Bronco Mendenhall has the Virginia Cavaliers contending in the ACC

In just his second year on the job, Bronco Mendenhall has everyone starting to look at his Virginia Cavaliers.

Bronco Mendenhall spent 11 incredible years as the head coach of the BYU Cougars, compiling himself a 99-43 record while appearing in a bowl game every season he was at the help. Then, shockingly, following the 2015 season, Mendenhall announced that he was leaving Provo to take over the … Virginia Cavaliers?

Many questions were asked, with one of the main ones being why he would leave such a comfortable position as the one he occupied with BYU for a Virginia program that is more or less an afterthought in the ACC. After he went 2-10 in 2016, those who were against his decision to leave the state of Utah to head across the country had some ammunition on their side. Those who laughed at Mendenhall’s decisions chuckled a little harder.

There is no chuckling now, as Mendenhall’s worked the coaching magic that made him a huge name to begin with to try and put Virginia back on the map in the ACC.

Saturday afternoon the Cavaliers moved to 5-1 on the year following a win over North Carolina and are 2-0 in the conference. They’re not ranked but you’d have to assume that if Mendenhall can keep this team rolling and contending and the ACC, it won’t be long before that changes as well, much like the fortunes on the field for Virginia in the second year under the former BYU head coach.

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Simply put, Mendenhall has proven to us all that coaching still matters. The players on the field deserve all the credit in the world, absolutely, but we’ve known for a while that he’s one of the best coaches in the game of college football and it was only a matter of time before he had Virginia making some noise. That time has come already here in 2017, and just like the rise of BYU under his watch, it’ll be fun to see this Cavaliers program prosper as he continues to put the rest of the ACC on notice.