In the late 70's to early 80's, BYU football had a remarkable run.
Starting in 1979, the seasons leading up to the 1984 championship year went like this:

1979: 11-1
1980: 12-1
1981: 11-2
1982: 8-4
1983: 11-1

After the perfect year in '84, BYU slid back into 'good but not great' territory. During the next 15 years, LaVell and crew averaged 4 losses a year - many of them to very crummy WAC opponents. The only really good year during that period was the 1996 team that went 14-1 - but history shows us that year was an anomaly.

We should also remember that LaVell's bowl record during that time span was 3-9-1. Let that sink in for a minute. 3-9-1. In the 15 years that LaVell Edwards coached after the 1984 season up until he retired in 2000, BYU won THREE bowl games. Three bowl wins in 15 years.

People also like to remember the '96 team as some kind of model of what BYU football used to be. Let's touch on this again.

1992: 8-5
1993: 6-6
1994: 10-3
1995: 7-4
1996: 14-1
1997: 6-5
1998: 9-5
1999: 8-4
2000: 6-6

I am so glad twitter and cougarboard didn't exist in LaVell's era for multiple reasons. What we now know as LaVell Edwards Stadium would still be Cougar Stadium. As it is now, we can let our revisionist memory kick in and make it seem like every year was like 1984 and 1996. It wasn't. Matter of fact, over the past 30 years, more years were like this one we're having now, with the occasional glimmer of hope or lightning in a bottle moment.

LaVell struck gold in 1984 and was able to run through a very weak schedule to end up undefeated. We all know that this could not play out again in today's world like it did then. BYU wouldn't even be considered for the national championship game in today's system. For some reason the 1984 season casts a shadow on all others thereafter by setting the national championship as the mark to hit in order to be called a success.

It's not. going. to. happen. ever. again. It doesn't matter if Knute Rockne, Vince Lombardi and John Wooden all rose from the grave and formed some kind of invincible coaching triumvirate to take BYU to the top, it's not going to happen. The system is set up so that it doesn't happen.

I want success for BYU football just as much or worse than any of you, but let's be real. BYU is in a peculiar spot for many reasons. Independence, religion, ESPN, etc, etc. BYU is different. We can expect excellence, but we've also got to be realistic. We're not going to have terrific seasons every year. Most years we won't, actually. Every 10 or so we'll have a chance to have a great one.

Bronco has issues for sure, like all the rest of us do, but c'mon, folks. One of the most overlooked attributes to success in coaching is longevity. We all know our talent pool is extremely shallow, and even if it weren't, and we could pick from anyone, there's a good chance that pick would backfire. Look at Michigan and Florida as recent examples of this. And remember when when LaVell retired, and we wanted to bring in fresh blood to reinvigorate the program and take it to new heights? Enter Gary Crowton, NFL offensive genius. Gary Crowton came in as one of the hottest names in football. Shortly thereafter, Gary Crowton almost ran this program into the ground. We are still recovering.

Even if we did bring in a guy like Sitake, what makes you think that the program would be any better off than it is now? The BYU job is a leviathan that I wouldn't want to give to any of my friends or relatives. It's a unique institution that combines God, school and football into a strange amalgam and demands success with a set of demanding and almost impossible strings attached. If you don't win, then people start itching and wailing about this, that and the other, and you end up here, on cougarboard. You know what else is funny? Just a couple of weeks ago, after the utes blew a 3 or 4 td lead against washington state, there were ute fans calling for Sitake's head. Sound familiar much?

Let's also not forget that this BYU team has had more significant injuries than I can ever remember ANY team having. If you take half of the starters and countless other contributors off of any team in the country, they are going to struggle. The same goes for the ALL teams, even in the NFL. Heck, take even the starting QB out of any team's lineup, and their chances of winning plummet. Watch vegas lines when injuries are announced if you don't think that is the case. One key injury will swing lines by multiple points. What happens when you take out 20+ guys, and many of them are your team's leaders? You lose, that's what. Is that the coaches fault?

Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you get unlucky. The cougars have had a huge helping of the latter, and if we take that into account and don't adjust our expectations accordingly, we suck as fans. To keep the same expectations you had even a couple of weeks ago until now would be folly. To demand execution and success from Bronco and crew in these circumstances is lunacy. He's trying to hold his ship together under extraordinary circumstances, and I wouldn't trade him jobs for anything in the world. He has my support and he has my respect.

Go Cougars!