first, i must acknowledge a few things:

(1) bronco is a great DC...brilliant. i've posted this 57 times on here...his best role in life is a DC at an "elite" school in a conservative area of the country. TAMU just got 59 pasted on them...think they are looking? think what bronco could do with SEC talent/speed without having to worry about all the HC crap, that he admittedly doesn't like.

(2) some of what has happened this year is not his fault. in isolation this appears to be one of those throw-your-hands-in-the-air years where everything goes wrong.

(3) he is great at a lot of parts of his jobs as HC (players and most ex players love him) parents love him, great recruiter, rebranded BYU in a great way.

(4) everything he touches works...2010 recover D...fixed. focuses on O this offseason...O looks markedly better, even when taysom goes down they are still scoring 30+...huge improvement.

however, stuff that is his fault:

(1) he has hired FOUR coordinators who have failed (doman, anae, hill, howell). THAT is on him. and one of this OC's, he hired back. i actually like the new anae...he still does some of the same old things but i'm overall happy with where the O is at. the D...no. which leads us to #2...

(2) in all his managerial books there was nothing on delegating and then abandoning? he delegates the entire D to a DC with ZERO D1 experience on his resume. the on D1 exposure he has is under BM's protective wing. now he surrenders the D completely and spends "all offseason" with the offense? probably not a great combo there. i can see dedicating time to the O in the offseason if he stays DC so there isn't a drop off. or, if he wants to relinquish DC responsibilities, fine, but given how the last experience went with jaime hill, you better not screw this one up, so i'd dedicate lots of time to nick howell to make sure he's ok.

in bronco's defense...he can't be HC/DC/OC every season. he can only do so much and it's only fair that he delegate. in addition, given the crappy salaries that BYU pays assistants, is it any wonder why he can't steal a legit DC from another school? is bronco (and BYU) focusing too much on LDS-bred coaches? after all, it's football, not the MTC, get the best experienced guys you can. but given the mission of BYU would any non-BYU guy really want to put up with all the extra-cirricular...could they sell recruits on "the system" and culture?

(3) bronco's QB situation has been crazy bad...think about it...john beck...crowton recruit. max hall...comes home early from mission and decides to leave ASU for BYU. kudos to bronco for building "spiritual" program where max felt like he could be in a better place when he needed it, but still, that's pretty lucky. then he's depending on true fresh primadonna heaps and USU transfer riley....ugh. now it's transfer hill. on the one hand it's great these QB's want to transfer. on the other...why can we not get them out of HS? and why are the ones we do get out of HS (lark, sorenson, UNLV kid, olsen) either sucking or transferring to other places and then (usually) succeeding?

(4) distractions....spiritual stuff and attention will generate itself organically. no need to focus on it. IF BYU IS WINNING, people will wonder how, and it will get attention. what about an assistant coach that is responsible for all the "spiritual stuff" (i.e. thurs heroes, firesides, etc) not that bronco doesn't care about that stuff but it should not be focus of program, which i feel it is, especially since we aren't winning a ton and being a national topic of conversation the "missionary arm" of BYU football is being stuffed down our throats, as if this is a branch off the LDS church. it's not. it's a FOOTBALL program, designed to WIN football games.

which leads to my final point...which i've posted about a lot recently...the LDS church and BYU need to figure out what the end-goal is for this program. if it's simply a place where young LDS kids can come to play some football and go to a really smart school and have an MTC-like experience while they are here, then great. but PLEASE don't talk about NC's and CFP's and NY6's. tell everyone that's your stated goal and go with it. but IF your goal is to have P5-worthy, "national brand" that is achieving the goals stated by bronco as their own (ranking, top-25's, 10 wins, bowl wins, NC's, etc) then it's time to put your money where your mouth is and do 2 significant things:

(1) PAY YOUR COACHES. the best coaches in CFB are not LDS. non-LDS coaches don't want to come here so getting talent here must come with a MONETARY premium. in a way i feel bad for mendenhall who is having to staff his cupboards with generic brand cornflakes, when everyone else gets the ingredients for eggs benedict and crepes...they shop at trader joe's, we're shopping at grocery outlet. and the play on the field shows. if it were me, i'd get a top-level HC (like rich rod), leave bronco at current salary as the DC and let them put their staff together. if we can't get a non-LDS HC, then we MUST send our coaching projects elsewhere to get experience and then come back to BYU (see BJ and Utah, currently at Miss State). if we have to poach people from utah, fine...we just spent $3 BILLION on a mall...double sitaki's salary and get him here.

(2) FACILITIES. the LDS church could, if it wanted to, pump a bunch of "investment" money into the program. become an oregon-lite. build a 55K seat domed stadium. become a place where any and all conservative christian kids want to go. think of the affect that could have on recruiting in places like SEC-country or texas. think of the impact that could have on those player's lives as they come to have a BYU experience. think of the doors it could open for the church and to P5 leagues. if this is too "worldly" for BYU then it's time to get out of the college football business.

i love BYU football but the downward trend of our program is horribly coinciding with a separation of P5 schools from us. if we want to be a part, time to make a real commitment and become a TOP LEVEL FOOTBALL program. if that's not what we want then fine, just say it, but stop talking about big-boy football and then showing up to the game in your pull-ups.