scattershooting around the ACC, while noting that Bronco Mendenhall thought he had all scenarios covered in his policy manual until this week …

Mendenhall told media at his weekly presser on Monday that he had a manual that addressed just about every game scenario, weather delays, and the like. Little did he know that Monday night would cause him to add a chapter.

With Hurricane Florence influencing Virginia to move its home game with Ohio on Saturday to neutral site Nashville, Tenn., Mendenhall had some new research.

“[New chapter] is to be added,” the UVa coach said. “There was not one (covering a change of venue), and now there is one. We’re making history with that.”

In our column defending AD Carla Williams’ decision to not take a chance on canceling a game that could make a significant difference in Virginia’s record, we said other than safety for fans and athletes, the potential win (the Cavaliers are favored by 3.5 points, down from an opening line of six) took precedence.

With other schools canceling games that likely won’t be made up, Virginia couldn’t afford to take that chance.

“Yeah, [canceling] certainly was an option,” Mendenhall said. “The easy thing would be just to cancel. But that’s really not why I came to Virginia, and it’s not why these kids have chosen to come play here. We want to grow, we want to play … and there was an option, and that’s all I was asking for.”

Mendenhall said had there been no option and the game had been canceled that he would have wanted to explore the possibility of getting a 12th game.

“It would have been what possibly can we do, is anyone available to play on our bye week? Every one of those practices counts and when you [play in postseason], and when you do that two years in a row, that obviously doubles the volume you would have had if you had just done it once.”

The coach said it’s all part of his master plan and methodology that every game does matter.

While he was not involved in finding a venue, Mendenhall said the priority was finding a neutral site, with the only other option was moving the game to Ohio U.’s stadium for a true road game. He said there were a couple of potential neutral sites that would have made travel fair on both teams. He had never been to Vanderbilt.

Just as Duke is leaving a day early for its game at Baylor, Virginia will leave today rather than Friday for Nashville, and the Cavaliers will treat it like a road game in terms of schedule.

“It would be similar to a road game, the closest example might be when you go off to play Hawaii and you leave a day earlier than normal,” the coach said.

He thanked Williams and her staff for their work in finding a venue that fit.

UVa will practice in Charlottesville today before heading to Nashville, have an extensive walk-through on Friday in Nashville at Vandy’s stadium, then another in a hotel ballroom. Because of the quick transition from a scheduled home game to instead the Nashville venue, staff scrambled to find accommodations, so the team will be staying in two separate hotels, one tonight, then another on Friday because neither can accommodate such a large traveling party both nights.

ACC Quote Of The Week

Normally we have done an ACC quote of the week in our Scattershooting notebook, but this exchange between Duke coach David Cutcliffe and a writer on Wednesday qualified for our first Note of the Week.

The writer was obviously doing a story on how businesses help in hurricane relief, and the obvious was Waffle House’s policy to keep its doors open 24/7 when hurricanes and natural disasters strike. In fact, FEMA measures the severity of a storm’s damage by what it terms the “Waffle House Index,” that when a Waffle House restaurant shuts down, we know it’s really bad.

Question posed was, “As a man of the South, do you have any particular appreciation for Waffle House and its role during these natural disasters that could affect [Durham]?”

Cutcliffe, who grew up in Alabama and went to school at ‘Bama, didn’t hesitate with an answer.

“I’m a Waffle House fan,” the Duke coach said before adding, “that may go down as the most unusual question I’ve had (laughter).

“Sometimes in recruiting, I choose my stay locations where I can have breakfast at a Waffle House,” Cutcliffe said. “Tells you how important they’ve been to me.

“I’ve known some people that have owned some Waffle House franchises and they do a great, great job of being a community-oriented organization,” Cutcliffe said. “I’d support them any way I can.”

Down, Not Out

Cutcliffe’s team suffered two major injuries in its win at Northwestern last weekend: starting quarterback Daniel Jones injured his left collarbone, had surgery on Sunday, with no timetable for his return, although he will miss Duke’s final three games in September at minimum.

Also, All-ACC cornerback Mark Gilbert went down with a hip injury that has ended his season.

Junior Quentin Harris, who finished the Northwestern game, will start for the Blue Devils at Baylor, while two sophomores will fill Gilbert’s spot.

Cutcliffe said he was encouraged about Harris, who is a veteran, and has accepted the role without hesitation. With Gilbert out, the Blue Devils are concerned about Baylor’s corps of tall, fast receivers.

Hurricane Madness

With N.C. State canceling its game against West Virginia, Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren said he hopes that State can find a 12th game and that his school’s administration is exploring options.

“I’m sure I’ll sit down with our administration and do some research with other schools,” Doeren said. “I’m not sure you’re going to have a lot of people to extend our season one way or the other just because of how long it is already.”

If State plays during its open date, Doeren pointed out the Wolfpack would play nine consecutive weeks, which he said is not an ideal situation.

Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente said the issue with trying to find an opponent for the Hokies’ bye week (Oct. 20) is that they play Georgia Tech on a short week (Thursday night game) on Oct. 25.

There has been talk in college football about extending the season an extra week so that each team could have two byes, which Fuente said he wouldn’t be opposed to taking a closer look at for the future, but admitted he didn’t know all the ramifications of extending seasons.

Syracuse Ambush?

Blessed with his best offensive line in his time at Syracuse, a dramatic quarterback in Eric Dungey, and some good skilled players, Coach Dino Baber’s Orangemen are hoping to pull off an upset of slightly favored visiting Florida State.

Still, Baber is approaching the game with some caution.

“I think [Florida State] is ready to explode on somebody, and I hope it’s not us,” Babers said Wednesday during the ACC Coaches teleconference.

While FSU has gotten off to a shaky start, having been dominated at home by Virginia Tech, then having to come from behind at home last weekend to avoid an upset by Samford, Babers said he’s aware of the talent on the Seminoles’ sideline.

“We understand what these guys represent,” Babers said. “We understand they’re five stars and four stars, and it’s going to be a very difficult task that we have on Saturday.”

Taggart Is Cautious

Meanwhile, FSU coach Willie Taggart knows that Syracuse is dangerous with Dungey at the trigger for the Orange’s offense.

“He’s a phenomenal athlete and he causes you problems,” Taggart said of the dual-thread Syracuse QB. “In the run game, he makes you have to defend 11 guys instead of 10, and then he can throw the ball, as well, to some of these skilled receivers out there.”

Taggart said he can sense his team coming together and blames the slow start more on technical issues than physical.

“It’s more the footwork and hand placement,” the coach said. “We were really sloppy in the last game, and it was just unsound stuff we didn’t do, Day One stuff we wasn’t doing well.”

ACC Stat Of The Week

Virginia’s Bryce Perkins is one of four quarterbacks ranked in the conference’s top 10 rushing totals. Syracuse’s Eric Dungey leads the four and is second overall in the league in rushing (18th nationally) with 122.0 yards per game on the ground.

Perkins is third in the ACC (115.0), while two Georgia Tech QBs are sixth and ninth, respectively: TaQuon Marshall and Tobias Oliver.

ACC Stat Of The Week II

Believe it or not, Virginia leads the ACC in time of possession at 68:26 minutes after two games, opposed to 34:13 for its opponents, edging out the usual TOP champion Georgia Tech, an offense that thrives on milking the clock.

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