The LDS kids, the lifeblood of BYU recruiting, cycle through the program in 6-7 year intervals. At most programs the cycle is 4-5 years. Recruiting disasters a la Crowton 2004-2005 are not fully felt by a program until that class (or two) has cycled through.

I'm going to type out a simple chart here. First, I'll list the season of BYU football and the head coach, then in parenthesis which recruiting terms should be cycled through that season, and our record for the year. For those of you who are anal retentive like me, the paranthesis don't indicate the actual years the class signed, but the football seasons immediately prior to their signing.

2004 Crowton (97-98) 5-6
2005 Bronco (98-99) 6-6
2006 Bronco (99-00) 11-2
2007 Bronco (00-01) 11-2
2008 Bronco (01-02) 10-3
2009 Bronco (02-03) 11-2
2010 Bronco (03-04) 7-6
2011 Bronco (04-05) 10-3
2012 Bronco (05-06) ???

Nashty, you're a friend and this post is not a smack on you. I just think some BYU fans are missing the obvious here. The Crowton disaster of 2004-2005 (if you weren't around back then and you don't know what disaster I'm talking about, I can point you in the direction of some good reading) was not going to fully hit BYU until 6-7 years down the road when our lifeblood recruiting pipelines for those seasons cycled through. That puts us at 2010 and 2011. Well, guess what, beginning in 2010 we were stuck with young players all over the field at critical positions and our talent and performance suffered - right on schedule!

At most schools such a disaster would hit at year four or five, but it would be somewhat mitigated by the JC effect. The mission issue extends it for two years at BYU, and we can't recruit JC as effectively because so many JC guys can't qualify for BYU academically, and won't sign the honor code.

Bronco's first full recruiting class didn't hit until 2006, and we are just barely starting to see the core LDS kids from that group cycle through in 2011-2012. We won't see the full effects of Bronco's recruiting until around 2013 or 2014. It doesn't matter that Bronco is entering year eight. What matters is how the recruits have cycled through, and it couldn't be more obvious to me that it's way to early to judge Bronco's talent evaluation and development.

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