BYU season in review: Consistency has fueled Y.'s success

PROVO — When BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall attended the annual national coaching convention last January, his colleagues congratulated him on his team's 11-2 record. It was the Cougars' first winning season since 2001.

"The most common comment to me was, 'That was a great season. You had a great team.' And I agree," Mendenhall recalled. "They didn't say, 'You have a great program.' At one point, BYU was a great program. I don't think I'll be viewed as a quality coach or this program won't be viewed as it once was until there's consistency."

Mendenhall is attending this year's coaching convention today, and one can only wonder if now he's receiving compliments for having a great program after the 2007 Cougars repeated the accomplishments of 2006 with an 11-2 overall record, an unbeaten, outright Mountain West Conference championship, a return to the national rankings, and a bowl victory.

Certainly, it's a mark of consistency.

Few had expected the Cougars to duplicate the 2006 squad's performance, given the departure of numerous senior stars. BYU, which was picked to finish second in the 2007 preseason media poll, didn't dominate opponents statistically the way it did in '06, but what the Cougars accomplished in '07 can be considered even more impressive. They did it with several unproven underclassmen at key positions.

Mendenhall has rebuilt BYU football on the premise that it can maintain a standard of excellence, regardless of the players who come and go.

"I would like this program to be known as a great program and the next group of players coming in picking up where they left off, just going forward," Mendenhall said. "That is our ultimate goal."

Going into the 2007 campaign, Mendenhall set the "Raising the Bar" theme. He didn't back down from the level of expectation established by legendary coach LaVell Edwards or the expectations generated in 2006.

"We would like to do this year-in and year-out," Mendenhall said prior to the '07 season. "Will it be the exact record? You can never predict that. But the level of play, the level of conduct and the level of success are certainly something to aspire to."

Despite BYU's stellar success the past two seasons, there are objectives still to conquer for the Cougars. Both years, they started 1-2, having lost two nonconference road games early in the season, before finishing with 10-game winning streaks.

In 2008, BYU is aiming to take the next step — going undefeated and earning a berth in the Bowl Championship Series.