The first off-season move for BYU football was a doozie — high profile and intriguing. It also had the faint aroma of spin to it. But never mind that. The end result was this: BYU now has Robbie Bosco where it needs him most. That is to say, using his name recognition.
If I were working at another university, I'd be worried. This is one of the better things to happen to BYU since, well, the national championship.
The Cougars announced in a Monday press conference that Bosco was stepping down as co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. After 15 years, he is taking a job in athletic fund-raising. Just like that, the quarterback who led BYU to its greatest heights — a national championship in 1984 — is out of coaching.
He said he made the move so he could enjoy more family time.
Anyone who knows Bosco can believe that. Tom Holmoe, another ex-coach and ex-Cougar player, says Bosco approached him during the season about what it was like to be outside football.
On the other hand, changes had been promised in the football program, and this was the first. Desperate to turn things around after back-to-back losing seasons, coach Gary Crowton had to do something.
Did Bosco leave by choice?
What does it matter? He is where he can do even more for the Cougars than he could on the sidelines.
Consider:
As a coach, the offense wasn't Bosco's in the first place.
Crowton has always been an offensive coach and is the final say on whatever happens. He admitted so at Monday's press conference, saying he wants to get back to one person making the calls, not several. That person may end up being him.
Bosco is in a place where his presence counts at least as much as on the field: in the booster tent. His job is to raise money for BYU athletics and increase Cougar Club membership, and he's a natural for that.
He is personable, smart and sincere. Beyond that, what wealthy donor wouldn't be impressed at being taken to lunch by the quarterback of the 1984 championship team?
Bosco will be at home more, have more independence — and he'll never have to go to Laramie again.
"I really feel it is no secret that we have been struggling to make our budget each year. It's been a real difficult situation since the CFA (College Football Association) blew apart and the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) came in. The pieces of the pie got smaller and it's been a downward spiral," says Duff Tittle, a BYU associate athletic director. "It's been very difficult to make budget . . .
"When Robbie came to (BYU officials) and said 'I really think it's time to get out' — for whatever reason — they said, 'This is pretty much a no-brainer here.'"
Along with Holmoe (BYU's associate athletic director/development) Bosco will be leading the charge on a different field. In his first full day on the job, he handled appointments that had originally been set for Holmoe. Concurrently, Holmoe was meeting with potential donors in Southern California.
But if you think fund-raising is a cake job, consider this: Schools that are in BCS conferences continue to get most of the money from both television and bowl revenues; the rest struggle to get by. Stanford is said to have a $300 million endowment program.
"If we could create an endowment that is 10 percent of that, our financial issues would subside. No — they would go away, actually," says Tittle.
In that light, BYU has made numerous adjustments to make its "financial issues" go away. It has instituted the Courtside Cougar program, added club seating, reworked Edwards Stadium, raised ticket prices and cut budgets by 10 percent.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
"It's a tough time to be raising money, but what is happening to us is happening everywhere," Tittle says.
If I were BYU I would do just what it did: hire Bosco to work in fund-raising, just as the Boston Celtics have Bob Cousy working as a marketing consultant, and the Chicago Bulls have Bob Love as director of community development. I'd do it because Mike Garrett is still the athletic director at Southern California. Name recognition counts plenty in athletics. It especially counts when you're asking for money.
Besides, it's never a bad idea to stick with the people who got you there in the first place.
E-mail: rock@desnews.com