...between coaching tenures vary which play a part in the success of the new guy. When Whitt took over for Urban he inherited a team full of talent with some good recruits in the pipeline. It made it easy for Whitt to continue the success started by McBride and taken to the next level by Urban. A big plus for Whitt was being able to hire his own coaching staff when he took over.

When Crowton took over for Edwards he had to inherit all of Edward's old assistant coaches and wasn't allowed to hire his own. The 2001 defensive unit at BYU has been considered one of the worst in a long time and the defenses in 2002 through 2004 weren't a ton better but when you look at the players that were on those teams there was a lot of NFL talent on BYU's defenses during those years. Guys like CJ Ah You, Ryan Denney, Brady Poppinga, Bryan Kehl, Colby Bockwoldt, Aaron Francisco, Shaun Nua, Brett Kiesel, John Denney, Ifo Pili, etc found success in the NFL yet played on some of the worst BYU defenses during Crowton's time. Ken Schmidt was the old DC that Crowton had to retain instead of hiring his own guy. I think this was a hardship that wouldn't happen at any other school but BYU and it tied Crowton's hands until some of the old dinosaurs decided to retire.

But, as you point out there are a lot of variables that make it hard to say how it would be different if a few things had gone in a different direction. You never fully know with woulda's, coulda's and shoulda's.