My 2007 Motto: Believe in Bronco

I listened to part of the radio broadcast of the Tulsa game earlier this week to see what KSL's bunch had to say. I only listened to the first quarter of the game though as it was too painful knowing what was going to happen. I did listen to all of the pre-game and post-game coverage though. I wanted to hear 1) what Greg and Mark thought of the game and 2) what the fans that called in thought of the game.

I've considered starting a series called "Cougars Behaving Badly." I'm always befuddled by the actions of some BYU fans. I don't think it's all of them, or even the majority, but the "vocal minority" is often hard to ignore. Sometimes it's just silly, but potentially dangerous, things like throwing posterboard airplanes in the stands (this happened during the second half of the Arizona game in the south end zone where the 14 was displayed at half time). But other times it's all but thirsting after blood after a tough Tulsa loss. "When are we going to see Bronco punish the players that are getting penalized?", "Why didn't he bench those guys?" was an oft heard refrain on the post-game show. My question is who do these people think they are? Do they think that Bronco is just letting these things go? Do they not believe that Bronco is agonizing over everything that went wrong?

I'm going to guess that those missed opportunities (penalties, turnovers) keep Bronco working overtime. The concentration penalties that were committed are the antithesis of everything that he believes about winning football games and everything that he is building as the core of the BYU football program. I'm confident that he is doing, behind the scenes, what he feels is appropriate. Bronco is not going to bad mouth his players in public. A good leader does not do that. And Bronco is a good leader.

In "The Bronco Way", the following was said about Bronco. "He’s a master learner. He reads, he underlines, he ponders, he prays about it." Here it is referring to the Harvard Business Review, but I'm sure it applies to everything the man does. He reads, he ponders, he prays. And he acts.

I started writing this post before I listened the The Bronco Mendenhall Radio Show broadcast on Wednesday night and was pleased that a lot of the sentiments of the fans that asked questions of Bronco were similar to my own. I was happy to hear from more upbeat fans. And I heard the same topic addressed in a different way. The question was "There is obviously a problem with penalties. How do you plan to address it?" I've given form to this attitude and have adopted it as my motto for the season: "Believe in Bronco". Win or lose, Believe in Bronco, believe in the program.

How quickly we, as fans, forget what we love about this man that is our head coach. And I say our head coach because I feel like the fans really are the "12th man" on the field. He has taught us how to be better fans through his words and his example. "Raise the Bar" applies just as much to the fans as to the play on the field.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't critique the play of the team or game time coaching decisions. But as fans we have an incomplete view into what is going on and so as right as we feel, we're usually going to be wrong. I know that Bronco's not always going to get it right either. We don't have to go any further than the last two weeks to see that. But in his weekly press conference on Monday he mentioned that they would be switching up the practice routine this week to emphasize different aspects of the game. Will these changes show immediate results this week against Air Force? I hope so.

But even if they don't, I still Believe in Bronco. I believe in the program that he is building. And I believe carrying that belief inside you is what it means to be a True Cougar. It's what it means to be Fully Invested.