BYU Football Op Ed: Call me crazy, but I don’t miss Bronco Mendenhall

BYU football is terrible this season. But the grass isn’t always greener and Bronco Mendenhall probably wouldn’t have things looking much different.

I know how bad BYU football is. At this point, we’re teetering on being historically bad. It stings every week, it’s frustrating and it makes football season feel like work.

There are certainly concerns. Did Kalani Sitake hire the right coaches? (It doesn’t look like it). Will things turn around? (Probably). Is the recruiting improving? (Yes). Will Ty Detmer still be in Provo next season? (Probably not).

I’ve seen a lot of opinions out there that it was a mistake to let Bronco Mendenhall leave. That the entirety of the coaching staff needs to be fired. That things will never get better.

I understand the anger. I’m angry, too.

But the grass isn’t always greener. Call me crazy, but I still don’t miss Bronco Mendenhall.

Was/is Mendenhall a good coach? Certainly. His 99 wins over 10 seasons was very solid. Plus, you can look at his Virginia team this season to see what he’s doing. Sure, he’s quirky, weird and had a lot of not-so-great things about the way he ran a program.

But he never went 1-7, right?

Absolutely. Bronco did a good job of raising the floor, but I don’t think he did much to raise the ceiling.

If you look at Bronco’s 99 victories, you’ll see a lot of wins over lackluster opponents. Sure, you can only play the teams on your schedule, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Cougars didn’t have many marquee wins under Mendenhall.

In fact, 75 of Bronco’s 99 wins came over the following teams:

New Mexico, Colorado State, Air Force, UNLV, Wyoming, Eastern Illinois, Tulsa, Utah State, San Diego State, Eastern Washington, Northern Iowa, Tulane, Oregon State, UTEP, UCF, San Jose State, Idaho State, Idaho, New Mexico State, Hawaii, Weber State, Middle Tennessee, Nevada, UConn, Virginia, Savannah State, ECU, Cincinnati, Wagner and Fresno State.

Not exactly a murderers’ row.

Again, I get it. BYU football going 8-4 (even if you’re only beating average teams) is way better than going 1-7 and looking entirely lost.

But don’t forget that Bronco had three-straight 8-5 seasons. He went 50-28 from 2010 until he left. From 2006 until 2009 Bronco’s BYU football teams were excellent. The Cougars went 43-9 in that span, beating Utah three times.

Next: Should Ty Detmer Be Fired?

My point isn’t to argue that Bronco wasn’t a good coach (because he was). My point is that it isn’t necessarily a smart move to suggest that Cougars would be astronomically better with him this season.

I’ve heard a lot about Bronco’s defense. The Cougar defense was always ready and never got embarrassed. It bent, but didn’t break.

That’s partially true. Bronco was a talented defensive coordinator, but he wasn’t perfect. In 142 games, BYU gave up 24 or more points 55 times (about 39 percent of the time).

I’ve heard that BYU football never got blown out like it has this season. Again, that’s partially true, but not entirely. I would argue that the biggest issue with BYU’s defense this season is that it often is on the field for 35+ minutes. It’s tough to maintain a high level of play when the offense can’t move the ball.

Plus, don’t forget that BYU got shellacked plenty of times under Bronco. A 31-0 loss to Michigan in 2015, a 55-30 loss to Boise State in 2014, a 42-24 loss to Oregon State in 2012, the infamous 54-10 loss to Utah in 2011. There are more, but we all get the point.

The difference is that in previous years, the Cougars would rebound the next week. Maybe it was because they were playing a significantly worse team, maybe it was because the previous loss fired them up… but it would make the fans forget about the embarrassment from seven days prior.

This season? Nothing. From one game to the next, we see no improvements, no changes, no difference in results. Just more points allowed, more punts and more losses.

I think the biggest difference at this point is that Bronco hired a better staff. I was never a big fan of Robert Anae, but you can’t argue that his offense scored points. Ty Detmer’s offense does nothing. And we’ve seen the players on the roster be successful before – so at this point you have to believe that it’s a system issue.

So I don’t believe the answer is to fire Sitake. I think the answer is for Sitake to make the necessary changes to his staff. That’s what a head coach does – he makes the tough decisions that no one else can. If that means he’s in the unfortunate situation of having to fire a friend, so be it.

I know that we all want BYU football to be successful. We all like to remember the glory days and the success that Mendenhall brought to BYU. But just remember that Bronco had his struggles too. We can appreciate his success without calling for Sitake’s head. It’s still too early for that.

It’s terrible to lose. But have faith and, to borrow a phrase from the Philadelphia 76ers, trust the process.

It will get better.