If he’d had his way, Bronco Mendenhall probably would’ve skipped his introductory press conference as Utah State football’s newest head coach and been in the film room evaluating his team.
That’s partly because that is his personality, but even more so on Monday because the NCAA transfer portal had officially opened a few hours before he was introduced.
Even as he was talking about the long term future of the Aggie program, building a successful championship team and molding young people into pillars in their community, he was itching to get away from the cheering masses in order to start figuring out what his football team will look like for next season.
“(I am) thrilled and honored and thankful,” Mendenhall said. “Just thrilled. Also anxious. Right now the transfer portal is open. ... Yes, I am speaking to you and I am glad that I’m here. My knee is shaking, I’m bouncing and I’m kind of drawn toward other work that needs to be done.”
The portal being open means that roster building can begin in earnest, especially for a coach like Mendenhall who is taking over a new program filled with players he is largely unfamiliar with.
Mendenhall expects to have to use the portal this offseason because he expects there to be more than a few current Aggies who end up leaving Utah State this offseason.
The team didn’t choose him after all, or his coaching.
“It will take everything our players have to keep up for the football demands, and quite frankly it won’t be for everyone,” Mendenhall said. “Every program I’ve inherited, everyone had a chance to leave and not everyone stayed. Not everyone wanted this approach of very high expectations.
“This current team, they didn’t chose me. They will have a chance to choose me over the upcoming months, but let’s face it — they weren’t the ones who chose, so that relationship will grow and develop and become and ultimately the relationships formed will be outstanding. I believe in the power of choice and enabling young people with the power of choice. The expectations with the program will be so clear and transparent and consistent with fierce accountability that realistically it doesn’t allow anyone to remain neutral. You are with us or you are not.”
When it comes acquiring players via the portal, Mendenhall noted that his staff — which includes 15 of his former players — were already at work Monday determining who on the USU team fits and who doesn’t. Before adding anyone through the portal, the Aggies’ new coaching staff needs to understand who and what they have on hand.
“Those are important decisions,” Mendenhall said. “Hard decisions. Who currently fits? Who will excel? With the schematic changes, who will align? So the staff is doing that. Then we will evaluate the recent signing class. Does this fit on the front end? Is this aligned? Is this going to work?”
It will be then that USU’s new coaching staff turns to the transfer portal, and Mendenhall wasn’t shy about the fact that he will be looking at players who played for him at New Mexico this past season.
“At the institution I just came from, there are many who want this approach,” he said, “and then here is the transfer portal (providing the means of getting it). The combination of all of that will form this upcoming team.”
Mendenhall noted that he loves the idea of a Utah-heavy presence on his Aggie football team. He wants a team that represents the community it is in, and he likes the idea of players playing in front of families and friends on weekly basis.
“I love the idea of the majority of this team coming from this state,’ he said. “I love the idea of being dominant in our footprint. I love the idea of diversity. I like the ability to unite. I intend to have a team that represents us, this community and this institution.”
Mendenhall didn’t go into specifics about what kind of players — physical traits — he is looking for, except for at the quarterback position. In what shouldn’t be much of a surprise given his past quarterbacks, Mendenhall wants a dual-threat QB.
“I love the chance to have all players on the offense be involved, including the quarterback,” he said. “In this world (of college football) that really matters.”
NIL has become intertwined with the transfer portal in recent seasons, and though Mendenhall only has a year of experience with NIL since coming out of retirement, he believes he has found an approach that works, while acknowledging that the sport is in a far different place than it was when he was successful at BYU and Virginia.
“The monetization of college athletics has moved it to a different space,” he said. “You can call it amateur sport and be right, you can call it professional sport and be partially right. Neither right now is totally right. It is somewhere in the middle, but the thought that revenue and money don’t matter is completely inaccurate.
“What I do think can happen with this program, the way that I have chosen to approach NIL is with a very simple not given mentality, and that means that players by performance, players by marks in the classroom, players by the way they train in the weight room, players by how their character is, that is what qualifies them for a chance to benefit from their name, image and likeness.”
Mendenhall went on to explain that he has a system in place to allow players to essentially earn more money, because he believes earned money to be much more rewarding then given money.
“What I’ve found, too, is anything given up front usually diminishes in value over time,” Mendenhall said. “When someone has to sequentially chip away and work, chip away and work and chop away and work but can qualify for increasing amounts, it is amazing to see their growth and development.
“The team sees it, and man are they happy for whoever is qualifying for more. The team is excited because in our system the colors change, much like in martial arts. You start white and move colors. The team sees the color changing, they are happy for that individual but they are also happy for themselves because the color is changing on the team. That means they are watching the team become better. I love the idea of each player benefiting from name image and likeness. I also crave the idea of how it sustains a culture and team, and not many are trying to do both.”
Before any of that, though, Mendenhall has to put together a team, and the transfer portal is a guaranteed to be a part of that process.
“We are on the clock,” he said.
