For all the prairies he has traversed throughout his career as a college football coach and recruiter, Bronco Mendenhall has never found himself in Abilene, Texas.
He also has no connection to Abilene Christian University, the Football Championship Subdivision team that will face the Cavaliers for a 4 p.m. Saturday kickoff in Charlottesville.
UVa and Abilene Christian reached terms Sept. 4, almost eight months after the original ACC schedule was released Jan. 22, when the ACC couldn’t have predicted the full effects of the coronavius.
“I don’t remember much about scheduling this game,” Mendenhall said Monday on a Zoom call with reporters. “We were really trying to find an opponent, not the opponent.”
What Mendenhall did know — and like — was that the Cavaliers, once they added an opponent, would have 11 games in 11 weeks.
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UVa was looking for an opponent, nonconferencewise, that was playing football and was available. Jim Booz, who serves as deputy director of athletics, was assigned that search.
“I don’t even remember the options that we had,” Mendenhall said. “There weren’t many that could play or would play or had this date available. I have no connection with Abilene Christian or their program or their staff.
“We were really looking for teams that would guarantee that they would be compliant and would test at the level we would need to have the game. A lot of filters were in place.”
Abilene Christian, maybe best known as the alma mater of 1970s Dallas Cowboys quarterback Clint Longley, is coming off a 5-7 season in 2019 in which it slaughtered Arizona Christian 66-14 and won two overtime games.
The Wildcats already played two games against FBS opponents this season, losing at Texas El-Paso in the season opener, 17-13, before they were smeared one week later at Army, 55-23.
Abilene Christian originally was scheduled to play host to Arizona Christian, aka the Firestorm, before that game was canceled due to COVID-19 issues.
The coronavirus pandemic was cited earlier in the year when Abilene Christian, itself, pulled the plug on an Oct. 17 game with West Texas A&M.
Virginia had similar issues but not of its making. The Cavaliers originally were scheduled to entertain Louisville on Nov. 7 before Cardinals Athletics Director Lawrence Tyra proclaimed that the game be pushed back a week.
“There weren’t many options available,” said Mendenhall, whose Cavaliers defeated Louisville 31-17 on Saturday night in Charlottesville.”I don’t remember how we ended up here or I don’t remember having any other choice or choices.”