The Case Against Bronco Mendenhall
by Adam Olsen on Jan 10, 2012 7:30 AM PST
in BYU Football
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PrintEDITOR'S NOTE: A few days ago, we posted a story speculating that a portion of BYU fans were upset with head coach Bronco Mendenhall. We now give you the commander of these rabble rousers, Adam Olsen, a true Amalickiah of his day, to wave his banner to Cougar Nation. His thoughts are definitely worthy of consideration.
Wow. I am humbled and flattered to have the kind of Twitter clout to warrant a shout out from Zach, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to present my side of the story. Yeah, that's right. I'm @aolsen. I'm the guy who had the stones to criticize Bronco Mendenhall, despite his fifth 10-win season out of the last six.
Let me begin by saying I like Bronco Mendenhall a lot. As a BYU fan I owe him big time for bringing the BYU name back from what might have been the darkest period in program history. He was the perfect hire at the time. He restored honor, reconnected with tradition and was never lost sight of the spirit and mission of BYU.
(Can you tell I've been drinking the Kool-aid?)
Not only that, he's a winner. He wins a lot of games, as evidenced by the aforementioned stockpiling of 10+ win seasons. I'm grateful for that. But while I appreciate the wins, I'm not blinded by them.
Take this season: 10 wins, three losses. To me the three losses are much, much more significant than the 10 wins. And it's because those three losses happened to be the three biggest games on our schedule: Texas, Utah and TCU. Bronco and the Cougars were tested three times this season, and we failed each test.
I give Bronco credit for beating Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl, and barely beating a bowl-bound Utah State on our home field, but that's about it. The rest of the schedule was softer than a Christmas cheese ball. So when you say he wins games, I agree. But the problem is he doesn't win the games that matter.
And if it was just this season, I wouldn't mind one bit. But underperforming in big games is something that has followed every Bronco Mendenhall team since he took over.
TCU, Utah, Florida State, Air Force, Arizona - these are all teams that have beaten us badly in recent years, and by Bronco's own admission the Cougars were woefully unprepared for each game. That is unacceptable to me. How can we be unprepared to face a TCU team that beats us like a drum on a yearly basis? What about Utah, the biggest game of the year? And how does a mediocre Florida State team come into our building and completely embarrass us in our 2009 home opener?
The reason is Bronco Mendenhall. He is either unable or unwilling to acknowledge that certain games are more important than others, and our team preparation suffers as a result. Our opponents want to beat us. Badly. They're on a collision course with BYU at a bullet train's pace. We need to match that intensity, and Bronco chooses not to do it.
Contrast Bronco with TCU coach Gary Patterson. We all know Gary. He's the guy who screams at his players like a pre-menstrual banshee, hikes up his pants every half second and employs a "sweat towel girl" to follow him around full-time. We love to make fun of the guy, but the truth is he is an incredible football coach. He knows how to build teams, evaluate talent and prepare his athletes for big games.
TCU has become an automatic loss for BYU. Even for our most talented teams. And it's because of Gary Patterson. He will not lose to BYU, and he will make sure his teams are prepared.
I could say the same for Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. Even when BYU supposedly has more talent, Kyle will make sure every game is competitive (that is... unless the Utes are beating us by 44 points).
BYU fans need to ask themselves a question: Are we satisfied with the current state of the football team? In other words, are you satisfied with beating 10 bad teams and losing to three good ones every year? If you are, then bless your heart. Forget I even exist.
If you're like me, though, and believe BYU can achieve something more (namely, a BCS berth or even a National Championship), you cannot be satisfied with 10-3 seasons. We either need a new coach, or we need Bronco to adopt a new philosophy.
We need a coach who can correctly develop and evaluate talent, one who holds coaches and players accountable for poor performance, one who acknowledges that some games are more important than others (and prepares the team accordingly), and one who can make in-game adjustments and corrections.
Bronco is a great guy. But he is not above criticism. And he is certainly not perfect. He's done all he can do, but if BYU is ever to get to that next level I'm afraid we need someone else.
Adam blogs on his personal sports site Adams Sports Blog and podcasts at Death Star D
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Great article
and I totally agree. “someone who holds coaches and players accountable for poor performance, one who acknowledges that some games are more important than others (and prepares the team accordingly), and one who can make in-game adjustments and corrections.” My biggest fear is always halftime when I feel like adjusments are being made in the other locker room and not in ours. I only feel like that in the big games. Texas and Utah were both great examples of this.
Cougars, Jazz, Lions, Tigers, Wings, Air.
I do believe Bronco is the best coach for this position
but I also agree with Adam’s point that some games do need to be treated just a touch differently. I just don’t think BYU could do better if it moved on to someone else.
