...discussed when this topic comes up HOWEVER, I hear the other side of the story you refer to as a constant narrative as though it is the full set of facts in the situation w/o any analysis of it. I only try to pry open the coffers of the groupthink mentality to consider ALL of the elements of the story and get people to look at a bigger picture of the situation.

As for the SOS in 2002 it was #86, pretty weak. There's an old adage in sports that I've heard quoted in a variety of ways but the idea of it is: It's tough being the coach that replaces the legend, it's better to be the coach that replaces the coach that replaced the legend. Stewart Mandel addressed this recently when he looked into the fate of 13 coaches who replaced legendary coaches at big time college football schools (BYU isn't in the class of a school like Ohio St, Penn St, Michigan, 'Bama, FSU, FLorida, etc but there's no doubt that Lavell Edwards is fully qualified to be included in that discussion as a legendary coach).

In looking at 13 legendary football coaches that were among the all-time winningest, It wasn’t pretty in the majority of cases for the guy who replaced them. Among the all-timers (Alabama’s Bear Bryant, Ohio State’s Woody Hayes, etc.), the median coach spent 20 seasons at his respective school. Unfortunately, the median successor lasted just five. The median all-timer won 75 percent of his games. The median successor managed 65 percent. Most notably, 10 of the 13 were either fired, resigned under pressure or ran off to a lesser destination.

In 2002 Crowton had to replace a ton of key players from his 12-1 team the year before including a Heisman candidate QB and a Doak Walker award winning RB. He returned 5 starters on offense (including most of his OL and his backfield) and 6 on defense. He broke in a new starter at QB (Engemann who soon lost his starting job) and tried 3 other QB's with similar lack of success. It's not surprising that he didn't have a successful 2nd year. It takes time to rebuild through recruiting and when you break down Crowton's tenure they were turning things around on the field by 2004 despite playing the two back to back toughest schedules in BYU history.

If people want to say that Bronco brought stability to the program, sure, I can get on board with that. He was a good but not great coach. Problem is they let their emotions get the better of them and go a little too far. Yes, we had 3 losing seasons in a row. It took some time to rebuild through recruiting and it took some time to get a good QB in and get him up to speed (John Beck) behind a talented cohesive Offensive Line. Those things were all in place in 2004 and started to come together over Beck's junior and senior seasons. It's very exaggerated for some fans to call Bronco a "savior" of the program. It clearly was on the rebound (on the field) when Bronco took over. He didn't do anything brilliant as a coach to "turn it around".

He had the benefit of being the guy that replaced the guy who replaced the legend. Fortuitous timing.