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sively is similar and I think all of those things led him to the conclusion that it was a great fit. It felt like that to us as well." "I think that I would have still have ended up here, just with the way the offense is and the philosophy, noth- ing changes there if Coach Ruff wasn't here already," Benkert explained. "But him being here, that helped make me feel so comfortable with the staff and it made it easier to trust in everything." During his senior year at Island Coast High School in Cape Coral, Fla., Ben- kert passed for 2,261 yards with 20 touchdowns and just four interceptions. But over the next couple of years, he threw just 10 passes in his career at ECU (completing eight) and ran for a pair of touchdowns on five carries. He arrived in Charlot- tesville with a lot of work ahead. In short order, he had to pick up the playbook (he did), win the starting job (he did) and take to the task of being among the team lead- ers to help Virginia turn things around (he has). "He trains so hard and he prepares himself so well," Mendenhall said. "I've seen it both mentally and physi- cally. And he gets straight A's. I mean, he's just excep- tional in everything that he does. You have to be men- tally and physically tough to manage academics and football." It certainly wasn't easy, though. Out of the gate, Ben- kert and the Wahoos stum- bled to an 0-3 record, a first for Mendenhall during his coaching career. Though he put up solid numbers in the season-opening loss to Rich- mond (25-of-34 passing for 264 yards with three touch- downs and one interception), the team lost 37-20. Despite losing 44-26 the next weekend at Oregon, UVA showed a lot of fight and improved in several ar- eas, though Benkert's passing numbers dipped a bit (20-of- 39 passing for 193 yards with two scores and two picks). That didn't shake him from the firm belief that the Wa- hoos can turn things around and that fans will soon come to Scott Stadium and consis- tently see winning football. "I think you saw from the way we bounced back against Oregon that we weren't going to let that first result keep us down," he said. "We want to put our stamp on this univer- sity and this program, and we've been through so much together this offseason put- ting in the hard work but at the same time, we know we have a long way to go still and that's okay. "When I visited UVA, just knowing the background that the coaches had at BYU and their success there and hear- ing from them about the ways they wanted to change the program at UVA, it really stood out to me. Once I got there, you could see it was all real. And it just fit me, everything did, all the way to living in the city, which I like a lot better than the prior place." BENKERT