Monday Motivation: When a "throwback" speaks to the future

Last Thursday night after work, I was catching up on the day when I saw a tweet from UVa football’s official account that made me think.

It wasn’t so much the concept (which was pretty cool), the old videos it featured (which were pretty nostalgic for a lot of us I’m sure), or even the way it was done (which was pretty impressive) that stood out to me the most.

No, it was the mere fact that it existed at all that made me think. And it made me appreciate everything that’s happened since Bronco Mendenhall dropped a record scratch on the program, its coaches, its players, and its fans.

In coaching, as in so many other walks of life, there are certain things that make up one’s personality. It’s not “wrong” or “bad” that you can’t envision Mendenhall—UVa letterman jacket on, UVa hat atop his head, UVa football in his hand—hamming it up for the camera as he hypes up a new social media segment coming to the feed. That just wasn’t who he was before, it wasn’t who he was when he was in Charlottesville, and it wasn’t going to be who he was down the road, either. And that’s all well and good.

But in the months since his departure, a process I mentioned in a column in the run up to fall, it’s clear that the program needed this shot in the arm.

Desperately.

In that piece in late January, I wrote about the excitement around the program and how so much of it derived from the excitement that Tony Elliott specifically brought to it.

To see him in that little clip last week, all in and having fun and unafraid to kick it up a notch to garner some excitement for the program he leads, I had to wonder if you could ever in your wildest dreams envision a scenario where Mendenhall would do something similar.

You can’t. And therein lies a critical difference between the two men, who in so many ways seem so very similar. It also underscores why there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic about this whole thing.

Now, it should be said—if we’re being fair—that one doesn’t have to do this or that in order to be successful. See Bennett, Tony. The lack of putting all of that fun stuff on the Twitter machine doesn’t mean it’s not happening nor does it mean that a team is doomed just because the coach isn’t part of the operation getting fans excited.

Along that same line: Let’s also make no mistake about the fact that Mendenhall’s a good football coach. He’s got a great mind for the game, he understands all the pieces, and over the course of his career he’s been pretty good at putting them together. In the time since his decision to leave, the fissures and cracks have shown in the program he was steadily building, though. It’s pretty clear to me that he made the right decision, both for himself but also for the program.

The point of this column, though, isn’t to throw stones. Instead, the contrast just really jumped off the screen to me and given everything we’ve heard thus far from players, recruits, and everyone in between, the sea change in personality seems to have been exactly what was required.

Did anyone think in, let’s say September or October of last year, that this would be the case?

Listening to him after the Blue-White Game, it was impossible not to walk away from spring ball and think that while the issues that need addressing may have been more plentiful than originally expected, there’s very little doubt that Elliott is confident in his ability to address them. And his confidence in that mission certainly engenders confidence in the work getting done.

The way he rattled off so many personnel-specific situations as he went position by position in answer to my question about what he learned this spring, it was pretty impressive. All the more so given that he’s also the guy who can put on that letterman jacket and stand outside McCue and do what he does.

“The foundation is being laid,” I wrote to close that column a few months back. “And many fans seem overcome with excitement about what’s coming, thankful to have gotten in on the ground floor.”

How it got to that point or why is immaterial now. What’s important is that Elliott and his new coaching staff, which clearly is excited about the prospect of working with him at UVa, have brought just as much energy as they have instruction, just as much hype as they have focus.

This staff seems to be on a mission to prove that the latter can exist even while the former does as well. That wasn’t exactly the way of the old staff but it certainly is the new world order of this one.

And for the players and fans alike, it’s exactly what this moment needed.

It’ll be interesting down the road to throw it back on a Thursday and remember when.