Bronco Mendenhall decided to release the winner of his QB competition this morning. Former ECU QB Kurt Benkert won the job over Matt Johns and Connor Brewer. The only thing that sort of concerns me is this tidbit:
Benkert's familiarity with the Air Raid offense helped him win the starting job. In addition, Benkert's mobility and arm strength set him apart from his teammates. By many accounts, Virginia's 2016 offense will share many of the principles that ECU's offense had under McNeill.
Here is the rest from Streaking the Lawn
http://www.streakingthelawn.com/2016/8/24/12552682/virginia-football-starting-quarterback-announcement-kurt-benkert-matt-johns
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Comments
Went to High School with him in Maryland, so I have mixed feelings. Happy he has rebounded after getting injured prior to the start of season at ECU. However, I never want UVA to win. I know ECU was very high on him after Shane Carden left. Will definitely be looking forward to him playing at Lane Stadium and meeting our D-line.
Time for Matt Johns to transfer to an SEC school and set the NCAA single game completion percentage record.
and losing the starting job the following week
Want to up-vote, but can't ...
ECU coach, ECU QB...Looks like Bronco is doubling down on the "beat Tech" package.
Tripling down, he won the job in large part because of his mobility.
disclaimer: I think our troubles with running QB's are overstated.
Well it's not just mobile qbs haha. All qbs run on us, see Matt Johns gazelle galloping ass.
You mean this gallop??
The fact that this is Stroman makes is 10x funnier. Stromaan was maybe the least likely guy to do this on the entire team, kickers included.
I could (and have been) watch this on a loop endlessly. Watching each of the cry baby hoos reactions individually makes it even better.
what's funny about watching this is thinking back to that GT game where Tyrod executed the "get out of bounds right before getting hit, thus drawing a penalty" multiple times perfectly. I've got to think John was trying to do this. But he's a wahoo so failure just comes naturally and ends in pain.
cavmanfalingoffhorse.gif
I want someone to find the now deleted youtube video of GT defensive end Jason Peters grabbing Tyrod and running him backwards way after a play in 2010 and Tyrod throwing his ass to the ground and Peters getting up looking for a flag. It was called "Tyrod Taylor dismisses Jason Peters" or something like that, you can find the title but the video has always been removed.
I don't know how to link to a specific time in a video, but if you FF to 1:59:00 it's there.
Edit: I guess I know how?!
I got you
https://youtu.be/0RPkG08BInI?t=1h59m
Thanks guys, one of the many insanely cool things Tyrod did.
Gotta love TMobile!
And man do I miss David Wilson's skills
https://youtu.be/0RPkG08BInI?t=2h15m
You may want to doublecheck your link. It sends you to a dead TKP page if you click it.
oh man, so I kept watching after this just 'cause it was on...and slowly realized this is the David Wilson backbreaking kick return touchdown game. Cue Enter Sandman, pandemonium in the building. Fantastic.
If I can have one wish this season, it would be for fewer games where it's under two minutes to go and we're not up by at least two scores.
Specifically against GT, ECU, and Miami.
I'd also like to see that specifically against Liberty, BC, Pitt, Syracuse, UNC, LOLUVa, UT, ND, Duke, and Clemson, in no particular order.
Reminds me of this. (start @ 1:30)
Ah, the old "roughing the lineman" penalty.
I don't know what's funnier, that half the guys on that sideline start crying for a flag immediately, or that the biggest demonstration came from the chief whiner himself.
vic hall 2.0? jamell sewell 2.0? weren't these guys dual threats? well dual guys? not all mobile QBs give us trouble.
Can't forget that adorable QB Marques Hagans
Dude, Vic Hall was shredding us. I've always said if Groh woulda left him in the game they may well have won.
I never thought it was sustainable though.
Hoo?
Johns was pretty solid, so if Benkert is better, that's not good for us.
Isn't McNeil a defensive coach for UVA?
Yes... this is odd because BYU's offense was not an Air Raid system that I can recall.
I guess the good part of playing them in November is that by then, they should be mostly out of surprises..right?
I'm certainly never surprised at how bad UVA is by the time November rolls around.
I do remember that Bronco brought his BYU OC Robert Anae with him to UVA. Robert Anae was an assistant to Mike Leach during his Texas Tech days.
Random Edit: How about the coaching minds Texas Tech had in the early 2000's?
Mike Leach - Head Coach
Art Briles - RB Coach
Dana Holgorsen - Co-WR Coach
Sonny Dykes - Co-WR Coach
Robert Anae - OL Coach
Ruffin McNeil - LB Coach (Future D. Coordinator)
Kliff Kingsbury - Starting QB
Sonny Cumbie - Backup QB (Future Starter)
No wonder the Air Raid is so popular, nowadays.
Wow
Nice Pull.
This is genuinely impressive. Leach has a heckuva coaching tree
I'm still perplexed by this. Why does it matter what offense your LB coach ran last year?
I get the idea that Ruffin is sort of like Max Warner was for us. He might have a title and all, but he was hired for one very specific purpose. With Warner, it was to land Lawson (good thing, too). With McNeil, it's to somehow learn the secret of beating the hokies.
He was definitely their best choice, but the offensive line protecting him will struggle mightily, especially against the likes of Pitt, Louisville, and the good guys.
