...it was the defense that imploded, melted down and contributed to a 4 game slide. Even without Taysom that was our best offense of the Mendenhall era. Our finishing with 5 losses wasn’t due to the offense. It was all on Bronco pre-maturely promoting his protege Nick Howell to the DC position and then his subsequent losing control of the unit, not fostering positive relationships with his players and they revolted. Things didn’t get back to normal on D until Bronco took back control of the D, demoted Howell and got them back on track.

8 wins isn’t great if your team should’ve won 10. That was the problem with so many of Bronco’s 8 win seasons. The 2012 season is a prime example. We had a top 3 Defense and maybe the best D ever at BYU but poor management of the QB situation, playing the wrong guy and not having an adequate backup ready to take over squandered what should’ve been a special season.

2014 was another season that had the potential for greatness. The problems fans had with Bronco in the end was because he basically gave up on his early standard of 10+ wins, top 25 finish and winning your bowl game and tried to sell fans on winning 8 games (while playing a mediocre schedule) and losing your bowl game as being a great year. Nobody was buying it.

He had said he wasn’t going to be a lifer at BYU and figured he’d coach about 10 yrs. He made it to 11 but kind of mailed it in for a few seasons before he left. He left BYU on a 3 bowl losing streak, a 5 game losing streak to Utah (including the worst BYU loss in the history of the rivalry), and opened the door for Utah St to get back in and be competitive with BYU for the first time in Decades. He’d lost his drive and that was a good reason to go. Fortunately for him he got an offer to one of the few schools he had on his list of ideal jobs.

The number of acceptable wins isn’t a static number. If we were in the 60’s, 8 wins would be great. Lavell set his bar in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Bronco set his bar at 10+ wins, top 25 finish and a bowl win. Kalani is still working on what his bar will be as he repairs and rebuilds the program.