Ian Book Has The Attention of Bronco Mendenhall

No. 18 Virginia will head to South Bend this weekend looking for a signature win against No. 10 Notre Dame.

The Cavaliers are coming off a 28-17 win over Old Dominion on Saturday, while Notre Dame looks to bounce back after a tough loss at Georgia over the weekend.

Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall knows it won’t be an easy trip as Notre Dame should be motivated, but despite playing the ACC, the Cavaliers rarely play in front of a sold out crowd on the road.

“You do the best you can,” stated Mendenhall. “Most programs, including ours, practice with crowd noise. 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 –  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.

“Emotion is something and chaos is something we work to create in practice. Again, I try to create that as much as possible. 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 will prepare his team this week for the environment at Notre Dame, but he’ll also make a stop at the stadium on Friday when the Cavaliers arrive in town. 

“We always see and go to the stadium when we arrive and come off the plane and have a chance to see the field and get familiar with the locker room,” said Mendenhall. “Make the unknown known for those that haven't been there.

“But then 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. While that's historical and a positive thing for Notre Dame, we're playing this team, this year.

“To think about more than that is just a waste of time.”

While his team hasn’t played in Notre Dame Stadium before, Mendenhall has coached there and experienced the atmosphere in South Bend. However, he doesn’t remember much other than the freezing temperatures. 

“I don't remember much about being there or how many times I've been there other than it was the coldest I've ever been,” Mendenhall said. “Even after being in the state of Utah and all through the Mountain West, there was a game there -- and I believe Coach [Brian] Kelly was the head coach.

“I looked over one time and their defense was on the field and he was seated on the bench on one of those heaters. I was like, ‘Wait, is that legal as the head coach?’

“I don't know the year. Might have been the last time we were there. I don't know what the score was. Again, I don't remember how many times we had been there other than how cold I was that one particular game. I'm not so nostalgic, I guess the bottom line is I do remember being cold.”

It won’t be cold on Saturday, but Mendenhall will have to deal with Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book, who has improved each week this season. 

Mendenhall has been impressed with the timely decision making of Book, but also how effective the signal-caller can be. 

“Not only mobile, but quick decision-maker,” stated Mendenhall. “When you're playing Notre Dame, just jumps out really quickly how well-coached, well-schooled, and not only in fundamentals, but decision making the majority of the team is.

“That's what I noticed right off this morning, is how quickly defenses are diagnosed, how fast the ball is out, how effective once he pulls it down to run it and then just the competitive spirit he has.

“It doesn't take long when you've been a coach long enough. Yeah, I was impressed.”

Despite the praise for Book, Virginia will present a good challenge for the Irish as the Cavaliers enter Saturday’s top-20 matchup tied for the lead in sacks and giving up 2.2 yards per rush. But, Mendenhall is looking for more consistency from his defense. 

“It's a work in progress,” Mendenhall said of his defense. “I think there are times where we are doing that, but I also -- when you look at the run numbers, especially in the college game, havoc plays or sacks, those numbers are counted in. We're affecting the quarterback at a high-level right now and traditional runs, and if it was only the base run game that was being charted, again, I think we're improving. I see progress.

“Consistency is still what we're after play in and play out. If we were to take away all the havoc plays that happened sacking the quarterback and say is it truly dominant without that, that's when I'll rest comfortable. We're not there yet, but we are trending in the right way.”

A lot has been made of Notre Dame running backs or lack of running backs, but Mendenhall has seen tough backs on film and knows his defense needs to rise to the challenge on Saturday. 

“They're physical and tough and I think they run really hard,” explained Mendenhall. “I think they're strong offensively. Numbers are misleading sometimes. I haven't seen maybe the gigantic chunk that sometimes lead to the yardage, which then leads to the attention which then leads to the accolades.

“I have seen the ball consistency being moved when they want to run it against whomever they play. So I think it's a physical, tough, grinding approach, which just hasn't yielded big plays yet on the ground, but they’re certainly capable.”