...to BYU during the Lavell era. They made some really good Head Coaching hires that repeatedly moved the program ahead (McBride, Urban and to an extent Whitt), hired a lot of former BYU players and coaches to give their program infrastructure and stability with player development and recruiting and was prepared and ready to hit it out of the park each time college football hung them a curve ball, and they didn't whiff on any of those swings, either (Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Pac 12 invite).

They were pretty bad vs BYU during the first half of the Lavell era and went something like 2-17 (can't remember the exact number) but after hiring McBride he leveled the playing field and started putting a lot of guys in the NFL (like BYU used to do early in the Lavell era) and began the turnaround. They should erect a statue to Mac outside Rice Chex stadium. He really did the heavy lifting in ending the domination by BYU.

That slide by Utah vs BYU started like our current slide to Utah and then it just kept on going and going and going. Going 0-4 is nothing to sneeze at.