at passing because of great offensive coordinators like Dwaine Painter, Doug Scovil, Mike Holmgren, and Norm Chow. When those guys left, BYU didn't throw the ball any better than anyone else.

If there was one thing LaVell was not, it was an Xs and Os guy. Never once in his entire career did he assume the role of a playcaller or wear a headset. He delegated that to others. He has admitted this, and wasn't ashamed of it. In fact, if Jim McMahon hadn't pitched a fit over LaVell's decision to punt in the 1980 Holiday Bowl, BYU would have lost. LaVell allowed himself to be overruled on that 4th down, and BYU got the first down and went on to victory. The decision on whether to punt or go for two or one on extra points were the only playcalling he did, and even then, he wouldn't decide which play to run on PATs. Even if he hadn't admitted this, I could tell you this with firsthand knowledge that this was true.

LaVell's success owed to two or three factors. First, his ability to hire topnotch assistants before they became too expensive to hang on to, and let them call their own plays. All four of the aforementioned OCs wound up in the pros. He had no ego that got in the way of him admitting that they knew more about offense than he did.

Second, he was a great people person and easily filled the role as a father figure to his players. He was beloved, and his players were motivated to "play for him." In recruiting, many of the stars that came to BYU came because of LaVell's personality.

Third, he was genuine (though this is very much a subset of being a great people person and wonderful father figure). Comfortable in his own skin. Never superficial. Never concerned with keeping up appearances.

Still, what's forgotten is that BYU had many disappointing years under him, and they coincided with who his OCs were at the time. There were quite a few catastrophes. Some of his BYU's defenses were atrocious. Sometimes we didn't have talented QBs on the team, and we struggled to beat any good teams. Sometimes our pass protection was poor and QBs' careers were ended.

Everything Kalani Sitake has gone through thus far, LaVell went through too, but LaVell played against much weaker competition. I remember all this because I'm an old man and was there for all of it.