Nate Miekle's new article on KSL

I love his insights because he knows Bronco personally. This article answers the question for most of you who criticized Bronco for not criticizing his players (Riley Nelson) in public.



http://www.ksl.com/?sid=23432990&nid=272&title=byu-football-why-former-cougars-wont-criticize-mendenhall" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wow. That story hit the mark for me. It's what I had imagined, but I have to be honest that I believe that our difficulty in dealing with Bronco is more that he's playing celestial football in a terrestrial world--if that makes any sense. Yes, it is probably the way to go, but when it comes to being a football fan, it's very, very difficult to not be "worldly" about your expectations.

Haven't cared for either of these last two.

SpiffCoug wrote:
Haven't cared for either of these last two.

Agreed.

Why because he doesn't join the chorus of media calling Bronco incompetent and stupid?

frdbtr wrote:
Why because he doesn't join the chorus of media calling Bronco incompetent and stupid?

Sort of. He writes a couple of pieces that tell me that Bronco's real job is to be an upstanding guy and that the fans don't get it.

Fans, in a technical sense, can be defined as shareholders to the extent they have the ability to appoint the board of directors — in this case, zero ability.

But completely loses sight of the fact that if, in his own analogy, fans aren't shareholders, then they are definitely customers (without whom the venture goes bankrupt inside of a year). He asks questions like:

But how many are sufficient? Against which teams? What winning percentage is acceptable? At what cost? And given the nature of BYU, a religious institution, can wins ever be the top priority for Mendenhall, the Cougars' head coach?

in a rhetorical way and by doing so implies that fans (like me) couldn't begin to answer them, even though these are exactly the questions we debate actively on the board and elsewhere.



Meikle's a stand-up guy, I know him personally, but his last two pieces have been aimed at persuasion and have both missed the mark, he's a former player and his insight is interesting, but I hear too much entitledness in his tone. He forgets that fans do care about winning, especially over certain opponents, and that most fans would give their left arm to do what the players get to do.

BerliNY wrote:
But completely loses sight of the fact that if, in his own analogy, fans aren't shareholders, then they are definitely customers (without whom the venture goes bankrupt inside of a year). He asks questions like:

But how many are sufficient? Against which teams? What winning percentage is acceptable? At what cost? And given the nature of BYU, a religious institution, can wins ever be the top priority for Mendenhall, the Cougars' head coach?

in a rhetorical way and by doing so implies that fans (like me) couldn't begin to answer them, even though these are exactly the questions we debate actively on the board and elsewhere.

Sure, the venture goes bankrupt without any fans at all, but is Bronco's public persona alienating tens of thousands of fans? Are there tens of thousands of fans thinking "I really love BYU football, but I just won't go to a game, or buy that shirt or hat if Bronco's coaching?"



As for Nate's rhetorical questions, the impression I got is that he doesn't think no one can answer those questions; he's just saying that even if you take an "objective" approach like "judge Bronco by his results," you can still subjectively pick whichever results you want to in order to "prove" your point.

Yndian wrote:

Sure, the venture goes bankrupt without any fans at all, but is Bronco's public persona alienating tens of thousands of fans? Are there tens of thousands of fans thinking "I really love BYU football, but I just won't go to a game, or buy that shirt or hat if Bronco's coaching?"

I spend less on BYU stuff when they are 7-5 than when they are 11-2. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that is true for most sports fans.



BTW just picked up a pair of BYU sweatshirts for $35 on sale at finishline.com if anyone is looking. I can't remember the last time I found something like that on sale for BYU.



Edit.

Just finished the article. Did that dude really compare Bronco to a guy who gave his life saving people on 9-11? He should be ashamed of himself.

So, what I got out of it was:



1. Bronco loves his players too much to make the tough decisions.

2. Bronco can't be expected to be more successful considering the fact that he is working with a bunch of Mormons.

3. We should be happy that these good little Mormon boys even have a school that allows them to live their religion and play football.

4. It is not whether you win or lose that counts, it is how good of an excuse you have that matters. The BOT is more interested in good excuses.

5. If you are a BYU fan, then too bad. Get used to it.



I thought Nate was an inspiring player but his logic is pretty lame.



Whatever happened to the stripling warriors? If we follow Nate's logic we would have Helaman telling the Nephites that he loves the stripling warriors but he just can't defeat the Lamanites with a bunch of momma's boys.

frdbtr wrote:
I love his insights because he knows Bronco personally. This article answers the question for most of you who criticized Bronco for not criticizing his players (Riley Nelson) in public.



http://www.ksl.com/?sid=23432990&nid=272&title=byu-football-why-former-cougars-wont-criticize-mendenhall" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is a bunk assessment of what fans expect. I hope he doesn't criticize his players in public (so why the freak did he finally do that after GT? TH too)? Because their job credibility was under the spotlight? Bc their job security was getting stretched? BRONCO GOT LOCKED IN and couldn't see the forest from the trees. He can clearly see it now bc he's not starting an injured, turnover prone guy that he loves and loved too much.



