The Virginia Cavaliers didn't wait long to replace former head coach Mike London following his resignation earlier this week. Per a team announcement, the Cavaliers have hired BYU's Bronco Mendenhall as London's replacement.
Mendenhall's deal will be for five years with an average salary of $3.25 million per campaign. While Mendenhall has coached the majority of his career west of the Rockies, but UVA still saw enough from Mendenhall at BYU to hire him five days into their full coaching search.
"Bronco Mendenhall's teams have consistently won at a high level, and he's demonstrated the ability to create a strategic vision to build a program and then implement his plan to be successful," Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage said in a team statement. "His emphasis on the overall development of student athletes and a commitment to academic achievement is in line with our goals of uncompromised excellence. We're excited to begin a new era of Virginia football and support Bronco and his staff."
Mendenhall said in a statement that he chose BYU because of the "high standards both academically and athletically" at the school.
The 49-year-old head coach went 99-42 in 11 seasons at BYU -- good for the 12th most wins by an FBS coach over that span. BYU is also just one of 11 programs to have advanced to a bowl game in each of the last eleven years. BYU also won two Mountain West titles under Mendenhall before the team became an independent in 2011.
"BYU has played the pivotal role in my professional and personal life, and I will be forever indebted to the outstanding young men and exceptional people I have had the opportunity to work with at BYU," Mendenhall said. Mendenhall will coach BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl on December 19th. He's also held assistant jobs at Oregon State, Northern Arizona, Louisiana Tech and New Mexico over the course of his career.
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