Is the board too Optimistic/Pessimistic?

[scott715]

I just finished reading some threads from a month or two ago. Projections that we would lose out and get shut out by BSU and Utah. Also posts that Wilson will be the best QB of all time.

I need the threads would be bad and had no interest in reading them at the time.

I guess the board is not good predictors. Maybe we are just too emotional.

[Mars]

Too high or too low, like any and all sports fans.

[Gunk]

I think the board mellowed out. We were all calling for Kalani's job a couple months ago, now most are like, eh...he's alright. I think it's hilarious. He isn't a good coach. He's one win over .500. That's a "good" coach? One win over .500?

[KingCoug]

I think the board mellowed out. We were all calling for Kalani's job a couple months ago, now most are like, eh...he's alright. I think it's hilarious. He isn't a good coach. He's one win over .500. That's a "good" coach? One win over .500?

Um, no. He's not a good coach. He's the very definition of mediocre. And the only reason I'm even giving him a chance is because I have to with one more year on his contract. Anything less than 9 wins, including at least splitting the first four games (certainly beating Utah), as well as wins against Utah State and Boise State, I want him gone. And he can take Holmoe with him.

[Yzzazz]

Most responses on the board are reactionary. Hindsight and recency bias are the order of the day. Not too different from any other message board really. What surprises me is how easy it is to focus on the headline news. The week after the Cal game BYU's coaching staff was terrible. The next week the Wisconsin win was an incredible pinnacle of achievement--of course now it means much less than was thought. The Utah State loss was beyond the pale! embarrassing beyond forgiveness! But it turns out the Aggies may even have been a better team than Wisconsin this year.

The RB and QB troubles have really obscured the true potential of this year's, and next year's BYU team.

To be truly predictive, a poster would be better off trying to figure out which things they KNOW to be true, are not actually likely. Most people posting on this board (or really any board) have a hard time challenging their assumptions, so it results in the over-optimism/pessimism dynamic you've observed.

[YNot]

Definitely no too optimistic at this point in time. It's pretty funny (and tiresome) that it took like three posts to hijack this thread into bashing on Coach Sitake and AD Holmoe....and calling for them to be fired.

[frdbtr]

My comments reflect my faith in this coaching staff being able to prepare the team to win game by game. I expect them to look horrible and lose to any team that has shown any penchant for being able to beat a team with a winning record, and then I am happy with wins if they come. I like Kalani and wish he were a good coach, but he isn't so we need to cut bait and move on to the next guy and hope the next guy is as good as Bronco is and was.

[Fido]

Definitely no too optimistic at this point in time. It's pretty funny (and tiresome) that it took like three posts to hijack this thread into bashing on Coach Sitake and AD Holmoe....and calling for them to be fired.

Agree. There is definitely a tone of pessimism even when things are going well. I mean the team absolutely blows out Western Michigan (who some expected to win) and the criticism is "see--the coaches can't put together a full game plan!" There is a hard-core group of Bronco-loving Sitake/Holmoe haters who won't back off of that for anything. And a big crowd that fluctuates depending on how the week went.

I think the "must get 9 wins or more or be fired" crowd is bad for BYU. Maybe some time they will start to realize we aren't in the MWC anymore where you have 5-6 automatic wins against FCS and the dregs of the conference. And if the team ends up in a P5 conference some day, they aren't jumping back to 8+ wins every year. Just my opinion. I'm also not calling for the record books to be rewritten by this squad. I'd be happy with more consistency and improvement--whatever that looks like.

[frdbtr]

Definitely no too optimistic at this point in time. It's pretty funny (and tiresome) that it took like three posts to hijack this thread into bashing on Coach Sitake and AD Holmoe....and calling for them to be fired.

Agree. There is definitely a tone of pessimism even when things are going well. I mean the team absolutely blows out Western Michigan (who some expected to win) and the criticism is "see--the coaches can't put together a full game plan!" There is a hard-core group of Bronco-loving Sitake/Holmoe haters who won't back off of that for anything. And a big crowd that fluctuates depending on how the week went.

