Three key points from Mendenhall's spring presser

Mid-spring press conferences can sometimes produces a fair bit of news, skewing to the negative side of things. And Monday’s half-hour session with Bronco Mendenhall certainly fit that trend at least in part.

The big news of the day came on the injury front as Virginia—despite having just a couple of players out—is dealing with the loss of two potential starters well before the 2021 season arrives.

Elsewhere, after saying there was a clear leader out of the gate at running back, things have apparently become a dead heat.

But beyond the Xs and Os or the position battles, the question of what’s ahead for the roster (both at UVa and at schools across the country) was also clearly on Mendenhall’s mind as well.

Here are three key takeaways from yesterday’s session, the last time we’ll hear from the fifth-year head coach until the Spring Game on May 1st.

The injury news, as Mendenhall said, was the biggest headliner of the day. And he didn’t mince words when describing the hit that UVa had suffered at linebacker and wide receiver.

“So, two significant injuries and this will be news,” Mendenhall began. “Chico Bennett, our transfer from Georgia Tech, got an ACL, as well as Lavel Davis got an ACL. So those are the only two players that have been injured to this point and both are possibly back in November, from what I understand. Two significant injuries that we've had and that's always the risk of spring practice.”

The 6-foot-7 Davis is coming off a stellar rookie campaign, where he finished second in the nation and first in the league with 25.75 yards per catch. In so doing, he flashed significant skill and oozed potential, which is one of the reasons Mendenhall and Co. went into spring ball looking to get the South Carolina native the ball as often as possible.

“He’s a really good player we expected and knew that he was capable of even more than he did a year ago,” Mendenhall said. “What I have seen is Ra’Shaun Henry has had an amazing spring and Dontayvion Wicks, who sat out last year basically, is doing a really nice job also. And so, unfortunately we're kind of trading Lavel for Dontayvion one for one. Our hope was to have both and so, frustrating for all of us.”

The injuries, which will keep both players out until at least sometime late in the season, are bad enough. But the nature of how they happened—one was non-contact and the other was on a helmet-only day when a DB and receiver got tangled up—makes them all the more difficult to swallow.

“That it happened [in] the least amount of gear we can put on, on grass, and one non-contact just changing directions and the other two guys getting tangled up,” Mendenhall said. “The only way to really avoid that is to not practice in the spring. It always makes you question. Every time it makes you question what to do, what to do different, how to do it better, or just not do it at all.

“And those are always the questions and it bothers me more than it ever has just since I've been a head coach longer,” he added, “and I build relationships with these players and the ACLs take a long time, right? That's a hard rehab and hard recovery. In Lavel's case, he's already done it once in high school, so he knows how to do it. He's optimistic and he's hardworking. Both are in good spirits and anxious to return as soon as possible, which again, we anticipate the earliest would be November.”

Given the level of experience on the offensive line and the relative dearth of rushing yards by running backs a season ago, UVa entered spring ball with plenty of questions about—and a great deal of focus on—its traditional rushing attack. When last Mendenhall spoke with media members, it was clear that Wayne Taulapapa’s experience at Virginia had put him in a spot to lead the RB group.

Now, more than halfway through the month, and things have changed. Mike Hollins and Ronnie Walker have made their presence known and drawn even, giving the Wahoos one of their tightest position battles of the year.

“So our run game is currently effective,” Mendenhall said. “We have deception runs. We have creative runs. We have quarterback runs. But then when it comes to traditional runs, man there's a fierce competition developing between Wayne Taulapapa and Mike Hollins as well as Ronnie Walker. And they're all running more violently, more productively, and more urgently because of the competition.

“And so those three right now,” he added, “Wayne certainly had the lead and had the experience and the offseason edge coming into spring practice in terms of productivity. It is literally dead even right now with all three of them. And then Amaad Foston, a first-year arriving mid-year, already showing a lot of promise.”

It’s clear that the competition will last a good bit longer but it’s also clear that Mendenhall really likes what he’s seen thus far at the position.

“Competition really makes you a good coach,” he said. “The competition is bringing out the best in our run game…Our traditional run game is more violent, more productive, and more physical than I've seen it, at least in my time here.”

While there are undoubtedly other position battles at play and various other on-field decisions and personnel questions that could fit in the last spot here, Mendenhall’s comments on the impact that the proliferation of transfers coupled with the extra year of eligibility could have speak to a larger issue. And it’s one that will loom over college football for some time to come.

Though the NCAA has given teams scholarship relief in 2021—meaning they will not be held to the normal 85 scholarship limit this season—there is uncertainty as to how things will be handled next year and beyond because of the additional year of eligibility all players received last year. With the future uncertainty comes questions as to how teams handle not only players who could become “super seniors” next fall but also the recruiting classes that normally would’ve replaced them.

“It’s keeping me up at night currently,” Mendenhall explained, “as we consider what the implications might be for ’22. We know that if there aren’t super seniors next year and we are held accountable to the 85, we'll be making choices between players that have been granted an extra year and choosing between adding a 2022 recruit and possibly determining which players receive a fifth year of eligibility to try to get to 85….So then if you put yourself in the shoes of a 2022 recruit, where do they go if they don't have enough spots? So really what we've done is held in the same number of spots and increased supply, which means that existing players on your team have to go somewhere, ‘22s can’t go anywhere, or players don't get their fifth year and the portal then continues to grow.

“The issue right now is, at least this time of year, few of us have any initials left to offer scholarships to anyone in the portal,” he added. “So, how does it work? Originally everyone that was part of the COVID year that was there was granted a fifth year of eligibility, which you would think right off the bat that would mean that you'd have super seniors for five years and it would just kind of work its way through that process. But now there's talk that it will be one year relief and we'll help be held accountable for the 85 next year, which then it would seem like player advocacy becomes an issue, with parents becoming involved, limiting places to go as well as current players in our programs.”

With the portal sitting at roughly 2,000 players as yesterday, it doesn’t seem to Mendenhall, he told reporters, that it’s been thought out well especially when it comes to long-term solutions.

“We don't have answers right now and we don't know where everyone's gonna go and how we're going to fill our roster,” he said. “Some schools, if you welcome back every player that you have that has an extra year, as well as granting fifth years, I believe, our scholarship number in that class would be a class of eight for a recruiting class in 22. Some coaches I've talked to have four, some have two, some have none.”

Later he made the point that some schools are now look at recruiting almost solely from the portal, estimating that kids who have changed schools once would therefore be more like to stay put since they used their one-time transfer.

For a program that prides itself on succession planning and being prepared, this obviously produces a host of unanswered questions without any real feel for when firm resolutions might be provided.

“So yeah,” he said simply, “it's an amazing challenge based on what the ruling is going to be and what the legislation is.”

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