So, if Bronco or in this case his surrogate in the free press, ( and I know and really like Nate) wants to get judged by more than his Win/loss record, let's look to higher principles, shall we?

LOYALTY--bronco is loyal to his players, no doubt. Bt his loyalty to one over anther cost him several games and I think he sees that now whether he was forced to by his boss or somehow magically came to his senses (since he "doesn't look back").



FIDELITY-- he favored one over another by breaking one of his own rules, "if you don't practice, you don't play."

Bronco and Cougar Nation got lucky that a very talented Lark didn't complain and leave. The shelves, for all intent and purposes, should have and could have easily been bare and he would have had to pull the redshirt off of Ammon or worse, play Munns. But bc of the loyalty and team guy that Lark was, he stayed and endured and now has one more shot at glory, one more shot to effectively surpass Riley's tattered legacy and enter the books as a far better qb than 66th in the bowl season and in BYUs books as well, in at least some stat categories.

RILEY MAY GO DOWN IN INFAMY AND LARK IN SHROUDED MYSTERY.



I get why Nate is coming to Broncos aid. And good for Nate! I have several faults as a parent. I hope my children will cover for me as well; and remember only the good times and forgive me if I showed loyalty to one child over another, equally capable of getting the job done. I hope that if I have a prodigal son who "keeps playing" or "comes back" after an injury to his soul or back or ribs, that he gets all the credit and love he deserves. I also hope that the son who was consistent and did not suffer injury and did not quit or transfer and stayed the course, can forgive and overlook the fact that he was overlooked. I also hope that the rest of my kids who favored the gritty older brother aren't jealous of such favoritism and patriarchal preference and see that my fatherly blind loyalty as manifested by my not quitting on a player was more important than the loss of at least two very important games.

Further, I hope that the rest of my kids don't mind that as a father I would allow my impaired son to beg to drive the car into the ditch one more time before pulling him from the drivers seat, just to prove that I have learned from the past when I thought that two drivers behind the wheel was far better than one. And that the brand new, freshly permitted child prodigy driver was as capable of driving as the one who couldn't turn the wheel with his arm as effectively (but boy could he push the gas peddle, err, notwithstanding his runs into walls and barriers often to prove how much "tougher than all of us" he was; AND that toughness should trump talent or at least cover for the lack of it under impaired circumstances.)

I get that It is far better to look forward than back and to look for the good and not the bad. Being a college football coach is very tough. Being a BYU football coach may even be tougher. Bronco deserves a lot of forbearance from his players and certainly almost the highest praise from the BoT based on their job criteria; and maybe more patience and appreciation from fans. But if he prefers the fans to be mute, especially if they are "uneducated", AKA Deaf and dumb, he is not only foolish to expect fans to be blind or turn a blind eye, as though we are the three indigent monkeys that "see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil, but if he or Nate is going to employ a "savior" motif, then he better be ready to have those same "pharisitical fans" he continues to stir up and call out to keep roughing him up on his imperfections. Otherwise, he ought to either one, actually Be perfect, and therefore be above scrutiny and not be easily offended; or two, realize and accept that the fans are not perfect and care deeply about Cougar nation and may get IT wrong, particularly if they (nor most anyone observing Cougar Nation) don't see the wisdom in what seems to them high risk if not reckless behavior (playing a player with a broken back and functioning at 65%, all while intoxicated on pain killers) and/or BYU loses 3 years in a row to their rival--two of which were very, very winnable; or finally, three, get over his own lack of perfectness and quit projecting onto the fan base as though they were the enemy. It's about motes and beams, right Bib?



At any rate, good for Nate. I hope my kids judge me better than I have judged Bronco this year on CC. And I equally hope that Bronco sticks around and is as tolerant of an imperfect fan base as he is expecting them to be of him; And that he sees we are grateful for the grit and effort ( no sarcasm intended) he puts forward, notwithstanding "the results"; AND that we as fans, pseudo-shareholders (or whatever the heck we are subjugated or relegated to) can't share equally "the most disappointing season" in the Bronco era and be treated as malcontents unworthy to express disappointment, as if that disappointment belonged solely to Bronco (as though he is some martyr) and think that we, the uneducated, pharisitical ingrates can't and shouldn't express concern and keep the expressions of our Cougar Nation Love invisible to the Emporers imperfections.



Go Cougars! Defeat the Mayan's cousins!

