Article about why Bronco left BYU

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One of his quotes, if accurately portrayed by the writer, is, “There was a significant change toward the end of last season. It was pretty clear – no, that’s an understatement. It was crystal clear that I had done what I was capable of and supposed to do at BYU with the time I was there."



Did he think that he had plateaued (i.e. that he could no longer take the team beyond 8-5, 9-4 seasons), or that BYU couldn't perform well in future big game scenarios based upon his losses to Utah, MI, MO and UCLA, that he couldn't attract the type of recruits needed to get to the next level, money issues, etc.?

Last season, with the exception of the Michigan game, BYU was competitive in all of their P5 match-ups. Maybe Bronco himself felt that he had plateaued as a coach and the "crystal clear" part was him realizing that it was necessary for him to move on to another challenge for him to continue to grow in his chosen profession. There is no doubt that Independence has brought on some very unique and different challenges. It will be very interesting to see how this new coaching staff approaches those challenges and where they can take the program moving forward. As for national relevance, win more of the P5 match-ups than you lose and BYU will be back on the radar nationally. The schedule is in place to make some noise on the national scene. All you have to do is win :)

I don't think Bronco should be telling the public that BYU cannot sustain its independence.



There is no guarantee that VA will out perform BYU now that Bronco is there, yet that seems to be his reasoning in leaving BYU for a P5 program.



I still like independence for BYU, and I like that we got Sitake, Detmer and Lamb.



I think it was good for both BYU and Bronco, that he left. His enthusiasm for BYU had waned, and he needed a new challenge.



I remain grateful to Bronco for the good things that he did at BYU. I wish him well.



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I think those are carefully chosen, even shrouded words. I think it was made pretty clear to him by Tom Holmoe and probably some big donors, that bronco had enough time to get to the next level of wins, particularly against BYUs rival. And, it became "crystal clear" – – carefully chosen words – – that some had lost confidence in him. Otherwise, he is just a quitter, and I don't believe that's the case. Or, alternatively, he saw that BYU was not going to get into a P5, which, if we believe his goal of a national championship, was way too unlikely for BYU. So, I suppose that Virginia has a 2% higher chance than BYU of winning a national championship. So, yeah, good choice bronco. :roll:

I'm sure it had nothing to do with $16 million. :whistle: that's very crystal-clear.

I guess I take a different view of things. I don't think Bronco made any decision that wasn't made on his knees. It wouldn't sound right to the east coast media if he said, "I prayed and the Spirit confirmed that I should leave BYU." But, how else do we get "crystal clear" answers to our life's situations if not on our knees? If football never was #1 on Bronco's list of priorities, why should a decision regarding where he coaches be a football only decision?

I believe that the crystal clear portion of his comment have to do with his recognition of depth issues when team played top tier teams (recruiting was not embraced by all his staff), his losses to UT, questionable play-calling in critical situations, and complaints by donors and former players about their relationship with him. The atmosphere, number of former players, and positive vibe was quite different when Kalani was introduced at the press conference as the coach - perhaps explaining the "crystal clear" comment that Bronco stated. While no games have yet been played, the fact that Taysom came back to BYU, that Kalani maintained all players being recruited and added some very good as well as intriguing prospects demonstrates a very different approach to how the team is being managed. Something clearly was missing during Bronco's tenure to get them to the next level.

Sometimes it's just time for a change. Change for Bronco, change for BYU, change for the fans. Hopefully, it works well for everybody. Fans are upbeat, Bronco has received a well earned raise. Virginia's fans are hopeful that Bronco can improve their team. We'll talk at the end of next season to see what all happened...



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SenorCougar wrote:
Sometimes it's just time for a change. Change for Bronco, change for BYU, change for the fans. Hopefully, it works well for everybody. Fans are upbeat, Bronco has received a well earned raise. Virginia's fans are hopeful that Bronco can improve their team. We'll talk at the end of next season to see what all happened...



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This is how I feel. I know Virginia will improve. I hope BYU improves.

He found a golden parachute and jumped, before he got pushed. A 5th straight loss to Utah would have gotten him fired anyways. You can't only win 3 out of 10 games against your evenly matched rival and then expect to have a job. Bronco had a clear distaste for recruiting, wasn't particularly good at it, and was terrible at personnel decisions. All that caught up with him and came to a head. I have no reason to believe that we would have had a winning season next year under him. The first five years were good, even great sometimes, but when he started playing with only the players he recruited we settled into a cozy 4+ loss season average.



He left because it was time for him to leave, either by choice or by force. 5 straight losses to Utah, in embarrassing fashion, sealed the deal in my opinion (and the opinion of many, many others).



I'm happy for him. I hope he makes a lot of money. I hope he saves it, actually. Because this might be his last head coaching gig at the college level. He doesn't like to recruit and UVA isn't a destination school with people turning down better offers and/or walking on just to go there. I don't see things going well for him with essentially the same exact staff he had out here, even with a schedule MUCH easier than our next season.

And the part about him bashing on Independence and how it isn't sustainable and he had done all that he could do... Well, you could have won a few more games against teams that had losing records. I mean, when you are a teams **only** D-1 win in an entire season there is probably more that you could have done. And if you had won winnable games against .500 competition a little more, maybe we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Brayden Green wrote:
And the part about him bashing on Independence and how it isn't sustainable and he had done all that he could do... Well, you could have won a few more games against teams that had losing records. I mean, when you are a teams **only** D-1 win in an entire season there is probably more that you could have done. And if you had won winnable games against .500 competition a little more, maybe we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Interesting. Bronco was 60-8 vs. FBS teams with a .500 record or worse. By comparison, Lavell was 120-11.



If Bronco won every game against such competition, BYU still never finishes the regular season undefeated and doesn't go to a BCS/NY6 bowl.



The only thing that would have changed is Bronco's record vs. Utah (5-5 instead of 3-7). I still think Bronco would have left for more money and the opportunity to coach better athletes.

mormonrasta wrote:

And the part about him bashing on Independence and how it isn't sustainable and he had done all that he could do... Well, you could have won a few more games against teams that had losing records. I mean, when you are a teams **only** D-1 win in an entire season there is probably more that you could have done. And if you had won winnable games against .500 competition a little more, maybe we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Interesting. Bronco was 60-8 vs. FBS teams with a .500 record or worse. By comparison, Lavell was 120-11.



If Bronco won every game against such competition, BYU still never finishes the regular season undefeated and doesn't go to a BCS/NY6 bowl.



The only thing that would have changed is Bronco's record vs. Utah (5-5 instead of 3-7). I still think Bronco would have left for more money and the opportunity to coach better athletes.

Better athletes? Not if you count all his recruiting misses. And even then it's fools gold. He won't get he elite athletes to chase his mythical NC?

Better kids? Not even close. Bronco is a duck or beaver or whatever out of water and he was fortunately smart enough to get a great contract with a great UVA golden parachute come hell or high water. Good on him. He cashed in with a cash out before getting cancelled out by his rival.

Unfortunately I don't think a 5th straight loss to Utah would have gotten him fired. It certainly should have, if he weren't already leaving, but there were many (including on this board) who would have kept him despite his pathetic failures against our rival.



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