McBride rescued a team/program mired in mediocrity. He taught them how to win and took them to six bowls, twice the number of bowls in their entire previous history. But McBride had reached his ceiling. He couldn't take the program to the next level. Chris Hill made the tough decision to fire a man who was liked by fans and players alike. He brought Meyer and....well, we all know how that went.

Bronco took a tainted Crowton program and restored its pride and image. He too took the team to numerous bowls. But he could not lead BYU to BCS bowls although two of his conference peers did. In the fourth year of independence, Bronco has reached his ceiling. The BSU game made that abundantly clear. Unlike in 2010, when he took over the DC responsibilities, the team on Friday did not respond to his pleas/leadership/play calling. After experimenting for one game, he has now turned the DC responsibility back to Howell. He knows that he's lost the team. That was apparent last week. He cannot lead BYU, in this brave new world of CFP, to a higher level.

I don't know who would replace him but it needs to be an outsider with little prior contact with BYU. He needs to remove the institutional malaise that has gripped this program.
If Bronco stays, he will have another major overhaul of his coaching staff and we'll spend the next two years rebuilding, again, and under the same captain that is largely responsible for the current state of affairs. When Hill fired McBride, he didn't have any candidates in mind. But he acted and then went looking. He found a guy who had only been a HC for two years, at Bowling Green.

BYU, as many have observed, has long ago been passed by Utah and TCU. With autonomy staring us in the face, BYU is in serious danger of being forever left at the level of the G5.
Perhaps that future is fine with the administration and the BOT. Perhaps football is really inconsequential in the Church's grand scheme of things and is just another cog. If that's the case, then Bronco is just as good a coach as the next guy.