Managing Editor - Vanquish The Foe
I agree
What has to happen for Bronco to get a team prepared? I don’t know if I can stomach the next time we lose a big game when Bronco inevitably blames himself for the lack of mental preparation for the team? If we’re to expect the players to learn from their mistakes and grow, do we really want to hear the same excuse from their leader every time there is a failure?
I bleed blue . . . Cougars, Cowboys, Jazz, Real. Its all blue.
by @Matt_Quinney on Jan 10, 2012 8:21 AM PST up reply actions
But who?
Adam, great post and I know for my part and that of my cohort over at the Academically Ineligible Blog, @CarlBehunin, we’ve both made that same argument that Bronco seems to have peaked. You can see that thread on Zach’s post last week. But the question remains, who else is there? That’s the bottom line. Is 10-3 so horrible that we would rather throw him out and go look for something, anything, else? I know names like Detmer, Young, Reid, and even Matich have been thrown around, but do any of them have any real coaching experience besides Reid? (And I think we’ve exhausted the notion of Reid coming to BYU.)
Sure, Detmer is a high school coach, grew up the son of a coach, but could he do any better than Bronco?
Not disagreeing with you Adam, just curious your thoughts on who?
I bleed blue . . . Cougars, Cowboys, Jazz, Real. Its all blue.
by @Matt_Quinney on Jan 10, 2012 8:19 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
IMO
If we don’t have a brand new (inexperienced) OC this year, 2 of those 3 losses are wins. Maybe all 3 are W’s. In the same breath however, I blame Bronco for a poor hire/firing and handling of the OC position.
"Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken"
by MakJaeTDP on Jan 10, 2012 8:53 AM PST via iPhone app reply actions
Here's a thought
Just occurred to me so humor me in all the innuendos of it. What if Bronco left and we were forced to go get a new coach? What if the new HC were Robert Anae? His is a name I’ve not read anywhere as a possibility. Thoughts?
I bleed blue . . . Cougars, Cowboys, Jazz, Real. Its all blue.
Wait till next year...
I don’t know about this. You make some compelling points, but BYU has won some important games. The bowl record is good. Getting to bowls is far easier now than it was in Lavell’s day, but Bronco HAS won 3 in a row. Oklahoma, TCU, Utah, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA, Washington: all BCS teams Bronco’s BYU has beaten.
HIs biggest problem is that he’s not gone undefeated while Utah, Boise, and TCU have. So clearly something is missing. But if you had told me at the start of the season that we’d go 10-3 I would have been happy with that. Most pundits had us lower than that. The way we got to 10 wins was not overly satisfying, but it’s still 10 wins that not too many expected. But next year, with most of the important players coming back, had better see marked improvement.
by CameronR on Jan 10, 2012 9:09 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
Maybe, maybe, but who?
I respect the criticisms Adam posted, but you would only get rid of a coach like Bronco if you had an heir apparent. Ty Detmer? Really? What makes anyone think he would be better.
We walked through it on Zach’s post: there are no clear alternatives to Bronco. We were all stoked to get rid of Anae, and the offense was still mediocre. Be careful what you ask for.
Author - Vanquish The Foe
by Adam Mangum on Jan 10, 2012 9:21 AM PST via mobile reply actions 1 recs
Realistic Candidates
Let’s look at the list of minimum requirements for BYU’s head football coach:
1. He pretty much has to be active LDS
2. He needs coordinator or head coaching experience in college or the NFL
After a bit of research, that means the possible list is: Eagles HC Andy Reid, Utah HC Kyle Wittingham, USU HC Gary Anderson, Navy HC Ken Niumatalolo, former Cowboys HC Dave Campo, Vikings OC Darrell Bevell, Maryland OC Gary Crowton.
Clearly Crowton and Wittingham aren’t going to happen. Of course that list is probably not complete, but does anyone on it excite you even a little bit? Anyone have a better option?
Be careful what you wish for....
Having 10 win seasons is nothing to look down on. Having a team that is consistently a 10 win team is rare even in the BCS realm. Making a change at coach is more likely to reduce that amount as systems for both offense and defense would change and the team would need to adjust. Maybe different players would need to be recruited for those new systems.
It is true that some teams do get better with a new coach (Michigan with Brady Hoke or USC with Kiffin) but sometimes big time teams with fancy new coaches don’t measure up to expectation (Florida, Notre Dame x2, Tennessee x2, Arizona, Arizona St., Michigan with Rodriguez, etc.). I think the list of fired coaches who couldn’t raise the bar is far longer than a successful coach who consistently exceeded expectations. Look at BYU’s own history with LaVell Edwards and Gary Crowton. The first year with Crowton everyone was happy as BYU looked great. However it was soon apparent he was not the true coach BYU needed. If you would have told me during the Crowton era that the next coach would get us back to 10 wins and multiple bowl wins I would have said hire him perminantly. Now after the memory of Crowton has faded, Bronco’s legacy is now no longer exceeding expectations but simply viewed as a ceiling that is preventing our continued growth. Maybe it would be time for a change if we had 6 win seasons with a schedule as easy as ours, but ten wins is a good year for anyone.
