had a unique discussion with an LDS guy who recently played football at fresno state. we play ball together on tuesday nights. he doesn't really follow BYU at all but i ran this idea by him and he 100% agreed:

"the best coaches are the best coaches not b/c they are the smartest or best schemers but because they RECRUIT the best...those players then go out and make those coaches (and their schemes) look good."

he was on the team during pat hill's last year and was like "it was the same stuff we always ran just the wrong players running it...we didn't have the talent...pat could coach and showed that over a long time...he just lost focus on recruiting." new coach led quickly to new players which they turned out a few more good seasons.

bronco's philosophy was to get the right kid to BYU then "coach them up" and "squeeze more water out of that wet towel". i think sitaki's approach is refreshing in that he's acknowledging the fact that he only can control so much that goes on during gametime on saturday. you can only scheme, practice, watch film, etc so much. at the end of the day he's going to look the best by getting the BEST players possible to carry out his less-than-perfect schemes.

bronco and anae focused on "out-executing" people which is fine, when you are playing MWC schedules. it's easy to say "hey we just out-executed WYO or UNM or UNLV." true...but your SUPERIOR TALENT allowed you to do so. obviously, i'm not saying execution or scheme doesn't matter...it does...a lot. but you can't lean on it. and, quite frankly, believing you can is arrogant and is why BYU reached a ceiling over the last 11 years. once you play those teams that are well-coached enough to execute as good as you do...talent usually wins the day (FSU/TCU 2009, Utah, etc)

i have no idea if sitaki's strategy will work but i do know one thing...BYU can improve (a lot) in recruiting. if they can accomplish this one thing, then the coaches will all of a sudden seem smarter and have "better schemes". broadening the recruiting pool may be the only way to get BYU from 7-10 win seasons up to the 11-12 win mark. these new coaches may or may not be better than the ones that just left, but i do think they are smart enough to realize the stuff they do in their office only takes them so far...it's the kids they can pull into the program that will elevate BYU to new heights we haven't seen in a long time.