CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Dec. 2, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — Bronco Mendenhall, former head football coach at Brigham Young University, is stepping down from his position at the University of Virginia.
Mendenhall announced Thursday he will leave his position as the Cavaliers’ head football coach following the team’s upcoming bowl game, said a news release.
He stepped down from his position at BYU in December 2015 after 11 years with the university.
“It has been a privilege to have Bronco Mendenhall direct the Virginia football team over the past six seasons,” said Virginia athletics director Carla Williams. “He has done an exceptional job of not just transforming the program, but elevating the expectations for the program. He has established the necessary foundation to propel our football team upward. He is more than a football coach and the impact he has had on these young men will be a positive influence for the rest of their lives.”
Mendenhall is in his sixth season at Virginia. He has led the Cavaliers to a 36-38 record including a 6-6 record this season.
He guided the Cavaliers to the 2019 Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division championship and the program’s first New Year’s Six Bowl appearance when the Cavaliers faced Florida in the 2019 Orange Bowl. The team competed in the Military Bowl in 2017 and the Belk Bowl in 2018, defeating South Carolina 28-0.
Mendenhall’s 17-year record as a head coach stands at 135-81. He ranks eighth among current Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches in terms of winning percentage (.625).
Between 2005 and 2015, when Mendenhall headed up the program at BYU, he directed the Cougars to a 99-43 record and 11 bowl appearances. With seven career bowl victories, Mendenhall figures 12th among active coaches and 36th all-time in that category.
A native of Alpine, Mendenhall graduated from Oregon State in 1988. He served as an assistant coach or graduate assistant coach for 16 years prior to being named the head coach at BYU in 2005. He was a graduate assistant coach at Oregon State from 1989 to 1990, worked at Snow College in Utah in 1991 and 1992, North Arizona in 1993 and 1994 and returned to Oregon State in 1995. In 1996, at the age of 29, he became the youngest defensive coordinator in Pac-10 Conference history.
He coached at Louisiana Tech in 1997 and moved to New Mexico in 1998.
