Can’t say that I blame Bronco, regardless of how weird he is. He’s done a decent job at UVA, and doesn’t have the headaches of a particularly odd fanbase.
I don’t know why he wouldn’t want to play byu-provo. They no longer have a coach who “plays on the edge of the rules” and constantly targets opposing players.
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I don’t know either, but my impression is that Bronco is glad to be out of Provo.
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Believe or not, Bronco is #10 in winning percentage of active coaches in FBS. (Whitt is #7)
Bronco was at the helm as we elevated away from them into the PAC, and the resulting frustration of their fanbase toward Bronco, Anae, Jake Heaps - pretty much anyone involved with BYU football - was over-the-top toxic.
Remember, folks, BYU fans mostly cheered when Bronco left. And then in a weird Roger Reid-like way, he kept taking shots at them after he was in Charlottesville.
Pretty funny to observe.
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I know Bronco is a pretty good coach. He had a very odd situation at BYU, the whole independence thing, and their fanbase. We’ve talked about those 2 ad nauseum so we don’t need to bring that back. I don’t think Bronco should’ve taken shots at BYU, but I can see why he did.
Exactly this, although I think the Utes sailing off and leaving them behind along with losing 9 in a row has made them go from the most toxic fan base to one that is either in denial or has PTSD.
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Someone mentioned briefly that a former GF had a nasty falling out with a subsequent BF. I said what a shame, turned and did something I cared about. On the way home, I saw a car wreck. I said to myself “damn, what a shame.”
Then I had a wonderful night. Enjoy yours too.
I finally had to admit that Bronco is a good football coach. He did a lot at BYU despite the huge inherent limitations of coaching there. I don’t think he liked being there and trying to live up to the expectations. His sanctimony always seemed like such a put-on — not genuine at all (the dirty play of his teams was evidence of that). Awkward at best. He was also quite petty in his approach to the rivalry and to his own fanbase. He was such an odd duck. It’s interesting to see him now, liberated from all that. But I’m not giving him a pass just because he’s willing to trash them now. He bought into that whole mess.
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Yep. His sanctimony was what got me. The pettiness too. But also the fact that you needed a Bronco to English translation dictionary to figure out what he was saying.
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Yeah, that guy would reply to a simple ‘yes or no’ question with three paragraphs.
He was bad at coach speak, maybe the worst I’ve ever seen. Just say “one game at a time”, man. Don’t say you’re never going to lose a recruit. Don’t say your team is on a quest for perfection. Don’t make it about religion.
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I will admit that he may be a good coach. I was not impressed with UVa last season. They came out of their division simply because someone has to come out of that division. It’s the worst division in P5 football (worse than some G5 divisions). That division has had a different winner every year. When someone steps up and starts to win it regularly, I’ll be impressed. I do hope VaTech/UVa becomes a thing worth watching.
Also, I’m not certain whether success should be attributed to Mendenhall or Anae. Bronco has never had any level of success without Anae. The time he listened to BYU fans and fired Anae ended in disaster.
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I particularly liked this quote. They still don’t get it down in Provo. “Every single week, there are exceptional coaches and exceptional players — every single week. Rather than three or four games prior to or surrounding, almost trying to find any opponents you can find, which is a real challenge in independence, the four or sometimes five quality games you could get is every single week at the Power Five level.”
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Kinda wierd dude, but, if nothing else, the guy can coach. He’s not a Whitt level coach but he’s better than average.
BYU took about 3 steps back with Kalani. Just watch The Drive when it followed OSU, and you can readily see Kalani doesn’t have “it”.
Yeah, we learned that one the hard way. BYU-P fans have a long way to go to even get an inkling of an idea.
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I seem to recall hearing that too about Ken N and a “shot” at BYU. I do recall us discussing it back on the old board. I think our consensus was that Ken N would be crazy to go there. I think we all agreed going to UofPay would have been a bad move for Ken N also.
While I see it possible that a P5 type coach could work at BYU, I don’t see it happening anytime soon. Sitake hasn’t shown that he can do much, at least not IMO. Their fanbase is just too weird for a quality coach to stay long. Their expectations are too high for their resources. A new coach would have to argue for more resources and really push to get into a conference. I just don’t see them doing that with success.
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Maybe. There is no real quantifiable difference though. As an independent, Bronco won exactly 0 games against ranked P5 teams. Kalani has the same total. They almost got their first this year with the USC win, but the Trojans didn’t finish ranked.
At independent BYU, both coaches have been about the same. Beat the bad teams, lose to the good teams, pull off a big upset every once in a while, go to a bowl game.
Also, Sitake is in a tougher situation than Bronco was. Bronco bailed on a sinking ship; he had better players (by recruiting rankings) than Sitake has had.
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The backstory on Niumatalolo was he flew in, Tom Holmoe had already lined up Ty Detmer as the OC, so Ken may have thought “why are you talking to me, then?” as his technical value is running the Navy option offense, which most Cougar fans would have gagged on, but it’s a realistic match for their talent. (Ken N calls the plays for the offense at Navy.)
The part about the Niumatalolo chapter I found funny was he hoped off the plane in his Navy gear, and went to Mr. Mac (or somewhere) to get a suit to meet the gents downtown, then went to Provo… and was back on a flight to Baltimore within 24 hours, or so. "No thanks!"
A small aside - the relationship between Whitt & Niumatalolo is really strong, hence the awesome video last camp from Ken to the U football team. "Go Navy, beat everyone. Go Utah, beat everyone. Oh yeah, I have one detail I forgot - my son Ali’i is now on a football scholarship at Utah", to which the Utah players exploded in celebration.
Great stuff!
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I do think he adopted that sanctimony because he thought it was expected of him. That makes it even less genuine, IMO. One reason he was so awkward was that he was miscast in his role.
Interesting. I never got that from Gary Genius, Edwards, or Sitake. But Bronco was a weird duck.
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