Q&A with Jerry Ratcliffe

For this week’s behind the scenes access with a beat writer from the opposition, we are pleased to be joined by Jerry Ratcliffe, the founder and owner of JerryRatcliffe.com.

1. Coach Mendenhall seems to have turned the program into the right direction with a third straight bowl trip coming up. What has been the biggest key to his success at UVA that coaches since George Welsh haven’t been able to sustain?

Jerry Ratcliffe: I think it took a year – and not a very good one during Bronco’s first year at UVA – to get the players to buy in to his culture. Too many things had fallen between the cracks and there were some players here upon Bronco’s arrival that just didn’t want to put in the work, some others that simply weren’t FBS quality players. There was an exodus of those players during and after the first year.

Mendenhall’s program requires a lot of hard work and some of the most demanding practices I’ve seen during my career of covering a number of various college football programs. If you don’t totally buy in, then you just can’t survive in his program. I think the players who remained were just tired of losing and would do whatever was required to change that, and that began to show Bronco’s second year here, going from 2-10 to 6-6 and earning a bowl trip.

This is perhaps the closest-knit coaching staff I’ve ever covered, which is important, I believe to winning consistently.  One of the reasons I initially believed Bronco would win here is that he brought the majority of his staff with him from BYU, just as George Welsh did from Navy. Welsh kept his staff together for most of the time he was here, at least the core guys. Bronco hasn’t lost a coach in four years thus far, and I think that is important having that continuity, not only in coaching but in recruiting, which is beginning to improve, even though these guys had no roots in the East.

I think that is one of the reasons that Al Groh, who got off to a great start and took the program to five bowls in nine years, and Mike London, struggled. They lost their staff, particularly Groh, who had many coaches move on to become head coaches elsewhere or coordinators in the NFL.

2. With the huge matchup with Virginia Tech looming in a game that will likely decide the ACC’s Coastal division, how difficult will it be for Bronco to keep his team focused this week?

JR: Bronco has been very successful in keeping his teams focused on the task at hand. He treats all opponents the same and has passed that along to his players. As Bryce Perkins put it on Monday, “Shoot, we almost lost to ODU, so we shouldn’t be overlooking anybody.”

For the most part, the Cavaliers haven’t lost to any teams the last three years that they were lopsided favorites to beat. I think the only time this team has totally lost focus during that span was in their first bowl game and were pounded by Navy. I think those players were just so satisfied to finally qualify for a bowl game that they were “just happy to be there,” and completely lost focus on playing a really good opponent (Navy) on its own field.

Because UVA faced Liberty last season, the players and coaches are well aware of the Flames’ ability to score and move the football.

3. Is there anything Liberty can do to slow down Bryce Perkins and Joe Reed?

JR: We sit in the press box and wonder why teams kick the ball to Joe Reed because he is such a dangerous return man. However, UVA has found a couple of other ways around things when teams kick it to the up man. In one game, the up man simply caught the ball and waited on Reed to come up from behind and tossed Reed theball.

While Reed is averaging 35 yards per return (and two TDs), he’s not the only weapon. Tavares Kelly Jr. is averaging 22 yards per return and brought one back 40 yards against Georgia Tech a couple of weeks ago.

As a receiver, Reed has been solid with a team-leading 61 catches for 530 yards and five touchdowns. However, Hasise Dubois, who hasn’t had a dropped ball in 49 catches this season, leads in yardage with 679 yards and three scores. They have been the focal point of the passing game all season until lately.

Terrell Jana has hauled in 28 catches the last three games and has 586 yards receiving (had 13 catches vs. North Carolina), and has become another “go-to” guy. If that wasn’t impressive enough, Kelly and Billy Kemp worked their way into the action against Georgia Tech, along with Jana, after the Yellow Jackets tried to take away Dubois and Reed.

Stopping Perkins is another issue. Many have tried but very few have succeeded. Perkins is the healthiest he has been all season and Virginia is running him more than 20 times a game. He has lethal speed and is a big guy who can handle the hits. He’s also smart, so he knows when to slide and get out of bounds. He has also been very accurate the past two games and has avoided throwing an interception during that span. With an offensive line that has gotten better in the second half of the season, Perkins hasn’t been sacked much, which was formerly a problem.

4. There are numerous injuries to Virginia’s secondary, how good is the depth there and how will they matchup with Buckshot and AGG?

JR: Free safety Joey Blount is the last man standing in the secondary. UVA has lost three starters, including All-American candidate Bryce Hall, and three backups from training camp until lately. Brenton Nelson was playing with a painful shoulder injury for much of the season but he had to shut it down because it had become unbearable.

So, Virginia now has four juniors starting at the secondary spots, Nick Grant and De’Vante Cross at the corners, and Blount and Chris Moore at the safeties. Cross is a former quarterback/wide receiver/defensive back, who finally found a home. He was picked on at Miami when Hall went down and it took some time for Cross to get comfortable at the corner spot after moving over from safety.

Moore and Grant were solid backups just waiting their turn, but were pressed into service early.

There’s not much depth behind those guys, one sophomore, a redshirt freshman, and a true freshmen, so the Cavaliers really can’t afford to lose another guy.

I am certain that they are concerned about Liberty’s passing attack with such an experienced quarterback as Buckshot and a quality receiver like AGG. They saw what these guys were all about last season.

My guess is that Virginia, which is ranked No. 8 nationally in quarterback sacks, and were No. 1 a few weeks ago, will try to put a lot of pressure on Buckshot and see if they can force him into making a mistake.

5. What’s your prediction for the game?

JR: I believe this could be a shootout, one of those high-scoring affairs because Virginia’s defense has been weakened by the loss in personnel, and Liberty’s ability to move the football. Also, I believe Perkins is in a groove and is almost impossible to stop. Should be a fun game for the fans to watch, but I think that in the end, Perkins will make a difference. He is 10-1 as a starter at home.