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Calling Virginia one of the few schools for which he would have left his 11-year coaching stint at BYU, Bronco Mendenhall was introduced in Charlottesville, Va., on Monday morning as the Cavaliers' new coach.
"It did take something special [to leave BYU]," Mendenhall told the gathering of media members, players, boosters and athletic department officials with his wife, Holly, and three sons — Raeder, Breaker and Cutter — nearby. "I am motivated by purpose."
Mendenhall's primary message regarding his plan to turn around the Atlantic Coast Conference program was similar to what worked for him at BYU while he was compiling a 99-42 record with teams that mostly overachieved as viewed from the lens of recruiting rankings and NFL-bound prospects: accountability, effort and discipline.
Having met earlier with Virginia's players, Mendenhall described them as a group that is "hungry for success" but needs more unity, commitment and discipline.
"I am an effort-based coach," he said. "I love more than anything guys that try hard."
Mendenhall acknowledged that a "large number" of his assistant coaches at BYU will likely accompany him to Virginia. At a minimum, defensive coordinator Nick Howell and outside linebackers coach Kelly Poppinga are expected to follow Mendenhall.
"That doesn't mean [BYU] is exclusively where they will come from," he said.
Offensive coordinator Robert Anae is a strong possibility to make the cross-country trek to Charlottesville if he does not become Mendenhall's successor at BYU. The Salt Lake Tribune learned on Monday that Anae is definitely a candidate, as is Oregon State defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake, a former Cougar fullback.
"I am not sure who or when I will announce those staff additions," Mendenhall said, noting that very few people in Utah knew he had interest in the Virginia job. He said it would not be a long process.
Another BYU job candidate whose name was mentioned Friday when Mendenhall announced his resignation, Stanford defensive coordinator Lance Anderson, told friends on Sunday he had yet to be contacted about the opening.
After his introduction was met with applause at the Charlottesville news conference, Mendenhall reaffirmed what he said Friday in his farewell news conference in Provo — that he will return to Utah on Tuesday and will definitely coach the Cougars in the Las Vegas Bowl against archival Utah on Dec. 19 in hopes of getting 9-3 BYU its 10th win of the season and his 100th win at BYU overall.
It would have been a "deal-breaker" if Virginia officials had not agreed to let him coach in the bowl game, he said, adding, "I would not have come [to Virginia] without being able to coach my team first."
Mendenhall, who has often railed against the hypocrisies that exist in college football where coaches can leave programs without restrictions but players must sit out a year, said it wouldn't have been right for him to not finish the season with the Cougars. He acknowledged he will have to spend a good amount of time the next two weeks recruiting for Virginia and assembling a staff there, but emphasized his focus will be on the bowl game.
"Now I will be talking to players who have committed to Virginia while now I go back and play an in-state rival in a bowl game while working on a staff while Holly is trying to find us a home," he said. "It is a lot — but who would I be if I didn't stay to the end with my current team? What message would that send?"
Mendenhall often mixed religion and football at BYU, owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but his comments Monday were geared more toward the academic excellence at Virginia, which is often ranked among the top public institutions in the country. He said the importance his family places on education is one of the reasons he signed a five-year contract with Virginia that will pay him $3.25 million annually.
"When I look at all the other sports [at Virginia] and how well they are doing, I don't think it is a valid argument to say it can't be done or won't continue to be done at that level in football," he said. "That was intriguing to me."
Mendenhall said if success could be reached at independent BYU with all of its academic and honor code restrictions, and lack of Power 5 conference membership, it could be done at Virginia.
"When I became the head coach at BYU, I made it clear to my staff that we were going to embrace every standard that BYU had and I didn't want to recruit anyone that didn't fit," he said. "We blanketed the country. We currently recruit in Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand to go outside and find kids that fit. After the first round of truly embracing every standard at BYU, my coaches came off the road dejected and discouraged with their heads down. We tallied the number we felt fit every criteria for BYU. We had 32. The coaches were [discouraged]. My thought was, we have a surplus. We only needed 25."
Virginia is scheduled to host BYU in 2019 and play at BYU in 2023 (the game was originally scheduled for 2020 but moved back to accommodate a BYU game against Arizona State). Mendenhall said Friday he wants those games to be postponed until he is no longer the Virginia coach, but did not revisit that declaration on Monday.
The Wahoos are scheduled to play at Oregon on Sept. 10, 2016 and at Boise State on Sept. 23, 2017. Virginia isn't scheduled to play the two best ACC teams, Florida State and Clemson, in Mendenhall's first two seasons, 2016 and 2017.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Virginia's 2016 schedule
Non-conference games
Sept. 3 Richmond; Sept. 10 at Oregon; Sept. 17 at Connecticut; Central Michigan, TBD
ACC games
At Wake Forest; at Duke; at Georgia Tech; Louisville; Miami; North Carolina; Pittsburgh; at Virginia Tech. All dates TBD.