Hans Olsen on past players

[nickdutson]

Hans recently tweeted that BYU players can relate more with the Utes and their coaching staff.

Kyle Whitt, Kalani Sitake n Aaron Roderick represent BYU players from 70's through 2000's. They treat ALL former players like gold @ the U.

Most players who played at BYU pre Bronco identify more with Kyle and Kalani than Bronco. They're our brothers, we fought for/with them.

What else needs to be done so this isn't the case. Bronco has reached out to them but what does that even mean.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[ABYUFAN]

Serious question: I've not lived in Utah for 20 years, and I don't know this, Is Hans Olson known as being a fair and balanced radio guy? If so, I'd be concerned about what he says. If not, then this is just the spouting off of a radio guy to get (any) reaction.

Again, not knowing the guy, I think it reads like the kind of drivel that Lawless Republic puts out there.

[hawkwing]

Hans also tweeted these:

the thing is Bronco is perfect for the university. They lost a Heisman caliber player. Have faith; he'll turn it around

I give Bronco the benefit of doubt because I couldn't imagine how difficult being a head coach would be, let alone that of a LDS institution

There are many players that have played for Bronco that I have a tremendous amount of respect for. They love him. He's built many good men!

[SpiffCoug]

Hans Olsen has been employed by the Utah flagship station. I think a lot of former players may not like Bronco or the way the current program is run for a relatively simple reason.

They all played in an era where the Honor Code was either irrelevant or unenforced to the level it is now. I think they know that they could not have survived in the current environment and they see Bronco as the reason why that is.

[BoiseBYU]

Why should they all feel entitled to be treated like gold? I wonder if Olsen talked to Anae....

[Cougarfan87]

Hans Olsen has been employed by the Utah flagship station. I think a lot of former players may not like Bronco or the way the current program is run for a relatively simple reason.

They all played in an era where the Honor Code was either irrelevant or unenforced to the level it is now. I think they know that they could not have survived in the current environment and they see Bronco as the reason why that is.

I think that is a lot of it. The BOT became much more involved in what BYU football would and would not be after the scandals of 2004. Recall that Bronco actually coached the defense before GC's firing, including some of the very players involved in the scandal. That isn't to say he was responsible for their conduct, but saw up close what happened. It should also be noted that Bronco was very loyal to Crowton, and basically submarined his interview for the job because he didn't think firing Crowton (or allowing him to resign) was right. If not for the players coming forward and pleading his case, he would not have the Head Coaching job. All that is said to support the idea that whoever is BYU's head coach will have to coach in a similar manner as Bronco. They are going to have to uphold the honor code. Credit to Bronco for doing his best to make it a positive thing and embracing it.

It is also easy to see why some who played at BYU before would not necessarily want to coach under the restrictions that they did not have to play under while they were here. It makes it very difficult to recruit. Perhaps that went into KWhitt's thinking when he took the Utah job, because he felt he could install the same football culture he knew under BYU at Utah, and he would not be able to do so at BYU. We treat it as one continuous BYU football culture, when there are actually three BYU cultures (concerning modern football). There is the LaVell Edwards culture, the Crowton years culture, and a much more restrictive Bronco Mendenhall culture as a reaction to the previous culture. I can see why some of those players don't feel like they really fit in. Things are different.

[KingCoug]

While I completely understand and agree with anyone who has a problem with the current state of BYU football, I've become increasingly annoyed whenever I listen to Hans on the radio. If I didn't know anything about the guy I would think he was a Ute homer. He's always gushing about them when things are good, apologizing or making excuses for them when things are bad. No BYU fan should ever want to see the Utes succeed in anything. Them doing good can only affect us negatively, either directly or indirectly.

[stgeorgefan]

I like Hans, I think he is fair. I don't live in the SLC market but I follow him on twitter. While reporting about Utah he tells it like it is most the time. He doesn't tell it like a former Byu player. Hans is very loyal to Byu and has been very protective and fair recently regarding Bronco and the state of the program. He's the opposite of Derik Stevenson who talks before he thinks, thinks his opinion is the only right one and stokes the fire on all the things going wrong....all in the name of loyalty.

We need more Hans types in the SLC media.

[stuckinbig10country]

Crowton was the first coach to begin alienating the former players. In one aspect, I kind of understand because a new coach wants to build a legacy for himself and not rely on what happened before. He just didn't do it in the right way.

Right after Bronco took over, he tried to reach back to the Lavell days. He was actually doing a great job of mending fences, but then something happened. I've heard rumors about some stuff (one involving Hans, but that seems mostly patched up), but whatever Bronco was doing to reach back pretty much stopped almost immediately. Others on here probably have better sources than I do regarding it, but ever since then it's been some weird cougar on cougar crime.

[snoscythe]

How many players who've played under Bronco are critical of him?

The only past players I've seen being at all critical are Derik Stevenson and Rob Morris. Neither of whom played in what I might call Lavell's glory years--Lavell had a worse W-L during both of those players' tenure (60% with Stevenson, 62% with Morris) than Bronco has had since Max Hall left (63%), including the recent 4-game skid mark.

Even Hans only played in seasons where Lavell went 59%, the difference is that Hans isn't out there proclaiming to know the secrets to winning because he's a Lavell guy. The problem with the most vocal "Lavell guys" is that they played with Lavell when he was past his prime, yet they want all the glory associated with the 80's era players. Playing for Lavell from 95-00 is not the same thing as playing from 80-92. These guys are asserting their experience cobbling together worse records against easier schedules under Lavell as giving them some higher ground from which to criticize Bronco as not being Lavell-enough in putting together a better record against tougher competition over the last 4 years.