Bronco Mendenhall said the thought that it was time to do something else first came to him the day after his team’s dispiriting loss to Virginia Tech.

In the ensuing days, Virginia’s coach considered other solutions, but as the week progressed he felt more clarity. He announced Thursday he’s stepping down.

Mendenhall will coach the Cavaliers in their bowl game, then abruptly end a six-year tenure during which “earned, not given” became a mantra for the program, and an upward trajectory slowed considerably the last two years.

“I would love to say there’s been this buildup and a long amount of epiphanies and thought, but clearly this week there was a sense of clarity to me that I needed to step back from college football and reassess, renew, reframe and reinvent, with my wife as a partner, our future and the next chapter of our lives,” Mendenhall said in a hastily organized conference call with reporters.

The decision was his and his alone, Mendenhall said, adding that athletic director Carla Williams and university president Jim Ryan asked him to stay.

Mendenhall came to Virginia after 11 seasons as coach at BYU. That, too, was a surprising move. The Utah native was 99-43 with the Cougars.

By Associated Press