...while the 05 team played the #65 toughest. Significantly easier and played a major factor as did all the experience and development returning players in 05 got playing that tougher schedule in 04.

Bronco was the beneficiary of all the hard work and building that Crowton did. It explains why we've seen a noticeable drop-off in play under Bronco once all the Crowton players left the field after the 2009 season. Bronco's greatest on field successes were benefited greatly by Crowton. Without Crowton's recruits, Bronco has been an 8 win coach who struggles to beat his in-state rivals and is marginally successful in bowl games (3-2, 2 straight losses).

in reading your post again, To your point he did make a big jump in stat compilation but some of that is also because being ranked so low he had a lot more room to make improvements. In economics there's a principle of diminishing returns. The lower you are the more room you have to improve. You could argue having that much room to improve means it's easier to do. The tougher improvements come not jumping from being ranked middle of the pack to good, rather they come (imo) trying to make that jump from good to great.

Soph Beck to Junior Beck showed improvement mostly through just throwing nearly 200 more passes (high volume increase). The more valuable increase and therefore greater increase came when he improved his PER from 137 to 169 in his senior year. Chalk it up to a difference in opinion about what's greater, volume stat compilation or exceptional efficiency and position mastery.