I think Bronco was competent and it was good he left. Was that one of the options you presented? He was good enough to save the program from the dregs of the London years and make it a .485 program. But It was good he left because the program was stagnating quickly as he reached his ceiling that I believe was created by his own quirks and temperament.
Again it’s one of those things you can be quirky if you win and win big. CTB falls in that category his process is different but he has won and even with this, look no further than any game thread from last season to see the pushback to his process.
Bronco brought a similar mindset but never got past the success of CTB’s 2011 season and tried to sell on we should be grateful for it.
I just don’t understand the fascination post his departure. He brought the program back from the dregs. The timing wasn’t perfect but we landed what most here consider a good replacement. I just don’t get the big deal
I mean that’s where I’m at now too. I just don’t know why Bronco now is the biggest discussion this off-season for UVA fans. I get a general sense of anger in this thread and it’s perplexing
Its by far the most commented on individual topic in this case thread. Im not gonna worry about it anymore. I’ll check back in when we’re discussing the team we have taking the field this upcoming season (or in the future)
Reasonable people can disagree. KB was a timely transfer and BA is tough and talented to be sure. BP was a transitional talent and I would still argue his decison to attend UVA colors even the most ardent Bronco supporter’s view. Without BP this team is nowhere near 500 under Bronco. I’ll let smarter football people than me sort it out, but i question how much development there was. KB was pretty polished and we pretty much let the other 2 guys play backyard football.
It’s July I don’t care about MLB baseball I’m on a college message board that hasn’t had fresh games to talk about in 4 months, and like mana from heaven this puff piece article falls into my lap. It’s like the sports gods are saying here Dragon have a go at it.
By tomorrow everything will be quiet and Bronco will go back to fly fishing, milking hoses or whatever he does on his farm.
When Tony Elliott has a puff piece, I’ll be happy to break it down in depth.
I don’t think it’s being critical as much as honest. Landing Bryce was an absolute coup and props up the entire Bronco era. BA has proven to be gutsy and talented esp in a gimmicked system that allows him to chuck it around 60 times a game. KB was reliable but if I recall was an overall finished product and not the style QB Bronco wanted at all.
But why is not legitimate to give a coach credit for landing good transfers? I don’t get that. We judge them by the recruits they land out of high school, but we don’t judge them by the transfers they land? The affect was the same.
Also, there’s a ton of football teams that would have sucked without their good quarterbacks. That’s the nature of football! It’s why quarterbacks are paid like gods and why all the rules protect them. If you took Brady off the Patriots or Rodgers off the Packers for the past several decades, are they anywhere close to what they were? I guess I don’t get why UVA should be judged so harshly because we would have been worse without our great quarterbacks?
Anyway, reasonable people can agree to disagree. Totally respect your take. I just personally don’t get why people can’t at least acknowledge that the Bronco regime got us to a level of consistent QB play we literally hadn’t seen since what, the first years of Groh? That’s an achievement! It’s probably what got us to bowl eligibility so often. Doesn’t seem fair to treat it as a fluke.
I certainly think the program has been incredibly fortunate to have those 3 guys at QB. I’m eneloquently trying to say the individual talent of BP made a mediocre program relevant for a couple of seasons and probably unfairly raised expectations.
I mean if we think Armstrong is still a top tier college QB under Tony Elliott (seems like most everyone does) then we have to give at least some credit to the old staff for his development. Also seems like Woolfolk is a capable backup. And the old staff also identified the talent of Benkert and Perkins (who was very lightly recruited if I remember correctly). Do they not get credit for identifying and successfully recruiting those guys? It’s like not giving Tony credit for Anthony Gill
Bronco was modestly competent. He didn’t rescue the program from oblivion as if he were the only man that could’ve accomplished the feat. He was hired to do a job and he did ok at it, which seems great following a guy who really didn’t do ok at it. There were certainly some positives. A couple good seasons. Some good QB recruiting/development/play. He beat tech once. He won the division once. He was also sub .500 for his stint. He was .500 last 2 seasons so the trend wasn’t great. But like I said, I was overall neutral on him prior to the last few weeks of his tenure because I don’t have super high expectations for the football program.
The accumulation of coaching incompetence I referenced was really a comment on the entire staff. I mean the defense…come on. And while the offense was very solid, man that last play overwhelms everything.
So, yeah, he did an ok job…and he was well paid for it. Then he went out like he did, so he’s gotten all the credit he’s going to get from me.
