...Bronco's had a couple of elite seasons with his defense and then a bunch of years where we were above average and getting by on chewing gum and bailing wire. In 2005 his innovative defense gave up over 30 pts a game so he scrapped it and went with a more standard 3-4 approach that he has tweaked at times based on personnel.

In 2006 his defense was elite and gave up an average of only 14.7 pts a game. It was paired up with a really good offense that score a shade under 37 pts a game. I'm not sure he really had another "elite" (I guess it depends on your definition of "elite") until 2012 (gave up 14 pts a game). Inbetween were a lot of seasons where we gave up around 20 pts a game (give or take). Those above average defenses in the latter part of the 2000's were matched with some consistently above average offenses under Max Hall and we had some pretty good seasons.

Then in 2010 we started being all over the map with both the offense and the defense, offensive lines were terrible year after year, QB play was spotty to downright awful, never had a decent kicker, etc. In 2012 we paired the best defense in Bronco's tenure (maybe the best ever at BYU) with the worst ever offense in Bronco's tenure and managed a lousy 8-5 season, well below what it should've been.

We have seen that we don't need to be absolutely dominant on either side to be successful. Just being good will be good enough to win 10+ games and finish ranked. If we could be consistently good and mix in the occasional great unit (like the 2012 defense paired with our offense this year) we could have the occasional sensational season and a chance at glory.

If fans felt like they were close to greatness, I think they'd be okay with it. Problem is, Bronco doesn't manage expectations very well, he gets fans hope built up and then painfully shatters them with games like 2011 Utah, 2009 FSU, (actually pick just about any Utah game), 2010 USU, 2014 USU, 2008 TCU, (actually, pick just about any TCU game in recent years), repeated 1-2 starts to seasons, epic bye week failures, etc.