thekehlzone.com An open letter to BYU fans

Bryan Kehl, one of the greatest LBs to ever play at BYU and played in the NFL is now writing blogs on his thoughts on BYU. The first one has to do with the coaching situation. I suggest you read it.



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hawkwing wrote:
Bryan Kehl, one of the greatest LBs to ever play at BYU and played in the NFL is now writing blogs on his thoughts on BYU. The first one has to do with the coaching situation. I suggest you read it.



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Thanks for posting. Spot on

Behold, Cougar Fans! Bryan Kehl has spoken. Heed his words for they are truth without blemish. And heed the words of his servant, Hawkwing. He also speaketh the truth.



Hawk, dude, I love ya, and your site, but you act like this is scripture. Its a good article, but it is not without opinion supported by some viable statistical comclusions and some spsurious conclusions. And his appeal is essentially driven by "look at me, I'm an optimist and optimists are always right."



Reasonable critics dont fall for the "alll or nothing" conclusions of either blogger. And your devotion to this coaching staff is creeping into a conspicuous pattern as though the teacher/ big brother/ athletic admin is monitoring this site. Its clear where you atand. I think 'they' get it already.

Reasonable fans dont want Bronco fired. They want answers and changes to fixable problems like undisciplined play leading this team to rank among the highest penalized team in the country. Is that totally on the players? Lame. 'Mindless agression' has been infused in this team, starters being the worst offenders. That is a coaching philosophy, either Howells or Broncos or both. Multiple Special Teams penalties were rampant. Why? How in the world could a team experience back-to-back offisdes in two different games???? I would bet money that is unprecedented in the history of Cougar football. How is that allowed? Who is allowing that? Is Bronco indifferent? unaware? What?

INjuries are injuries. Its been dang bad luck. But seriously.....

I loved Kehl's analysis, tone and conclusions. Thanks for posting this Hawk.

Cougs_Rule wrote:
Behold, Cougar Fans! Bryan Kehl has spoken. Heed his words for they are truth without blemish. And heed the words of his servant, Hawkwing. He also speaketh the truth.



Hawk, dude, I love ya, and your site, but you act like this is scripture. Its a good article, but it is not without opinion supported by some viable statistical comclusions and some spsurious conclusions. And his appeal is essentially driven by "look at me, I'm an optimist and optimists are always right."

I actually didn't offer any support for or against his arguments, merely the suggestion that you read it.

Justin Luettgerodt posted this on facebook, I found it quite interesting to read, and for some reason I had forgotten that he was/is non-LDS.

Justin Luettgerodt wrote:
I've tried to stay out of the Bronco Mendenhall conversation for a variety of reasons. It's been very tough to stand by and watch the person holding the hardest college coaching position get attacked on short term thinking with a disregard to the bigger picture. I was a Gary Crowton era recruit and agreed to come to BYU because of Bronco while he was a defensive coordinator. My junior year was Crowton and my senior year was Bronco's first year. I was one of the only non-LDS players on the team. It was a large culture shock and filled with all sorts of adversity for myself and the program. BYU was the hardest two years of my life and I'm forever grateful for all it's given me. I even ended up staying in Utah post college. After being a part of the transformation from losing seasons to winning, and coming from an outsiders perspective to BYU, I gained a tremendous amount of respect for what the leaders of the football program have to deal with. If BYU fans want the best all around head coach that thinks University / Church standards first, football second, deals with the modern day age of social media, the internet, the honor code held at the university level vs handled at the football program level AND wins football games...than I suggest you highly consider thinking longer term with what you want from your program vs the tremendous amount of short term comments I keep seeing. Having BYU football be the flag bearer of the university, and in many ways the Mormon church, comes at the price of smaller recruiting pools and significantly different challenges that other universities don't have to deal with. All leaders need to be held accountable and Bronco should be too. There are many ways to ensure that proper steps are being taken to improve the program. None of them have to do with getting rid of Bronco. I promise you will only end up disappointed in the bigger picture. You will have euphoria of the "new" and then you will revert back to the problems that come with a very unique football program, and likely much larger problems will loom. Many of the problems Bronco has mitigated without getting credit for. Let's support our teammates and help the good people getting over the humps of adversity and the volatility of competition without seeking to chop their head off as the solution. It would be the wrong decision. This is when we all dig in and show our support.

For a GREAT technical overview of Broncos performance and from an extremely credible source, check out Bryan Kehl's post below. He's someone that has played all levels of football, been a part of multiple BYU coaching eras and with both victory and success. I fully support his perspective on the subject and look forward to his further insight.

Lets compare years 6-10. Lavell's "second" 5 year block, his combined record was: 52-10 - 83%. Bronco's "second" 5 year block, his combined record was: 40-24 - 62% (assuming BYU finished 7-5 this year). Bronco started out stronger, but the last five years the trend is and average record of 8-5, Lavell's 10-2. fans are mad because we see more of the same going forward.



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LaVell's era was a different college football era. LaVell was a legend. To expect ongoing legendary results is unrealistic. That would make "legendary" be "average".

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nickdutson wrote:
Lets compare years 6-10. Lavell's "second" 5 year block, his combined record was: 52-10 - 83%. Bronco's "second" 5 year block, his combined record was: 40-24 - 62% (assuming BYU finished 7-5 this year). Bronco started out stronger, but the last five years the trend is and average record of 8-5, Lavell's 10-2. fans are mad because we see more of the same going forward.



