Virginia Ignores Hype In Preparation For The Irish
Bronco Mendenhall has his Cavaliers rolling in a way the program hasn’t experienced in more than a decade. On Sunday, the new Associated Press Top 25 was released with Virginia appearing at No. 18, the highest the team has been ranked in the poll since 2007.
This ranking comes with national attention and expectations — new experiences for the program and its players. But rather than believing his team has arrived due to recognition in the polls, Mendenhall is using it as a reason for his team to improve its focus on small details and understand that there’s room for improvement.
“Notre Dame is a very good team, national prominence, powerful name,” Mendenhall said. “We're anxious to play. So to have a 4-0 start [and] some of the attention we're garnering just adds to I think the preparation and the urgency for us to continue to grow and learn.”
Their last win over an opponent ranked in the top 10 was in 2005, when Virginia beat no. 4 Florida State 26-21 on Oct. 15.
Mendenhall knows that kind of history can’t be on his mind. He has already heard a number of people in the media say he’s accomplished several different feats for the first time in a long time this year. But just four games into the season, he’s aware that his team has yet to achieve anything.
Instead, he’s focusing on the challenge that lies ahead this weekend.
“There are a lot of cool and positive things happening in your program,” Mendenhall said. “There will always be another metric and this is the next one.”
Preparing for the Irish Environment
Notre Dame season ticket holders aren’t necessarily known for creating raucous crowds at 3:30 p.m., but a rejuvenated Irish program has made for a more exciting environment inside Notre Dame Stadium — especially for top-20 matchups. And unless the No. 21 USC Trojans can pull off an upset on the road against the No. 17 Washington Huskies this weekend, Saturday may be the only time the Irish get to host a ranked opponent.
Given that, Virginia expects to play in a hostile environment on Saturday and is preparing accordingly.
“So in most programs, including ours, you practice with crowd noise,” Mendenhall said. “I orchestrate and create crises during the week in as many different ways that I can, and that helps to some extent. But if you watched Notre Dame versus Georgia, and Notre Dame plays in a setting that is loud and impactful all the time, and they had a number of offsides or false starts themselves."
Outside of that, he says the more big games his players are in, the better equipped they will be for major college football environments.
“That's really all you can do, other than continue to build your program and hopefully the experience of your players and the number of settings you've been in eventually helps balance that out,” Mendenhall said.
Another aspect to account for when playing Notre Dame is the mystic and tradition associated with playing on campus and under the watchful eyes of Touchdown Jesus.
Rather than hide from the tradition when the team arrives in South Bend, Mendenhall plans to quickly acclimate the team with Notre Dame Stadium and the locker rooms. He wants to make the “unknown known.”
“There is the reality that we're playing this year's team with this year's players. It's easy to get caught up in thinking about the different players that might have been there, the names of the past,” Mendenhall said. “While that's historical and a positive thing for Notre Dame, we're playing this team, this year, in the stadium that the rest of the guys have played in.
“To think about more than that is just a waste of time.”
Three Things to Note About the Matchup with Virginia
1. Virginia on Third Down
Prior to their matchup against Old Dominion, a game in which the Cavaliers came out flat and were down 17-7 at the half, Virginia was one of the better teams in college football on third down with a 51.2 percent conversion rate.
But the Cavaliers went 1-11 on third down against the Monarchs this past weekend and are currently 54th in the FBS in third-down conversion success rate at 42.3 percent.
“I would love to say there was one recurring theme, but just basic execution was not quite to the level we normally and had been playing to,” Mendenhall said.
So a big question for this Virginia offense will be if it can move the chains when it needs to on third down and short like it did against Pittsburgh, William & Mary and Florida State? Or is their performance against Virginia a sign of what's to come?
The Irish won’t make it easy on the Cavaliers, either. Notre Dame is tied for 35th in the country in third-down conversion defense at 31.8 percent.
2. Cavalier Pass Rush Legit?
Virginia is currently ranked first in the FBS in sacks (20) and sacks per game (5).
This has been accomplished, in large part, due to an aggressive scheme that Mendenhall says fits the team’s personnel. The team’s leading pass rusher, Jordan Mack, is a linebacker who gets moved around quite a bit and gets after the quarterback from multiple spots in the defensive line. After just four games, he already has five sacks.
Mendenhall says he provides feedback on the defensive schemes and game plans, but it’s his assistant coaches who design and decide everything.
“They're doing a nice job of leveraging what the numbers have said with the personnel we have and the scheme we know to deliver on that to this point,” he said.
But for context, a third of the team's sacks came against an FCS opponent in William & Mary, while their three FBS opponents have struggled against the pass rush all season. Pitt ranks 81st with 2.25 sacks allowed per game, FSU ranks 97th with 2.75 sacks allowed per game and Old Dominion ranks 125th with 4 sacks allowed per game.
It’s also worth noting that Georgia is tied for 20th in teams sacks per game with three, but none of those came against Notre Dame even though the Irish threw the ball 47 times.
It will be interesting to see if the Cavaliers can create more havoc and get to the quarterback more versus the Irish then the Bulldogs did.
3. Virginia Versus the Run
Against Georgia, Tony Jones was the only Irish running back with a carry. He ran the ball nine times for a total of 21 yards, and his longest run was for six yards.
Currently, the Cavalier’s defense is ninth in the country in yards per carry allowed. In four games, their opponents are averaging 2.17 yards per run play.
Despite Virginia's statistical superiority in this category, Mendenhall says he still reveres the Irish rushing attack.
“I think they're physical and tough, and I think they run really hard,” he said. “I think they're strong offensively. Numbers are misleading sometimes. So I haven't seen maybe the gigantic chunks that sometimes lead to the yardage which then leads to the attention which then leads to the accolades.”
With Jahmir Smith likely back for the Irish, is Mendenhall serious when he praises the Irish run game or is he just blowing smoke? Will Notre Dame be able to run the ball as they did against Louisville? Or will Virginia force Book to throw the ball almost 50 times as he did against Georgia?
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