"He's a very passionate guy. He didn't look at the big picture in those first interviews," says athletic director Tom Holmoe. "He answered questions as a defensive coordinator, not a head coach. I was confused because he was holding back. He didn't show everything he had. Bronco understands roles. He played the role of the defensive coordinator. He never tried to undermine (Crowton)."

Eventually, Mendenhall managed to see the big picture. "I felt this was what I was supposed to be doing," he says. "I felt like I was supposed to be the coach here."

It took a little longer for BYU administrators to come to the same conclusion.

BYU offered the job first to Utah defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham. Mendenhall found out about it the same way almost everyone else did - via a television news report. "That in and of itself was a difficult experience," he says.

Mendenhall knew that if Whittingham accepted the offer to return to his alma mater, there would be no place for him at BYU. Certain that Whittingham would take the job, Mendenhall and his wife, Holly, sat down with their three young sons. "We told our boys we were getting ready to go to a new place," he says.

That place was Las Vegas. Mendenhall says he made only one phone call through the whole process, and that was to new UNLV head coach Mike Sanford, who had recently left Utah as its offensive coordinator. Mendenhall heard that Sanford was looking for a defensive coordinator and, soon, the interest was mutual. Meanwhile, BYU's defensive players, who had come to respect and revere Mendenhall as a leader, were upset that the job hadn't been offered to him. Several players met with Holmoe and expressed support of their coach. Their point was, if you are looking for a defensive coach, why are you looking anywhere else? "Whether that had an impact or not, it meant something to me for our players to make a stand," Mendenhall says.

When Whittingham announced he was staying at the U., Mendenhall was back in the running. During the second round of interviews with Mendenhall, Holmoe noticed a dramatic change. "That second time around, it hit us that he was what we were looking for," he says. "We went down the checklist of qualities we wanted and he had a lot of them. In the second interview, he answered questions as a head coach. He came up with creative philosophies and styles. It wasn't exactly the way I had planned the search, but the right guy was right here. Sometimes you overlook what's right underneath your nose. I think that was the case with Bronco." In a whirlwind of events over a matter of days, Mendenhall went from being this close to leaving BYU to being handed the reins of the program on Dec. 13, 2004.

"It was a wild month," Holly recalls.