I think the "must get 9 wins or more or be fired" crowd is bad for BYU. Maybe some time they will start to realize we aren't in the MWC anymore where you have 5-6 automatic wins against FCS and the dregs of the conference. And if the team ends up in a P5 conference some day, they aren't jumping back to 8+ wins every year. Just my opinion. I'm also not calling for the record books to be rewritten by this squad. I'd be happy with more consistency and improvement--whatever that looks like.

And yet somehow Bronco was able to get to 8-5 every year which included having to plug in backup QB's and RB's every year since Max Hall left. Oh and by the way, everyone was calling for him to be fired because he had "peaked" and was not going to get us to the next level, and couldn't beat the utes. Now all we hear is that Kalani would be a good coach if it weren't for injury and schedule and blah, blah, blah. BYU, with a competent coaching staff should have only lost to Washington and maybe utah state this year, but Frankly, BYU should never lose to utah state at home.....ever. Bronco beat a utah state team that only lost 2 games under Coach Anderson with a team that had a Freshman QB that was in his second start. Anyway, rant over. This thread wasn't hijacked, this thread was asking for people to coach and AD bash simply by the way it was titled.

[Fido]

Agree. There is definitely a tone of pessimism even when things are going well. I mean the team absolutely blows out Western Michigan (who some expected to win) and the criticism is "see--the coaches can't put together a full game plan!" There is a hard-core group of Bronco-loving Sitake/Holmoe haters who won't back off of that for anything. And a big crowd that fluctuates depending on how the week went.

I think the "must get 9 wins or more or be fired" crowd is bad for BYU. Maybe some time they will start to realize we aren't in the MWC anymore where you have 5-6 automatic wins against FCS and the dregs of the conference. And if the team ends up in a P5 conference some day, they aren't jumping back to 8+ wins every year. Just my opinion. I'm also not calling for the record books to be rewritten by this squad. I'd be happy with more consistency and improvement--whatever that looks like.

And yet somehow Bronco was able to get to 8-5 every year which included having to plug in backup QB's and RB's every year since Max Hall left. Oh and by the way, everyone was calling for him to be fired because he had "peaked" and was not going to get us to the next level, and couldn't beat the utes. Now all we hear is that Kalani would be a good coach if it weren't for injury and schedule and blah, blah, blah. BYU, with a competent coaching staff should have only lost to Washington and maybe utah state this year, but Frankly, BYU should never lose to utah state at home.....ever. Bronco beat a utah state team that only lost 2 games under Coach Anderson with a team that had a Freshman QB that was in his second start. Anyway, rant over. This thread wasn't hijacked, this thread was asking for people to coach and AD bash simply by the way it was titled.

https://www.dailyprogress.com/cavalieri ... 74f5b.html

...Bronco Mendenhall has enjoyed living a life outside the fish bowl …

It is impossible for Virginia fans to realize how much easier life is for the Cavaliers’ football coach than it was at BYU, where the exposure, visibility, and pressure were suffocating. Some of that is because UVa has only experienced one 10-win season in its history (1989), and only a handful of nine-win campaigns.

Winning 10 games or more at BYU was an expectation from Cougar fans, which weren’t only centered in Provo, but over the entire world as part of the Mormon faith and attachment to the school and its football program. If there was such a thing as a “rock star” at BYU, it was Bronco.
...
Mendenhall was asked about the difference in life as coach at BYU and the contrast at UVa. The lifestyle may surprise some Cavalier fans because it’s something they would seldom think about.

“It’s the exact opposite end of the spectrum,” Mendenhall said.
...
“The demands on my time and the visibility I have [in Charlottesville] as to what I had [in Provo] can’t even compare,” Mendenhall explained. “In terms of my personal life, in terms of balance, it has been refreshing and invigorating, looking back at how that position at BYU had an effect on me all those years.”
...
It’s just that life in Charlottesville has been a breath of fresh air for Mendenhall, who almost felt suffocated by the ever-present pressure to keep BYU football at a high level. Apparently in Provo, any Mendenhall public appearance from a gas station fill-up to a night out for dinner would draw major attention.
...
Charlottesville has always been a place where residents live and let live...most of the citizenry aren’t caught up in star worship.
...

Keep blaming those who chased Bronco out with unreasonable expectations by continuing to be one of those people who hold coaches to the unrealistic expectations that chased him out to begin with. Stare into that mirror a little bit. He couldn't be talking about you could he?