...Crowton had to rebuild the team. After his first season he had bare cupboards and had to reload. Everywhere. His last 2 seasons he played the 14th toughest SOS and the 11th toughest SOS and in his final season he finished 5-6 with a loss at #14 Boise St when Matt Payne doinked an easy FG at the end of the game. BYU lost 27-28. The weird thing about Matt is he was better from distance (40+) than he was up close. However, had Payne hit that FG, BYU finishes 6-5 and gets a bowl game while playing the toughest schedule in BYU history (even today).

Would that have saved Crowton's job? I don't know but it would've made it harder to fire him.

The program was already turning around when Bronco took over. He inherited a seasoned junior returning 2 yr starter QB (started games going back to his freshman year), an experienced OL (with NFL talent), a seasoned and talented group of skill players on offense (again with NFL talent) and played the 65th toughest SOS. Much much easier schedule and all that returning experienced NFL talent on offense and he managed to win only one more game than Crowton did with less experienced players playing the 11th toughest SOS.

Bronco caught the wave at the right time and benefitted from Crowton's groundwork. The one thing Bronco did do was not have any more scandals.