There was a Legacy dinner last night
 

Let me say everytime I go to one of these events, Bronco is great. I really buy 80% of what he throws out there. 80% for me is really, really good.

I didn't go last night because quite frankly, I didn't expect to hear anything new or enlightening. Bronco can be inspiring, but I have heard it before and whether I attend or not won't change my bottom line, are we winning. We are.

I did ask though my brother about what was said and anyting interesting. He just said, Bronco attributes the programs success to the high ethical standards at BYU, or something like that. My brother and I both agreed then that Bronco couldn't succeed anywhere else. Nowhere else would he be able to find enough players that would comply with BYU's high ethical standards to even field a team let alone win.

I am not too worried about Bronco going somewhere else.

Sounds like you made a good call. I attribute it to good players being put in the right position. If that is high ethical standards, God bless him!

I'll bet LA Ute! would like to be invited:

http://166.70.78.242/message.php?id=657145

It made me chuckle.

It's not the "high ethical standards" per se that is allowing BYU to succeed, it's BYU successfully leveraging a marketing approach to get athletes and/or parents of athletes to attend BYU over another school that might otherwise have an advantage over BYU in every other facet of a student/athlete experience that matters to a recruit.

Bronco has found a successful brand marketing campaign and that sense of identity, focus and unified approach on the field and in the classroom appears to appeal to a sufficient number of quality recruits. It's not because BYU is more righteous than everyone else.

What LA Ute is failing to recognize is Bronco is using a lot of proven management skills to get the most out of his players. If they cut through the rhetoric meant for the admin. and BOT and Temple Recommend holding fans, they would see some real strong managment skills that they would like their coach to adopt.

What really bugs them though is not the rhetoric, it is that he is winning. Just like the BYU fans. What really thrills them is not the spiritual rhetoric, but that he is winning.

I believe that if there is one quantifiable aspect of Bronco's success, it is the fact that he has put a halt to the attrition that was so prevelant in the program since the mid 90's.

I do believe that part of that is a higher percentage of kids living BYU's honor code.

I think his branding will build upon the intitial foundation of success which is his stopping the bleeding that was attrition.

LA Ute is much smarter than both you and I. He used clips from "Hoosiers" at his own team building exercises for his firm. My guess is he understands much of Bronco's success better than you or I. That is why it makes me chuckle. I love it when folks get so principle centered. Mendenhall does to Utenation what Majerus did to Cougarfans. I think Majerus also had a reputation for waffling comments that were frequently as incoherint as Mendenhall's babbling. It is a good day to be a Cougar fan with a good memory!

What I find is amuzing is from time to time on CB I get labeled a Bronco distractor. Truth be known, I am probably one of his biggest fans and quite frankly am in awe of him. He handles all of us, straight lace fans, loose fans, admin. BOT, players, coaches. We all love him and the Utes hate him.

However, I have on occasion criticized anyone and everyone. I don't see criticism as lack of respect or love. I Dad criticized the heck out of me growing up and I attribute any success I have had to him pushing me.

Part of my Bronco Homerism is that I did not think BYU could be consistently as successful as they have been the last two years again. I thought that BYU could have one or two double digit win seasons a decade, but Mendenhall has me believing the cool aid that BYU's ceiling is a bit higher than I supposed throughout 2004 and 2005.

I agree that he has many different types that he has to keep happy. He is in a job where his biggest enemies can be those that should be his biggest supporters. So far he appears pretty masterful at keeping the masses happy, and quite bluntly the man is not blessed with spectacular oratory skills. He is charistmatic, but a really strange public speaker.

He is just a really complex human being. Folks as self motivated and wired like him usually are.

The masses are asses. This has been brought up plenty of times, but just winning + not violating NCAA rules isn't enough here; hopefully that doesn't push him over the edge when the big-time money offers come around.

Appearance isn't always reality and in this case that is just fine with me. BYU football is bringing in enough money, both to the athletic department and general fund that the admin. and BOT aren't going to mess with it much.

Sure if repeated scandals occured, there would be a problem, but Bronco runs a tight enough ship that just won't happen. Urban Meyer runs a tight enough ship that that wouldn't happen at BYU. Crowton just wasn't a run a tight ship coach. It is a personality thing not a righteousness thing in my opinion.

Hopefully the admin and BOT learned a valuable lesson in the late 90's. BYU wasn't winning because God wanted them to win and they represented the Lord's University. It wouldn't matter how poorly things were managed they would win because it was BYU. They learned it does matter.

We don't see all the goings on behind the scenes and in BYU's case that is great because a vocal minority would start howling.