Let’s not get carried away and ruin a good thing for slim dreams of perfection.
by Midnight_Ice on Jan 10, 2012 1:51 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
“Slim dreams of perfection.” Well said. It’s true, undefeated is hard to do. As good as Boise State has been, ask Chris Petersen. :-)
Managing Editor - Vanquish The Foe
Kiffin is even a bad example
USC wasn’t exact hurting for wins under Pete Carroll. It’s pretty rare for a school to fire a winner looking to upgrade and actually get a better coach.
Bronco's Priorities...
My big concern is Bronco’s priorities. At first when I heard that football was 5th on his priorities list I thought it was an impressive thing — what a statement in the face of too much focus on football that some coaches adopt! However, my awe quickly turned to questioning when I realized what that meant in terms of their work ethic.
Bronco likes to point out how he pushes his staff out the door at 5 pm each evening so they can go home and spend time with their families. I think it’s admirable for working family men I really do…but not for a college football coach who is getting paid just under $1 million dollars a year. Who do you know that actually gets off work at 5 pm that makes that kind of money? Being a 40-50 hour a week college coach will absolutely not cut it in college football and I believe it is a key to why BYU is underprepared for their big games.
Bronco and the rest of the coaching staff needs to start putting in longer hours and more preparation if they want to be at BYU.
No way Bronco works 40-50 hours a week
Bronco usually is on campus before 5 AM, at least during the season. Assuming he puts in at least 12 hours on Saturdays, that’s about a 70 hour week. He might not be Nick Saban or Bill Synder who put in 120 hour weeks, but I think Bronco’s work ethic is not what’s holding BYU back.
What is?
And he’s not on campus before 5 am. I know that for sure.
by cory.edwards1 on Jan 10, 2012 3:22 PM PST up reply actions
Budget, historical success, fan support, recruiting limitations due to the honor code...
BYU is a good program with solid fan support and decent history, but let’s not kid ourselves – we’re a top 50 program but not a top 10 program. I’ll admit that there are better coaches than Bronco out there, but the chances of landing one that would be better than Bronco are extremely slim.
My roomate used to do early-morning janitorial at the SAB
Bronco usually was there working out before 5 AM. He is definitely a morning person.
Bronco can go home at 5 pm. Fine with me. Has five 10-win seasons, which were key in BYU getting a sweet deal with ESPN that is making BYU way more than Bronco gets paid. Better that than get burned out like Urban Meyer trying to put 70 hours in per week.
Managing Editor - Vanquish The Foe
Some additional stats
Zach told me to post on the fan posts since the chart I put together wouldn’t format on here correctly. Go check it out over at http://www.vanquishthefoe.com/2012/1/10/2698104/in-response-to-the-two-mendenhall-posts-and-his-coaching.
Essentially I divided his win/loss record in meaningful games (defined at bowl, vs. ranked, and vs. BCS) and sorted out some stats. Interesting at least to me.
IMO – while he is about .500 overall in these games, with a winning bowl record, as fans we are focusing on the losses because they seem to pile up against the teams that matter most (e.g. FSU in 2009, Utah, TCU.) Losing to a Notre Dame or even a Texas this past season is “acceptable” if we’ve got winning records against our rivals or if we even had that magical undefeated season that Utah, TCU, and BSU have enjoyed.
So, if Bronco put together a magical run next season and ran the table, would all this talk cease?
I bleed blue . . . Cougars, Cowboys, Jazz, Real. Its all blue.
Academically Ineligible
by @Matt_Quinney on Jan 10, 2012 5:03 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
Reality Check
I agree that Bronco might need to reassess the way he prepares for these big-time games, but we also need to remember that Edwards was probably not any more successful when playing nationally prominent teams. We would beat the WAC, lose to most teams in major conferences (especially in bowl games), and win the occasional squeaker at home. This was the formula even in the National Championship year. I think the ceiling on the team is really the standards of the University and not the coach himself. Yet if the standards were relaxed, we’d end up with the same problems of the Crowton years. I guess what I’m saying is that we have to hope that serendipity strikes again some year in the future, and we put together a lucky undefeated season. Because despite what others might say, almost almost all undefeated seasons involve a lot of luck—as manifest by the fact that no team ended undefeated this year . If a few balls rolled our way this year we could have been 12-1. Similarly, a few plays made the difference for Alabama and their single loss to LSU.
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