Kalani v. Mendenhall v. Crowton

[Yzzazz]

The one thing that I haven't seen anyone address about the fake punt is this:

How is that the BYU players didn't seem to lose confidence in their coaches? That show of resilience for a team that had already lost 3 close ones is actually quite impressive.

BTW, it is a shame Jamaal couldn't play. I've gotta believe that if he is in the game, we've won it. Squally did quite well, but if he can do THAT well, the Jamaal... just sayin'.

But I got to thinking about the last two coaching changes and I wondered if there is any indication of how things are going to go from here. To recap history:

#1 Crowton comes in and goes 12-2, while LaVell had taken a very similar squad only 6-6 in the previous year. What happened? Did Crowton get lucky or did he show how badly Edward's staff was underperforming their talent level? I have always suspected it was the latter. As Crowton's success deteriorated over the following years it became clear that his strength was play-calling not program management. But in Crowton's first year no one saw the drop off coming. They assumed the success would continue. I mean back then only Airwolf thought BYU didn't have a chance against USC the following year, but if you knew what to look for then would you have known that BYU was already in trouble by the start of its second year?

#2 Bronco came in and went 6-6 his first year, starting off with an infuriatingly sluggish offense with eggregiously conservative play calling to finish what should have been a potential Cougar win into a 20-3 embarrassment against Boston College. But Bronco went on to prove that he was an excellent program builder. Again, if you knew what to look for, would you have been able to predict a nice outcome for BYU over the following decade? And yet despite his obvious program success, Bronco reached a limit. He was unable to 1) Outcoach Kyle W. 2) Break into a higher bowl strata.

#3 So here comes Kalani with a veritable dream team of Alumnus-cum-Laudatus on his staff. And they have shown that they are pretty good play callers, respectable player developers (Canada, Kafusi, others?), decent program managers, and willing to take risks.

Is there anything that already tells us this group is headed for Crowton-style disaster, or Bronco-style limits? I would say that neither fate is likely for this group, but will their be success in their future? That depends on whether Kalani's style of risk taking is more intelligent than it looks right now. If he is simply a gambler, then at some point he'll make a decision which will undo him. But if he is a smart risk-taker, someone who gambles only when the odds are skewed his way, then he might just be capable of breaking through the Bronco limits.

As an indicator, I am looking at player loyalty. I think Kalani has done very well in growing player loyatly in a big way. I think that will pay dividends over time. I think Ty has done an excellent job of calling a game within the player's abilities. I believe they will improve and have success here at the Y to the tune of an average of 10 wins per season after about 5 years.

[bamf3000]

On Kalani's risk taking, I'm 100% ok with him doing in and learning it his 1st year in. People are more likely to forgive and forget that in the first year, dont try it now, you wont be trying it in the future without getting A LOT more flack for it.

[BroncoBot]

On Kalani's risk taking, I'm 100% ok with him doing in and learning it his 1st year in. People are more likely to forgive and forget that in the first year, dont try it now, you wont be trying it in the future without getting A LOT more flack for it.

Wow. I'm afraid of all the scenarios that we're going to have to risk to "get it out of the system" if we had to try a 4th and 19 from the back of the endzone in order to discover "what happens next".

[bamf3000]

Oh no!! A game being played by college kids with a new coaching staff is going to try out new things and they wont work!! Glad to see your arm chair quarterback trophy didnt go to waste.