Wow, just wow. Someone finally says it the way it is.
Is it? Or is it just his opinion? Who has the real pride issues? We just played Liberty University. A school that came to play so they could do what BYU is doing as a religious school of higher learning. Come to find out they have stricter standards than BYU does. And they kick kids out for much less. Yet, they played us very well. Never mind what Notre Dame has done and continues to do.
Today, we have just as many non-members playing football when this Knight guy (who is he again) played. We have 3 very talented QBs as well. Tyson Williams chose BYU. Why? If BYU is so horrible? And, when did we recruit the top LDS basketball players except a few here and a few there? Danny Ainge?
I actually agree with him. There are a lot of truth to what he says. If you go back in the archives, some of the things he states is what I posted. I loved Bronco as a DC, but as a HC, I thought his ideas about recruiting hurt BYU. Why would anyone want to “prove” they deserve to come to BYU. I actually know of a player who played at Utah that wanted to come to BYU, but could not understand why Bronco treated him so coldly because he refused to “recruit” Bronco to offer him a scholarship. The family bled blue for many decades (Grandfather played at BYU), now the family bleeds red.
I would say the changes started with President Bateman. When he changed the reporting structure for the AD office to now go through an administrator. In the days if Tuckett/Fehlberg, they had direct access to the President. they could walk at anytime and have a chat about the state of sports at BYU. Not anymore.
If the BOT does not change their current line of thinking, BYU will become like the last man drafted in the NFL, IRREVALANT!
A lot of what he said is probably true but the way he expresses himself is not likely to win over straight laced BYU bureaucrats. If he wants to change the culture he will have to learn a bit of diplomacy. He can criticize Bronco for his approach to recruiting but his over the top rant indicates he hasn’t got a clue of how to get what he wants from the powers that be at BYU anymore than Bronco had a clue as to how to win over an 18 year old recruit. It was a rant and rants rarely lead to change.
I wonder if Bronco has changed his approach to recruiting now that he is at Virginia. I suspect he has softened up a little. A lot of kids would go to BYU because they were LDS regardless of Bronco at Virginia he doesn’t have that luxury.
No, he is doing the same thing at Virginia, I read an article about Bronco and one of assistants mentioned that Bronco does not care about “star” ratings and that he would take someone who is not a star and work with him.
I personally feel this comes from Bronco past where he was overlooked by BYU and other schools and he had to go to Oregon and prove his worth. Just my opinion, nothing based on facts.
I think “rants” are the beginning of getting change, someone rants and gives some very valid points, other people read those rants and starts to think about how they could encourage change. and the process moves to people who fork out the $$$ to start talking about it.
Stevenson openly admits he is not PC and that his rant is nothing more than his opinion on how to make things better. All he is doing is shining a light on the issues.
I hate PC with a passion and understand where he is coming from but there are times you have to use tact. if you want to reach those in power and make change.
Hmmm… it seems like everything you guys are describing about Bronco is gospel centered. Developing talents given and not so given. Not forcing people to joining the Church like the Catholic conquerors did with the natives. He wanted kids that wanted to come and play at BYU for whatever reason including non-LDS kids. And when they struggled he made the right decisions for their souls, not their future pocketbooks. I can’t fault Bronco now or before.
Of course Stevenson is right. If the BOT and university president cared about BYU being a top 25 program every year, it would be.
“Of course Stevenson is right. If the BOT and university president cared about BYU being a top 25 program every year, it would be.”
I agree with you in the basic premise, that the Board of Trustees of BYU have a very different set of priorities for the school’s football program than many of its most ardent fans (I include myself) and perhaps more importantly, the P5 conference board members who would ultimately decide if BYU would be offered membership in one of their conferences. This is why I believe BYU will not be offered any such membership no matter how well they play against P5 teams. Whether we agree with those priorities or not, they are very unlikely to change. The program exists to help student athletes develop character, receive an education and reach their full potential in their chosen future endeavors, which may or may not include playing football professionally. As much as I love to see my cougars in the top 25 national rankings, that is not why the program exists.
Bronco goes to Virginia and changes the program from a loser to ranked in 3 years. We can look at it from 2 points of view. BYU has such constricting requirements just to get in and the honor code. If you are a HS jock who spent little time showing up for class as is with a high percentage of athletes, BYU is out.
Or we could look at Bronco’s ethics of players having to be accountable. You have to earn it to play for me. Bronco has proved that without the constraints of BYU’s lofty entrance requirements and a honor code, Bronco has gotten the right players to play for Virginia.
Chris, What you are saying is true… but I also think Bronco did some dis-service to those high school jocks that took school and sports serious and ended up being star players only to go to BYU and see the coach favored walk on because they are “his type of kids”.
I also think Bronco was put in a no win situation from the BOT, where they wanted a missionary program instead of football program because of what happened under Crowton.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Bronco is a great DC coach, he can develop many players into better players. because of his perceived (my perception) bias against star players, I think that hampered the program. I also believe one reason Bronco left was because of the schedule this year and next year. That is why he said “Independence is not sustainable”.
That’s right! Players that want to play for him and what they will walk away from Virginia with, a degree. A future if not in football.
As a teacher, you quickly find out which kids are actually motivated and will respond to your methods of motivation. The others move on and get their c’s And d’s no matter how hard you try to reach them. It was doubly hard to do in a private religious school as I was in to reach those who didn’t want to be there. But, if they were, and I could reach them, then my motivation methods and plans would move them forward.
Bronco, and any coach, wants kids in their programs that want to be there. To understand if they come and play for them, they will be better in the future and blessed. John Wooden was a perfect example. Kids stayed and valued the education and degree. Well, most of them anyway. Walton’s another story. He was in a couple of my brother’s classes and showed up the first day and the last day. Nothing in between. But the others valued their education and Wooden. But, the stars didn’t come to UCLA unless they wanted to be there and put up with Wooden’s methods of teaching and coaching.
I think there are plenty of examples where Bronco save the souls of players having serious spiritual issues. For those players and families, he was the right coach at the right time. And, for those that Crowton couldn’t get to conform, Bronco had the right mentality and program. And we did win a lot of games and were in the top 25 often. And to say he’s not a great head coach when he can do what he’s done with Virginia in 3 years, really?
Mendenhall was a highly successful coach at BYU and was probably under appreciated by alumni that had visions of P5 competitiveness. Hence, Mendenhall took his act to doormat Virginia for double the pay. He has turned that program the same way he did at BYU, demanding accountability and inspiring players for loftier performance goals. Any chink in his armor, probably was hiring OC’s. Not a big fan of Anae, but he has done ok at Virginia. I believe it worked out the best for BYU and Bronco, because I don’t believe BYU alums could have foreseen the direction the program was going to take. Sitake took on a tough schedule, but he hasn’t exactly done what fans had anticipated he would and Grimes was a positive pickup, but the defense is vanilla and it is Boring no matter how you slice it. He can take over for the rest of the season, but he needs to completely renovate the defensive coaching staff or step aside, mostly because of the way he had Detmer ousted for lackluster performance, the same holds true for his pal
D.S.: I agree with your post very much. BYU is very singular as a university and its missions are pretty much as you have stated. P-5 schools are mainly large state universities with very different goals than BYU. Most P-5’s are against BYU. After 1984 to different championship routes are based on P-5 standards, not BYU standards. Many schools like Cal, Standford, most of the Big 12 (little 10) conference schools hate BYU. They don’t like our standards nor will they ever allow BYU into their conferences.
Sr_Burton: . . . but he needs to completely renovate the defensive coaching staff or step aside, mostly because of the way he had Detmer ousted for lackluster performance, the same holds true for his pal
Me: I agree 100%.