Bronco Mendenhall

His father played defensive end for BYU in the 1950s, while Bronco himself played safety for Oregon State University (OSU) where he was named team captain his senior season.

His brother, Mat Mendenhall, started at defensive end for the Super Bowl Champion Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVII.

Marc Bronco Clay Mendenhall (born February 21, 1966) is an American football coach for the University of New Mexico (UNM) Lobos in Albuquerque.

He previously coached at the University of Virginia.

He stepped down after the 2021 season.

Mendenhall graduated from Utah's American Fork High School in 1984.

In 1990, he served as a graduate assistant coach at OSU in Corvallis, Oregon.

From 1991 to 1993, he was the defensive coordinator for Snow College, a junior college in Ephraim, Utah.

From 1993 to 1994, he was the defensive coordinator for Northern Arizona University.

From 1995 to 1996, he served as the defensive coordinator for OSU.

After the 1996 season, he was fired from OSU.

They finished the season ranked No. 14 in both the Associated Press and USA Today polls, BYU's highest finish in the national polls since 1996.

In 1997, he served as the secondary coach at Louisiana Tech.

From 1998 to 2002, he was the defensive coordinator for UNM, where he and head coach Rocky Long developed a blitz-happy 3-3-5 defensive scheme that produced NFL first-round draft pick Brian Urlacher, who played in New Mexico's "Loboback" position, a cross between a linebacker and safety.

Quarterback John Beck, tight end Jonny Harline and running back Curtis Brown led an offensive attack that was BYU's most potent since 2001, averaging 33.0 points per game (second in the MWC and 24th in the nation) and 462.4 yards of total offense per game.

BYU tied for second in the MWC and appeared in the Las Vegas Bowl, their first bowl game since 2001, falling to California, 35–28.

In 2003, Mendenhall accepted the defensive coordinator position at BYU under head coach Gary Crowton.

Crowton resigned at the end of the 2004 season which was his 3rd consecutive losing season.

The BYU head coach position was first offered to former Cougar linebacker and then-defensive coordinator at the University of Utah, Kyle Whittingham, which resulted in Mendenhall calling UNLV head coach, Mike Sanford, about the defensive coordinator opening on his staff.

Mendenhall and his wife, Holly, were prepared to tell their sons about the move to UNLV when Whittingham rejected the offer from BYU and accepted the head coaching job at Utah as Urban Meyer's replacement.

BYU players had been upset that Mendenhall had not been offered the job.

In response, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe interviewed Mendenhall first in the re-opened search.

Two weeks later, Mendenhall was named BYU's head coach.

More than 60 of Mendenhall's players have been signed to NFL contracts since 2005, including Ezekiel Ansah, the #5 overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft.

Mendenhall is also known for graduating his players, and his program ranked seventh for most Academic All-Americans during his tenure of over a decade.

Mendenhall comes from a notable football family.

In 2005, his first year at the helm, the Cougars finished the regular season with a 6–6 record.

Mendenhall switched back to the traditional uniforms with the Y logo on the helmets, which were worn by the most successful BYU teams.

In 2006, BYU posted its best record in five seasons.

It knocked off 10 straight opponents over the final three months, registered a perfect 6–0 home record, and finished 11–2.

The Cougars tallied a perfect clip against league opponents to win the Mountain West Conference championship, winning on the final play of the game at Utah.

They decisively defeated Oregon, 38–8, in the Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl.

BYU was ranked in the top-20 in the final Associated Press, USA Today, and Harris Interactive polls, and finished 15th in the final BCS rankings.

Mendenhall was named Mountain West Conference and AFCA Region 5 Coach of the Year.

Mendenhall and the Cougars repeated as MWC champions in 2007 behind another perfect 8-0 MWC season and 11–2 final record.

Mendenhall joined Virginia in 2015 after spending the previous eleven seasons as the head football coach at Brigham Young University (BYU).

He has a career record of 135 victories and 81 losses and has recorded fourteen postseason bowl game appearances with seven victories.

Mendenhall is known for his unorthodox methods and "Earned Not Given" motto, even having players earn their jersey numbers each season.

In 2019, Mendenhall became the first Virginia coach to bring both the Commonwealth Cup and Jefferson-Eppes Trophy to Charlottesville at the same time, and his Cavaliers also won the South's Oldest Rivalry in the same season.

He took Virginia to the program's first Orange Bowl.