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Good, well thought out, logical blog. I agree with everything he said. Firing Bronco would be a huge mistake. We saw first hand what a coach who doesn't understand how to run BYU football will do to the program.

I still think Bronco doesn't understand how to run the Bay Football program. That can be loomed at two ways. The first is that he has room to improve, and the second is that by 10 years you would hope someone has a handle on the job, and if they didn't other considerations should come into place. There are very few Fire Bronco people out there. If we would have lost to MTSU probably everyone on this board would have taken a strong push forward to that position.



I have said it a thousand times, Bronco needs to thank the stars above that he didn't play Utah this year. A loss to Utah and USU coupleD with a few losses here and there would have been it for Bronco.



I am in the "let's not extend his current contract, and when it expires let's have a replacement (who better not be Anae, or so help me) ready to take his place" camp. A losing season would expedite that, or losing to USU or Utah again.



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What most don't realize is that the top 2 candidates to replace Bronco are likely Anae and Lance Reynolds. Ken Niumatalolo would be in there as well, but I think BYU is done hiring from outside as far as head coaches of the hoops and football programs are concerned. Niumatalolo only gets consideration because he has had similar restraints on recruiting/behavior at Navy as BYU demands.

Kehl presents an interesting article. I like seeing the other side of the coin. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.



There's no denying BYU has slipped in the last 5 years, though. And, notice how Kehl doesn't go into what areas Bronco can improve in or some of the areas Bronco is being criticized for by other former players - lack of personal relationships, lack of getting players fired up for rivalries, or Bronco's inability to hire/manage talented assistant coaches.



Kehl tries to take the angle that the reason BYU has slipped in the last few years is that we haven't had professional caliber QBs. So, who's fault is that? And let's not forget who will be playing QB next year is a complete unknown. If QB is the most important position and the one that decides whether BYU is a Top 25 program or the 3rd best team in the state of Utah, well then shouldn't more effort have been made in acquiring, coaching, and keeping QBs healthy? Instead, it's been a revolving door (8 QBs in 5 years).



Now, I'm not saying Bronco should be fired, and quite frankly I don't like the options on the table. What I am saying is he isn't immune to criticism.

It also needs to be mentioned that Kehl played for and under Bronco directly. He was recruited to play for Bronco and did just that, and wasn't offloaded to one incompetent coach/coordinator after another.



He also ended his career winning Utah consequtive years, a feat that hasn't been done (quite the opposite actually) since he played., so he is likely to have a more rosy remembrance of BYU than recent players or recent production.



He played with NFL talent at qb, rb, fb, te, oline, safety, dline and linebacker. That either isn't being found currently, isn't being coached and developed properly, or isn't being put into starting positions (or a mixture of all 3).



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BlueIsBetter wrote:
It also needs to be mentioned that Kehl played for and under Bronco directly. He was recruited to play for Bronco and did just that, and wasn't offloaded to one incompetent coach/coordinator after another.



He also ended his career winning Utah consequtive years, a feat that hasn't been done (quite the opposite actually) since he played., so he is likely to have a more rosy remembrance of BYU than recent players or recent production.



He played with NFL talent at qb, rb, fb, te, oline, safety, dline and linebacker. That either isn't being found currently, isn't being coached and developed properly, or isn't being put into starting positions (or a mixture of all 3).



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Even if his experience is more rosey than more recent players, there's no indication of that. I have yet to see a single player that played under Bronco as the head coach that has not expressed support for Bronco as the head coach and said that they thought he was the right man for the job.



To be honest, I've only seen 1 player from any BYU era say that Bronco is not the right man for the job and that is Derek Stevenson.



Can anyone point me to direct quotes of any other players?

BlueIsBetter wrote:
Bronco needs to thank the stars above that he didn't play Utah this year.[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

If BYU had played Utah this year it would have been a September when the team was firing on all cylinders with Taysom and Jamall running for 250 yards per game. We beat Utah in November (!), but we get killed in October.

CAFB_04-12 wrote:

Bronco needs to thank the stars above that he didn't play Utah this year.[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

If BYU had played Utah this year it would have been a September when the team was firing on all cylinders with Taysom and Jamall running for 250 yards per game. We beat Utah in November (!), but we get killed in October.

I was regretting BYU not playing utah this year until I saw how the defense performed. Travis Wilson would have lit up the BYU D for 350 yards and 4 TD's this year if we had played them in Sept and we probably would have lost since utah's D is much better than ours this year. And everyone in the state knows how bad of a QB Travis Wilson is so this should tell you something.

I love the what-if game. BYU averaged over 250 yards rushing and allowed only 18 points per game till Taysom got hurt. As a friend puts it, evidence that Taysom did, in fact, play defense. BYU would have beat Utah at home in September. But now we'll never know. 8)

Well, at least Kehl shed some light on the whole Ben Olson situation!:



"In fact, I watched firsthand as Gary Crowton was too scared, all year, to play Ben Olson (my roommate) as a true freshmen in 2002, despite him being HEAD AND SHOULDERS better than all of our other quarterbacks, and everyone on the team knew it!!"