Last steps for Bronco to become a great coach

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by jay santos

1. Hire a DC--I'm not sure Bronco was ever a great DC and he certainly had the wrong philosophy for BYU when he came with Rocky Long's D.
2. Quietly reverse the trend of non-LDS numbers decreasing each year, while still maintaining the priesthood leadership style of talking about what BYU looks for in a recruit

I thought Bronco was a bad hire. And I still think he's a bad coordinator. I don't even think he's a good position coach. But ironically he has a great skill set and competency for a head coach. Go Bronco!

He's about to win me over, and that's not easy. When Crowton hired him over KW it was the pinnacle of my anger and frustration towards Crowton, and I've been skeptical of Bronco ever since.

OK, what is the target % of non-LDS recruits, and what period of BYU history did they consistently reach that "quota"?

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by Indy Coug

OK, what is the target % of non-LDS recruits, and what period of BYU history did they consistently reach that "quota"?

A post during the last recruiting period.

Honor Code and non-LDS recruiting

I believe Lavell had the right model for BYU football. He recognized the LDS talent pool had weaknesses at certain positions and went after non-LDS to make up for it. I went back and looked at the rosters of the 90’s and made a list of the non-LDS skill players (there were some at other positions but I just included skill positions).

Offense: Detmer, Corley, Willis, Hall, Rex, Walsh, Dye, Sarkisian, McKenzie, Jenkins, Snowden, Feterik, Miller, Dabney, Hooks, Pittman, McDonald, Rigell

Defense: D. Gray, B. Mitchell, Crutchfield, P. Mitchell, Tarleton, McCullough, McTyer, Ellison, Bates, Reed, Morgan, B. Gray, Gilford, Robertson, Edwards, Phillips, Wilson

Lavell took recruits from the LDS talent pool that were D1 quality: line, linebackers and about half the personnel for skill positions and used non-LDS to augment this. Using that model in the 1990’s, BYU went 86-39-1, 7 conference championships, 8 bowl appearances, Heisman trophy winner, and wins over Miami, Oklahoma, Penn St, T A&M, Notre Dame, etc.

I believe ignoring this model and by severely reducing the number of non-LDS we recruit that the program will slowly decline over time until we become completely uncompetitive in D1. It’s that big of a deal. We saw a D with one non-LDs this year. What about our offense without Watkins, Brown, Coats, and Reed? Then you have a year where you’re breaking in a new QB with no playmakers and your D is still mediocre. Then you start missing on the best LDS recruits because they want to play for a winning team.

During the 90’s, Lavell also had his share of Honor Code problems: shoplifting, drunk driving, he even had his own gang bang (lost about four DB’s circa 1995—and Schmidt found a way to keep the D going!). Each time they got national press and were huge embarrassments to the church and school. But, IMHO, they are overshadowed greatly by the positive accomplishments and positive PR that is given to the church and school through the success of the team on the field.

Side note: is it really that embarrassing that we have an Honor Code incident at BYU? Yes, and average of one gang bang per year is a little too much, but is the level of 1990’s BYU that bad? If BYU pulls a Florida State and brushes it off and the kid is playing in the next game, then it’s bad, but if BYU enforces its code of Honor and makes the sacrifice to boot a great athlete because of an indiscretion doesn’t it make BYU that much more honorable? We are all sinners. It’s how we deal with sin that sets us apart. End of that.

I went back to 1998 and looked at recruiting lists to see the number of non-LDS.

1998: 10 non-LDS
1999: 5 non-LDS
2000: 4 non-LDS

Average of 6 per season for Lavell.

Crowton’s era:

2002: 7 non-LDS
2003: 1 non-LDS (only 6 or 7 schollies available)
2004: 13 non-LDS

Let’s say the average recruits per year is 24, and that means Lavell was about 25% non-LDS, and Crowton was about 38% (using 7 for 2003).



I created a little model to break down the target non-LDS by position to develop a target.

Position, # of starters required from the position, target % non-LDS, total non-LDS needed
Corner, 2, 100%, 2
Safety, 3, 40%, 1.2
Running back, 2, 70%, 1.4
WR, 3, 33%, 1
QB, 1, 25%, .25

That’s a total of about 5.8 players out of about 25 total starters (including kicker and a couple positions doubled up), which is about 23%, let’s just call it ¼. Also, JC’s are on the roster half as much as four year players, so you need to recruit twice as many to have the numbers match a four year player—just something to keep in mind when you’re looking this closely at it.

That means every year about ¼ of your recruiting class needs to be non-LDS and that your shouldn’t load up on Utah all-state second team guys for WR or safety, but that you should work hard to find quality non-LDS.

One more thing to keep in mind when it comes to recruiting and this has probably been the number one fault of Lavell which hurt Crowton’s program, and ironically Crowton complained about it but kept up the practice. There is this notion that you break down scholarship offers into two groups: guys you offer to come into the program that fall as freshman and get their schollie right away and guys you offer but say you don’t have a schollie for them that fall, so go on your mission and you’ll have a schollie when you get back. It’s the credit card idea—I get to sign a guy now but don’t have to pay later. That second group is where we usually get saddled with underperforming LDS athletes.

OK, now what about this idea of recruiting character non-LDS vs recruiting non character non-LDS. It’s completely bogus.

First let me throw out the premise that I have that Honor Code issues at BYU will occur most least frequently in RM’s, next most frequently in LDS non missionaries, and most frequently in non-LDS. I say that based on my observation on the real data over the past 15 years or so at BYU. I also say that within those groups, there’s basically no predictor. What’s the difference between a Bryan Ruffner (RM basketball player arrested in the mid 90’s) and a John Beck? A C.J. Ah You (non missionary LDS with Honor Code problems) or a Mania Brown (non missionary with no problems). A Curtis Brown or a B.J. Mathis (who was also billed as a Christian athlete who lived the Honor Code his whole life)? I will say there’s no predictor—there’s just three risk groups—LDS missionary types, LDS non missionary types, and non-LDS. All six of the above were recruited knowing about the Honor Code and committed to live it. All six guys were considered good character as they enrolled. I don’t think we’ve ever intentionally recruited guys with bad character.

I believe what needs to happen is that we continue to recruit 25% of our recruits as non-LDS. From what I’ve read, Bronco has implemented a great system to assimilate non-LDS into the culture of BYU and to keep on top of them to minimize Honor Code problems. This is great, and I think with that we can continue with the target of 25% non-LDS that Lavell had in the 90’s.

Now let me explain what I think has been a knee jerk reaction to the Honor Code attention lately.

1998: 10 non-LDS
1999: 5 non-LDS
2000: 4 non-LDS

About 25% for Lavell.

Crowton’s era:

2002: 7 non-LDS
2003: 1 non-LDS (only 6 or 7 schollies available)
2004: 13 non-LDS
About 38% for Crowton.

Bronco’s era

2005: 2 non-LDS
2006: out of 20 commits how many? (I really don’t know the answer but I’m thinking it’s no more than one or two)

Bronco’s first year was about 10% and we don’t know what it will be this year. If it’s close to the 25% number, then my concern for the dip in non-LDS recruiting was just a one year thing and probably not a worry for the future. If it’s down close to the 10% number of 2005, then I think it’s a very worrisome trend.

I fully expect by recruiting 25% non-LDS that we’ll have some Honor Code problems and some “embarrassments” in the news. To me, two sex parties in less than a year is an embarrassment, but the level that was occurring in the late 90’s is basically to be expected and unfortunate but not an embarrassment to me.

This is very long but I put it together quickly, some from stuff I’ve posted before, so sorry for the disjointedness.