PROVO — When Bronco Mendenhall took over the battered and bruised BYU football program after the 2004 season, the Cougars were coming off of three straight losing seasons. Morale and confidence were scraping the floor, and people wondered if BYU would ever return to national prominence again.
Now entering his third season at the helm, Mendenhall appears to have altered the course of the program, evidenced by a 2006 season that saw BYU post an 11-2 record, claim an outright conference championship, defeat Utah for the first time in five years, win a bowl game for the first time in a decade and secure a spot in the final national rankings.
"Bronco has done a tremendous job of re-establishing BYU's tradition of football excellence and leading the program back to national prominence," said athletic director Tom Holmoe. "The BYU football program is heading in the right direction and I credit Bronco's leadership qualities for the success we've enjoyed the first two seasons."
That success earned Mendenhall, 41, a raise and contract extension that will keep him on the sidelines through 2011.
Not long after the 2006 campaign ended, Mendenhall directed his thoughts to the 2007 season. He selected "Raise the Bar" as the year's theme, eager to build upon his team's 2006 accomplishments.
"There have been many that have claimed that BYU football is back, and our program has returned," Mendenhall said. "We're just beginning. Our current program, in relation to what it once was, will be viewed as matching or being similar once consistency is established. That comes with repeated championships, with sustained success and with performance at a very high level over time. So, our goals and our objectives now are to provide consistency to the program at the current level at which we're playing."
Said quarterback Max Hall: "Coach Mendenhall was saying that a lot of people have come up to him during the offseason and said, 'That was a great season last season.' That's not what we want. We want to have a great program. That comes with consistency, year after year after year."
Since heightening expectations, Mendenhall has worked his team harder during the offseason than in any previous year. His players have responded well thus far to his "raise the bar" challenge, Mendenhall said.
"I think your best gauge is the way they play," he said. "From my perspective, they're loyal to those ideas. They've internalized them. You should be able to see them demonstrated on the field and in the community and in the classroom. This is the most prepared our team has ever been. Their state of readiness is much different than it was three years ago."
At that time, Mendenhall was a first-time head coach, and questions abounded about his ability to turn BYU football around. Like the program, Mendenhall has matured as a head coach the past couple of seasons.
"I think I am more comfortable based on existing points of reference, things that have already happened and things I know and can predict," he said. "Even in the third year, there are new challenges that arise. Not of the same volume of a first-year or second-year head coach, but there are still new things that arise that make you think and question and wonder what the policy should be and how to handle it. The nice thing about Year 3 is fewer of those instances, but still enough to keep you humble."
Mendenhall admits that he's learned countless lessons in this job.
"If it ended today, if I wasn't the coach at BYU any longer, it would have been worth it from what I've learned about myself, about others, about leadership, spirituality, organization, motivation — really, about every area in life," he said. "I can't think of another situation that I could ever be placed in that would create a similar learning curve as this one has."
Players and coaches say Mendenhall is the same man he was when he started as a head coach, only wiser and more experienced. Mendenhall has remained steadfast to his vision for the program and the core principles that he believes deliver results.
"He hasn't changed. He's consistent," said defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen. "But he gets better in what he does as time goes on. He's better than he was a couple of years ago. He's learning and he'll keep getting better."
Said linebacker Bryan Kehl: "He learns and he applies what he learns. He learns and he analyzes. He's always looking for ways to make himself, and his team, better. He uses whatever it takes to get his point across."
Going into the 2006 season, Mendenhall changed the defense from a 3-3-5 scheme to a 3-4 alignment, based on the strengths of the defensive unit. It paid huge dividends as the Cougars held opponents to an average of 14.7 points per game.
"Coach Mendenhall has adapted well. He's learned a ton of different things to help him be a better head coach," said linebacker Kelly Poppinga. "He's adapted many other characteristics that he had but didn't like to use around the players. He's starting to use those more and show more of his personal side. It's been good for the team. He knows what he's doing. Everything he does, it's for a purpose. Some things the media might tear him apart for, but when it comes down to it, as a team we know why we're doing it."
During his first fall camp as head coach, Mendenhall took his players to LaVell Edwards Stadium and told them to spread out on the field, lie down and close their eyes. With audio of great games from the past, playing on the public address system, he asked his players to visualize themselves being part of those moments.
Some mocked that motivational tactic, but not after the Cougars went 6-0 and won by an average score of 47-12 last season at Edwards Stadium.
Those within the program who didn't buy into Mendenhall's unique approach are long gone.
"We've been believers since that first season," Poppinga said. "There may have been a couple of doubters here. But those guys have graduated or transferred to some other place. Midway through that first season after we beat New Mexico, everybody knew this was going to be something special. There's not one person in that locker room who's a doubter of this team. Nobody is scared to go up against anyone in the country. The reason why we have that attitude and that confidence is the way Coach Mendenhall coaches us and leads us. We just feed off his confidence and his will. He has a very strong will and he's imposing that upon us. No matter who we play, whether it's USC or UCLA or Utah or Florida, when we get on that field, we're going to bring it. We don't care who you are."
Perhaps most impressively, Mendenhall has managed to unite the program through a series of on-going team-building exercises. He has introduced slogans that his players have rallied around, such as "Band of Brothers" and "Fully Invested."
It's a much different role than he had when former coach Gary Crowton hired Mendenhall as the defensive coordinator in 2003. There were two different standards for the offense and the defense when Mendenhall was an assistant.
"When I was brought in as the defensive coordinator, I was asked to put an edge and an identity into a group," Mendenhall said. "That was almost at the exclusion of everything else and most likely was a mistake. Now that I've learned from that, as the head coach, even though I work on the defensive side, I try to have similar standards of consistency for everybody. For the most part, I think that's why the team and our themes and different slogans have been such a priority to me because I've seen what division can do and it doesn't work."
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com