This is not all bad news - when the kid gets dinged up again they are going to end up with a non-mobile guy behind an offensive line that isn't used to a statue...See glennon vs tyrod.
London: 3 first-string QBs in a season has got to be better than 2!
London: Aha! I just need a QB with 2 first names.
Bronco: I'll show I'm improving this dumpster fire by starting a QB with 3 first names. Yahtzee!
This is probably the most UVA thing a UVA QB would do over summer
https://twitter.com/RTD_MikeBarber/status/768516893871378433
Ugh. Can't wait to see Ekanem settle with this guy
Kurt pshhh more like Dirt. AmIRight?
Ken will certainly introduce him to the dirt at Worsham Field in November.
ECU and loluva, sure is trying to make himself popular with the Hokie Fans...
"Starting Quarterback" at UVa is generally a pretty fluid concept.
Like the drummer for Spinal Tap.
I hope the number of Pick 6's we score goes up to "11"
Meanwhile over in the land of the delusional...
6-2 is attainable?
they'll be lucky to get 6 conference wins total over the next 2 years....
Realistically I think their ceiling this year is 2 conference wins. They have zero offensive line.
This is my completely unbiased look at UVAs W/L outlook for 2016 (this is extremely difficult to do)
Richmond - UVa can and should win this game (1-0, 0-0)
Oregon - UVa is very unlikely to win this game (1-1, 0-0)
UConn - Toss up. UConn isn't very good. I'll give UVa benefit of doubt (call it Bronco effect) (2-1, 0-0)
Central Michigan - CMU is worse than UConn. (3-1, 0-0)
They have a manageable NonCon slate. Oregon is the only real doozy for them. They'll go into the Duke game super confident.
Duke - Having to replace a bunch of starters, this game will be close. Duke's experience pushes them over the edge. (3-2, 0-1)
Pitt - Pitt's O-line is going to maul UVa's front and Connor is going to hit mid-season form. (3-3, 0-2)
UNC - LOL (3-4, 0-3)
Louisville - Returns nearly all of their starters from an 8 win team. (3-5, 0-4)
Wake - Wake is awful. UVa should win this game. Should. (4-5, 1-4)
Miami - Miami is too talented for the hoos (4-6, 1-5)
GT - This is the toughest one to predict..mostly cuz of GT. I'll give UVa a chance due to their decent defense (5-6, 2-5)
VT - until proven otherwise (5-7, 2-6)
That is as realistic an outlook for UVa as you'll get from any Hokies fan. This was painful to do for me...
It's okay, we will never make you do that again.
If they get to 5-7,Bronco will be a hero in this town.
To reinforce this point, if you take a look at CBS's 128 rankings, UVA is 99th. Here is their schedule and the rankings of each team:
Richmond (FCS #4)
Oregon (25)
UCONN (76)
C.Michigan (82)
Duke (86)
Pitt (33)
UNC (23)
Louisville (20)
Wake (91)
Miami (24)
GT (63)
VT (44)
You may notice that none of those numbers is >99. They don't even have great home/away splits, as their most winnable home games are Richmond, CMichigan and......Pitt? UNC? Louisville? Miami? (Also known as 4 of the 5 best teams they play)
I tend to think they aren't 99th bad, they have some good players and a much better coach. But they also have serious flaws in their talent base and will likely have some painful first-year-coach issues to deal with. It's not good when your swing games are:
- A really good FCS team at home,
- A home game with CMU,
- Road games at Duke, Wake and GT
5 win ceiling, 2 win floor
LOLUVA is a couple of injuries away from 2-10 or 3-9. No depth anywhere.
another point a buddy of mine made after I posted this is that UVA has won something like a whopping 1(one) road game in the last four(4) years.
That's pretty impressive.
And they travel to Oregon and turn around and travel to UConn the next week. The rest of the road games consist of @Duke, @Wake, @GT, and @VT
They are most likely to win @Wake but otherwise their schedule is fairly brutal. My "unbiased outlook" was about as optimistic as it could have been...when I actually think about it a little more it wouldn't surprise me at all if they only win 1 or 2 games
I wouldn't put it past Central Michigan to beat UVA. Cooper Rush, the QB for CMU is a 4 year starter and a top 5 QB from a G5 football team. I think he will definitely be able to keep it close and has a good chance to pull off the victory.
They're essentially Bama on my most recent NCAA dynasty.
Don't worry Matt and Connor, you'll be playing by the end of the season. Ken will make sure of it :)
I'm sure CJF would have liked to have named a starter by now. It's gotta be in the next few days?
I have a feeling he already has said something internally. This close to game day, he's gotta have someone chosen already
^This. My gut tells me he's told them who is the starter, but that he will need at least one other during the season, and therefore giving them 1st team reps.
Taken from former LOL posts on TKP, I believe Benkert met all of coach BM's requirements.
1. Successfully completed all stretches at the Spring Football Festival
2. Qualified to practice
3. Shows real leadership in how he runs onto the field
4. Met the goals outlined in their hallway when meeting with the lacrosse fans at the autograph session:
a. Did more work signing autographs than he created drama by doing so
b. Made everybody feel like they were somebody
c. Stood by the gatorade cart and kept it from being stolen.
Loves DDP Yoga.
I forgot that one - Leg.