When it comes to BYU football and basketball my allegiance is "fully invested". I was raised driving to the local stakecenters on Saturday to watch the likes of Gary Trost and Matt Bellini. I have seen the ups and downs of both our programs through the years and no doubt this year is a major disappointment. I really hate that this board has become the equivalent of the Nephites vs. the Lamanites when weighing in on Bronco. I suppose people would call me a quasi Bronco apologist but in reality I don't think its that simple. Let me explain.

First off.. No I am not happy with this years results. I don't really love Bronco's coaching tree or his hires for that matter. Although I don't really care about him putting people in the NFL ... I suppose for recruiting purposes, I am not in love with that either. It also does not make sense to me that Howell is coordinating the D when that is obviously Broncos specialty. At times I have scratched my head over clock management and clearly the penalties this team continues to accrue are unacceptable. Also, Bronco clearly can be a weirdo when dealing with the media at times.

But people .... lets be real here. In all my years of cougar fandom, I can never remember a team in football or basketball more decimated by injuries. We are essentially playing teams with our second string right now. Who ever even heard of Nate Carter?! Second string people! As much as some of you expect us to be Alabama... we are not. We, like most teams, can not afford for that many people to be hurt and continue to win games. Actually I'm pretty surprised we are playing as well as we are with the caliber of players we have on the field.

To me the reason we lost last week is because we didn't have our Heisman contending QB. I think Stewart played well and bless his heart he is doing the best he can but lets be honest. He lost us that game. You cant fumble the ball like that, you cant take off running with no where to go with no time outs like that. After reading CB this week you would have thought that Bronco himself fumbled the ball twice in the final 5 mins of the game instead of Stewart. Now is the loss more complicated than that? Uh... yeah of course it is. Does the defense have major problems... of course it does. But have any of you watched games before? I mean really? That's why the Brady's and Peyton's make the big bucks because they can lead their team back and win the game. Right now we don't have a guy who can do that, plain and simple.

I suppose philosophically I am at odds with some of you for assignment of blame. I have always believed that players account for roughly 80% of success/failure and coaches around 20%. I think that can slide contingently with an outlier coach or player like a Phil Jackson Bill Belicheck type but for the most part I think that talent covers a multitude of coaching mistakes. The way I read a lot of the posts on this site, you literally believe coaches are 80% and players 20%.

Lastly I will say that it almost seems like some of you are unaware of the self imposed handcuffs our school deals with. We are a spiritual institution FIRST! I may not love that all the time either but it doesn't change who we are. Because of that we will always have some bigger hurdles to success than other schools. In my estimation once about every 10 to 15 years we will get a good convergence of LDS talent and luck and put together a Jimmer type year. That's about it guys... seriously. You can want more but to expect more is probably not realistic. In the meantime I suggest you sit back with some popcorn and enjoy the good times and as Elder Ballard said " stay in the boat". And for Heaven sakes stop emailing coordinators telling them to step down.