BYU football: Bronco gets it done with missionaries

Bronco Mendenhall is proving a lot of folks wrong, those who said it couldn't be done with a roster overflowing with missionary athletes.

He loves to use the phrase, "They said it couldn't be done," when referring to the challenge of juggling a roster with departing and returning players who've taken two years off from football to serve LDS missions.

At the MWC media days in July, Mendenhall told CBS Sportsline's Dennis Dodd the anecdote he's repeated many times to local media and fans. Half a dozen years ago, he sat with New Mexico coaches and wondered how they could compete with BYU's older, more mature players who'd been on missions. When he got to BYU, he sat with Cougar coaches who wondered how they could win with missionaries.

I was one of those who said it couldn't be done.

I did so in some commentary in 2003-04 during the Gary Crowton years. The thesis was this: BYU needed a sold core of four-year players to establish chemistry, consistency and skill development.

I also argued that BYU needed junior-college imports, many of them non-LDS, especially in the secondary, a successful recipe employed by LaVell Edwards.

Since that commentary, Mendenhall's roster has increased the number of missionary participants, beginning in the low 60-percent range to almost 70 percent in 2008, when 85 of 123 players on the roster had served missions.

His roster has only seven non-LDS players, down from a high of 13 in his regime.

His recruiting classes these days have about 18 or 19 of 23 to 24 signed players who go on missions.

With graduating seniors and departing missionaries, his 85 scholarship players are losing about 40 faces a year — something nobody else in college football experiences.

"We lose about double what others do each year," said Mendenhall.

The BYU coach made a solid case by posting three 10-or-more-win seasons from 2005 through 2008 — a first in 21 years at BYU — using an increasing number of former Mormon missionaries. He made his case by ripping off 18 wins at home, which had never been done.

In that time, he went undefeated two consecutive years in conference play. All impressive feats. In fact, he's doing things nobody else at BYU has ever done with missionaries.