Mark Richt and Bronco Mendenhall stood together at a reception during ACC spring meetings last May, rookies in the room despite their rich resumes.
They knew each other from Nike camps along the way, but there was something else that tied them together that night: the realization that they are both trying to forge new paths at new schools after establishing themselves and their coaching identities at the places they left behind.
After some chit chat, Richt looked up at Mendenhall and asked bluntly, "OK, why did you leave?"
"And I asked him about the same question," Mendenhall said recently.