Bronco Batting About .500

While it’s true BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall came across as a bit condescending, this week, when he declared “the level of criticism usually matches the level of education and the fans, the people it comes from,” it’s also true that it’s not a huge deal.

Mendenhall was taking the approach all coaches do – defending his quarterback against criticism.

Much has been said about Max Hall’s 10 interceptions in five games. Fair enough. Coaches almost always feel the need to run interference for their players. At the same time, Mendenhall deserves some credit on a couple of accounts. First, he also said this week that BYU was a good team, but not great, which is a fair, objective observation. So he’s one-for-two on interesting statements. Second, what he said about BYU’s critics isn’t far from what Jerry Sloan has said about Jazz fans, and fans in general. He stated, “If you listen to the fans, pretty soon you’ll be sitting by them.”

In other words, fans don’t know all that much about the game.

Mendenhall may be overly protective, especially considering Hall is a senior, but what he said isn’t terribly outrageous. There’s no such thing as a coach who doesn’t think he knows more about football than the media or fans.

It’s just that it’s usually a good idea to keep it to himself.