...and the program was on the verge of doing a lot of winning.

I'm just providing some perspective. Bronco fanboys on CB like to try to use Crowton to make Bronco look better, "See, winning 8 games on sucky schedules isn't bad, at least he's not losing like Crowton did or having player scandals!" yet Bronco speaks very fondly of Crowton and has some deep feelings of loyalty towards him.

When you take a step back and look at his career as a whole you see some really high high moments and some really low low moments. After losing a ton of starting talent after the 2001 season he basically had to reload the cupboards and rebuild the program. At the same time schedules suddenly got tougher and he was having to live up to the fan/administration's expectations due to the previous coach being a Legend.

Another hardship he had to endure that further tied his hands was not being able to bring in his own coaches. He had to keep all of Lavell's old fossils on staff. Ken Schmidt was the DC and that 2001 defense was one of the worst in BYU history yet it was loaded with NFL talent. Something like 8 guys on that depth chart went on to play in the NFL including guys like Brady Pop, Aaron Francisco, Ryan Denney, Brett Keisel, Colby Bockwoldt, etc. Crowton eventually made some really good assistant coaching hires, bringing in guys like Jeff Grimes and Bronco Mendenhall.

Crowton was a crazy mad scientist type of coach but was put in a position of having to win now, inherited a team thin on talent (after the 2001 season), inherited an assistant coaching staff that needed to retire years prior, and inherited the toughest back-to-back schedules in BYU history.

It was a situation that I think most coaches coming in would've struggled and lost, including Bronco.