Woody Paige's suggestion this week that Bronco Mendenhall is on the short list to fill the coaching position at the University of Colorado has reignited (or, at least, stoked to new heights) the firm conviction by some BYU fans that Cougar Football would be better off without Mr. Mendenhall. Taking the temperature of these fans from snippets of call-in sports talk shows and the "comments" sections of internet news articles, the conventional wisdom seems to be that once Mendenhall is out of the way (having gratefully and obsequiously accepted his demotion to defensive coordinator), Cougar nation can finally be redeemed and be led to the promised land by the illustrious Andrew Walter Reid (accompanied, as always, by his illustrious and lustrous mustache). Thus will dawn a new golden age for the Cougars, and we, their loyal fans, will grow fat on the milk and honey of BCS bowls (or whatever they end up calling those few games in December and January that the college football illuminati have deemed worthy of being endowed with absurd amounts of money).
Let me make one thing clear up front. I think that Andy Reid is a darn good football coach. But even leaving aside the caveat that there exists not one shred of evidence that Reid has any intention of returning to coach college football, I'm not so sure that he would be as big of an upgrade as many fans seem to think.
The big criticisms of Bronco are the following. He can't win the big games, he totally screwed up BYU's quarterbacking situation (going so far as to salt the earth for future generations, if some "commentators" are to be believed) and he can't hire the right people as his coordinators (see Jaimie Hill, Robert Anae, Brandon Doman, Marc Weber). There is some truth to all of these criticisms. Thing is, these are all the same criticisms that are being leveled at Andy Reid right now.
Sure, he can always field a team that fights hard and usually ends up with a winning record. But what about the big games, the important games? In college, these games are harder to define. A "big game" would be one against a highly ranked opponent, one with important post season implications, a game with a high nation profile or high national visibility, a geographic or conference rival, or some permutation of the foregoing. In the NFL, on the other hand, big games are playoff games, or games with playoff implications. Mendenhall's record in "big games," however defined, is certainly disappointing. But Andy Reid, for all his success in the regular season, made a habit of losing in the NFC Championship game. Reid is 1-4 in the NFC Championship game, and 0-1 in the Super Bowl. His playoff winning percentage is a bit better, at .546, but hardly earth shattering.
Andy Reid's evaluation of quarterback talent is also somewhat suspect. He and Donovan McNabb came to town together in 1999. The two made beautiful football music together (aside from the aforementioned "big game" sour notes) for ten years. Since McNabb, Reid's choices for his starting quarterback have been Kevin Kolb, Michael Vick, and Nick Foles. It's still possible that Foles could go on to have a good NFL career, but at this point there isn't any compelling reason to believe that. Kolb and Vick are both busts. Kolb couldn't beat out John Skelton for the starting job, and Michael Vick turned out to be injury prone, unable to read defenses, and turnover happy.
Finally, the Juan Castillo hiring/firing/we can still be friends situation does not speak particularly well of Reid's ability to identify coaching talent. Nor does the fiasco inspire confidence in his abilities as an organizational manager.
For fans frustrated with the state of the football program, Reid may be simply be more of the same. In fact, Bronco may want to consider growing out the mustache and start responding to "Andy" and see if anyone notices a difference.
The final criticism of Bronco that I hear (or read) most often is his famous decision to make "football fifth" on his priority list. It seems dissonant to me that people would complain about this, particularly at a family friendly, faith based university like BYU, but some people seem irritated by it, and I constantly hears calls for a coach who will "put football first." They say he acts too much like a mission president or bishop, and not enough like a football coach, and that he should stop giving firesides and spend more time in the film room.
What? Why? Isn't that where football should be on every coaches priority list? The four things that Bronco ranks above football are faith, family
