This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Saying his staff at Virginia "are like kids in a candy store" because it has a deeper recruiting pool from which to draw, former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall announced his first signing class at the ACC school on Wednesday afternoon.
Mendenhall didn't bring all of his assistant coaches to his Signing Day news conference when he was at BYU for 11 years, but did so on Wednesday at UVa. He introduced them as "friends and extended family" members.
At BYU, new coach Kalani Sitake was flanked by assistants Ty Detmer, Ed Lamb and Ilaisa Tuiaki at a table in the Broadcast Building, while other assistants — Jernaro Gilford, Mike Empey, Reno Mahe, Ben Cahoon and Steve Kaufusi — were also made available for interviews.
Mendenhall wasn't able to lure any recruits away from BYU, but did sign a player whose offer from BYU was pulled by Sitake and his staff. Wayne Taulapapa, a running back from Punahou High in Honolulu, signed with the Cavaliers.
Rivals.com ranked Virginia's class 12th in the 14-team Atlantic Coast Conference.
Mendenhall inherited a mostly full signing class from outgoing coach Mike London, so most of his work in the past six weeks has been securing those commitments.
He did land highly regarded quarterback Devante Cross of Pennsylvania, beating Boston College out for the dual-threat QB's services.
At his presser, Mendenhall touched upon many of the same themes he did while at BYU. For instance, he said his players will have to "earn" certain things, and won't be automatically given them. He said he doesn't automatically award redshirts freshmen who don't play in a game all season.
The new Virginia staff said it lost just one player who had committed to the previous staff. Stephen Spanellis, an offensive tackle from Baltimore, changed his commitment to Michigan in mid-January and signed with the Wolverines on Wednesday.
By way of comparison, Rivals.com had BYU's class ranked 48th overall, and Virginia's class ranked 59th, at 4 p.m. MT on Wednesday.
Twitter: @drewjay