Former BYU HC Bronco Mendenhall Says He Is Preparing For Modified College Football Season

PROVO, Utah – Former BYU football and currently Virginia Cavaliers head coach Bronco Mendenhall said that his program is preparing for the college football season to be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mendenhall spoke about how college football might be altered this upcoming season by the virus in an interview with CBS Sports‘ Dennis Dodd.

“We’re preparing exactly with that model in place,” Mendenhall said. “We’re acting as if, and we’re making preparations as if, we won’t have spring practice. We possibly won’t have players here for summer school, any session, and possibly we won’t have the opportunity for anything other than fall camp to begin.”

Asked to consider a season without college football, one Power Five athletic director said, "We'd end up cutting sports. We'd be firing people." https://t.co/RdXsJ17OpJ

— Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) March 19, 2020

With spring practices and formal training canceled by the outbreak of coronavirus, Mendenhall said he is beginning to prepare for the start of college football to begin later than normal in 2020.

“Knowing that fall camp timing might even be pushed back, meaning that there certainly could be a chance that it’s not even (going to) be a full schedule played this year — if football is played, period,” Mendenhall continued. “I’m willing to look at that vision as far as possible saying, ‘What if there is no football this season,’ or ‘What if there is a modified season?'”

College football is scheduled to begin its 2020 season in late August. Most teams are scheduled to play their first game by the opening week of September.

“Solutions are so wide-ranging right now and have to be because of a lack of a definitive endpoint to [the virus],” Mendenhall said.

The former BYU coach spoke about the possibility of reducing the number of conference games his team plays on the upcoming schedule in order to complete a season.

“The first step would be to eliminate nonconference games from the schedule … and only play a conference schedule,” Mendenhall said. “Knowing that would still be challenging … but in relation to the options we have, that certainly might be doable. Once you are under eight games, that probably becomes a non-legitimate season.”

Prior to coaching the Cavaliers, Mendenhall was the head coach at BYU from 2005-15. From 2003-04, he was the Cougars’ defensive coordinator.

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