I’m pretty sure that the BYU fan base was a major factor in KW’s decision. So was the difficulty of recruiting P5 talent to BYU.
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It was more than that. A lot more.
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No doubt.
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byu was only dominant in the WAC when they have every single possible advantage over all the other WAC programs at that time.
They had good teams since then but they have not been a dominant program since they lost to UTEP in 1985 or 1986 after SI said UTEP was the worst program in D-1 athletics, or something along those lines.
When articles like this pop up, the writer assumes byu has been dominant for the last four decades.
20+ years ago David Locke was calling byu “barometer U” because if they beat a good program, that year, that team went on to have a below average year. If they lost to a good program, that year that program went on to be decent to good.
byu has very few big wins against really good teams. They are a legend in their own fan’s minds.
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speed. Dont forget speed. they dont have that either.
I am surprised their defense is so bad. I though jay Hill and Sione Puha were going to install an agressive, Utah defense.
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You can’t install an Utah-Style defense unless you have players with mad skills. They don’t have them.
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In order to have an aggressive, Utah defense, you need DB’s who can play man the majority of the time. I haven’t watched enough to know whether they have the cover guys to get that done. You can only play the schemes your players can execute. If you force them into schemes they cannot execute you are asking for failure.
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The guy who was at the Peppermint Slice - or whatever - was good.
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Yeah I know. My comment was tic. If I were female you anduteopia would be guilty of some serious mansplaining.
Not serious, just piling on. 
Let’s hope they never get the guys they need to run it.
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For years now; they have hung their hats on Utah’s success not being important because the P12 is such a “weak conference”. That’s literally all we’ve heard over and over again. A quick peruse over there yesterday and it was front and center again.
With both of us in the same conference again, they are going to find themselves in a tough spot when Utah continues their success. If they continue to claim it’s due to weak opponents, they will be invalidating any potential success they might have as well.
Good luck with those mental gymnastics Zoobs. 
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They’ve been practicing that for years. I remember in 84 when Paul James said that byu provo’s schedule was as tough as Oklahoma’s. I’m not kidding. He said that on the Channel 5 news.
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They’ve run some “interesting” schemes in the past to compensate for a lack of athleticism outside. One year the corners were lined up 10 yards off the LOS on every snap. That got CB riled up… but they weren’t getting blown out.
It’s hard to get a sense of cover skills on TV broadcasts, but they made the FR RB Sama look like Usain Bolt on one TD and Barry Sanders on another.
It’s looking ugly down there. There is open envy for Texas A&M’s financial situation to be able buy out Jimbo Fisher. (Who engages in this kind of toxic chatter? Answer: Cougarboard)
It’s been a tough coaching gig since Lavell retired, and now the fans are getting an intensive remedial education on the talent difference between G5 and P5. Translation: multiple 365 day fan-directed microscopes on recruiting, coming up.
I admit, I feel bad for the former Utah coaches down there. Tough situation.
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CB is going to melt down when the only HC option is a former Ute: Jay Hill or Morgan Scalley? A lot of them want KS to be fired, but who are they going to hire? If Sitake can’t recruit the athletes to compete in the B12, who else is going to be better?
I don’t see things getting a whole lot better for byu and it’s wonderful.
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I think maybe Grimes? He started well at Baylor, but this year has not gone well. Kellen Moore? And yes, Jay Hill (I’d say most likely), Scalley. The pickings are pretty slim.
Niumatalolo was asked before they hired Sitake. He’s the ‘director of leadership’ at UCLA now. By the way, his son Ali’i is an admin asst for the U football team (and played 2017-2021). Another son is asst dir of football operations for Navy. I think Ken still has a church position in Maryland, but I’m pretty sure he’d get out of it if he came to Provo.
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It’s been a poor man’s U$C down there for a while now. Unlike U$C, who has multiple National Championships in the trophy case from years gone past, they have one. Up until Lavell Edwards, their season started and ended for decades with “Beat Utah” because nothing else mattered - and they knew it.
At our worst, our “wash rinse repeat” was starting the season with “Let’s go win the conference”; after a few games it changed to “Let’s get to at least .500”; finally devolving after a few more games to ■■■■■ it, let’s beat BYU.”
Building a championship team at this level is monumentally hard. Building it with the impediment of the Honor Code (and actually enforcing the Code) is harder. Add the types of fan actions that have been reported over the last two seasons down there at various sporting events, and you are now dealing with the equivalent of hiking Kings Peak in Winter. Dropping hate speech bombs at other school’s players is a big no bueno in 2023 - and it appears they still haven’t got the message.
Like I said before after catching lightning in a bottle once, they now think they are an elite program where all the top players want to play. Sound familiar? They just don’t have the campus or resources to even land on those player’s radars.
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I dont believe grimey Grimes is LDS?
While I think Scalley would be an excellent successor to Whitt, I strangely dont think he could do any better than Kalani at BYU. Maybe I’m wrong but I think Sitake needs more time. They’re livid down in the bubble today, but if anyone told them preseason they"d be 5-5 with 2 games to play they’d gave been pleased with that.
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I know some stand up BYU fans and they are pretty reasonable about all of this, including that it would be inauspicious to fire Sitake at this point in time. They also acknowledged that the fanbase has a tendency to call for the heads of the coaching staff when the team isn’t performing up to their level of satisfaction. My inclination is that BYU will find a way to compete but it might take a few years. In fact, I was telling certain Y friends of mine that the best possible outcome for this season would be for them to be bowl eligible. That comment mostly fell on deaf ears at the beginning of the season.
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Weren’t some the more delusional saying that they would be in contention for the CFP?
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