Cougs_Rule wrote:

I love his insights because he knows Bronco personally. This article answers the question for most of you who criticized Bronco for not criticizing his players (Riley Nelson) in public.



http://www.ksl.com/?sid=23432990&nid=272&title=byu-football-why-former-cougars-wont-criticize-mendenhall" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is a bunk assessment of what fans expect. I hope he doesn't criticize his players in public (so why the freak did he finally do that after GT? TH too)? Because their job credibility was under the spotlight? Bc their job security was getting stretched? BRONCO GOT LOCKED IN and couldn't see the forest from the trees. He can clearly see it now bc he's not starting an injured, turnover prone guy that he loves and loved too much.



So, if Bronco or in this case his surrogate in the free press, ( and I know and really like Nate) wants to get judged by more than his Win/loss record, let's look to higher principles, shall we?

LOYALTY--bronco is loyal to his players, no doubt. Bt his loyalty to one over anther cost him several games and I think he sees that now whether he was forced to by his boss or somehow magically came to his senses (since he "doesn't look back").



FIDELITY-- he favored one over another by breaking one of his own rules, "if you don't practice, you don't play."

Bronco and Cougar Nation got lucky that a very talented Lark didn't complain and leave. The shelves, for all intent and purposes, should have and could have easily been bare and he would have had to pull the redshirt off of Ammon or worse, play Munns. But bc of the loyalty and team guy that Lark was, he stayed and endured and now has one more shot at glory, one more shot to effectively surpass Riley's tattered legacy and enter the books as a far better qb than 66th in the bowl season and in BYUs books as well, in at least some stat categories.

RILEY MAY GO DOWN IN INFAMY AND LARK IN SHROUDED MYSTERY.



I get why Nate is coming to Broncos aid. And good for Nate! I have several faults as a parent. I hope my children will cover for me as well; and remember only the good times and forgive me if I showed loyalty to one child over another, equally capable of getting the job done. I hope that if I have a prodigal son who "keeps playing" or "comes back" after an injury to his soul or back or ribs, that he gets all the credit and love he deserves. I also hope that the son who was consistent and did not suffer injury and did not quit or transfer and stayed the course, can forgive and overlook the fact that he was overlooked. I also hope that the rest of my kids who favored the gritty older brother aren't jealous of such favoritism and patriarchal preference and see that my fatherly blind loyalty as manifested by my not quitting on a player was more important than the loss of at least two very important games.

Further, I hope that the rest of my kids don't mind that as a father I would allow my impaired son to beg to drive the car into the ditch one more time before pulling him from the drivers seat, just to prove that I have learned from the past when I thought that two drivers behind the wheel was far better than one. And that the brand new, freshly permitted child prodigy driver was as capable of driving as the one who couldn't turn the wheel with his arm as effectively (but boy could he push the gas peddle, err, notwithstanding his runs into walls and barriers often to prove how much "tougher than all of us" he was; AND that toughness should trump talent or at least cover for the lack of it under impaired circumstances.)

I get that It is far better to look forward than back and to look for the good and not the bad. Being a college football coach is very tough. Being a BYU football coach may even be tougher. Bronco deserves a lot of forbearance from his players and certainly almost the highest praise from the BoT based on their job criteria; and maybe more patience and appreciation from fans. But if he prefers the fans to be mute, especially if they are "uneducated", AKA Deaf and dumb, he is not only foolish to expect fans to be blind or turn a blind eye, as though we are the three indigent monkeys that "see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil, but if he or Nate is going to employ a "savior" motif, then he better be ready to have those same "pharisitical fans" he continues to stir up and call out to keep roughing him up on his imperfections. Otherwise, he ought to either one, actually Be perfect, and therefore be above scrutiny and not be easily offended; or two, realize and accept that the fans are not perfect and care deeply about Cougar nation and may get IT wrong, particularly if they (nor most anyone observing Cougar Nation) don't see the wisdom in what seems to them high risk if not reckless behavior (playing a player with a broken back and functioning at 65%, all while intoxicated on pain killers) and/or BYU loses 3 years in a row to their rival--two of which were very, very winnable; or finally, three, get over his own lack of perfectness and quit projecting onto the fan base as though they were the enemy. It's about motes and beams, right Bib?



At any rate, good for Nate. I hope my kids judge me better than I have judged Bronco this year on CC. And I equally hope that Bronco sticks around and is as tolerant of an imperfect fan base as he is expecting them to be of him; And that he sees we are grateful for the grit and effort ( no sarcasm intended) he puts forward, notwithstanding "the results"; AND that we as fans, pseudo-shareholders (or whatever the heck we are subjugated or relegated to) can't share equally "the most disappointing season" in the Bronco era and be treated as malcontents unworthy to express disappointment, as if that disappointment belonged solely to Bronco (as though he is some martyr) and think that we, the uneducated, pharisitical ingrates can't and shouldn't express concern and keep the expressions of our Cougar Nation Love invisible to the Emporers imperfections.



Go Cougars! Defeat the Mayan's cousins!

TLDR.