Stobart had a winning season in 1984 and it was only his third season. There wasn’t a good reason to push him out. We weren’t that far removed from the awful Tom Lovat era.
It’s what BYU did in their season as a whole that cost Stobart his job, not the head-to-head matchup.
I thought Stobart was OK, but I was sad to see Wayne Howard go.
Wayne was passionate & charismatic, he pulled talent out of SoCal we really had no business getting, like Jeff Griffin.
Fassel was a sugar high.
Agreed. It has always seemed to me that both Howard and Stobart simply crashed into what was then seen as the BYU juggernaut. Looking back on it, I am amazed at how significant BYU’s success (and general obnoxiousness about it) was a huge problem for Utah football. That really was a difficult time.
I actually knew Wayne Howard, and the Wayne I saw was a wonderful man. Some people won’t believe this, but there was a great sweetness to him. He was fiery and competitive, that’s for sure. It drove him crazy that he would be playing his in-state rival, and half the seats in his own stadium would have rival fans sitting in them. He finally got tired of all that opposition and what he saw as a lack of real community support.
Stobart had the same problem in a different way. The fans and donors simply lost patience, especially when BYU won their mythical national championship. It was around that time that the Crimson Club was formed. People just got sick of the way things were, and especially of losing to BYU year after year (2 wins in 20 years) and wanted to organize support for the program. Prior to that there was an organization called Bleacher Utes, but they were very ineffective. I thought Chuck was actually doing a good job and building the program the right way. There just wasn’t patience for that.
The Utah AD (Arnie Ferrin or his immediate successor–Jim *****–whose last name I forget) hired Fassel and hoped that the bright, young, charismatic and telegenic coach would bring some pizzazz to the program. He did, at least on the offensive side.
Chris Hill fired Fassel and hired McBride, and the new era began. McBride managed to get the BYU monkey off of Utah football’s back, or to at least start that process. McBride did so many things. He was community-friendly, knew how to coach, instilled toughness, did some wonderful recruiting, and made it much easier for LDS kids to play for the view by allowing missions. And he won.
Most people under age 40 don’t remember those dark years, and that is a good thing. Imagine listening to a post-game press conference, after a 40-7 loss to Tennessee. The Utah head coach, Tom Lovat, begins his comments by noting that the Utes did a good job in the battle for field position.