...the rivalry. He realizes he has to change the culture of his program and as long as he had BYU on the schedule every year it wasn't going to happen. It's sort of like a guy trying to break his smoking addiction while working in a cigarette factory.

How else do you explain the "sudden" need to drop BYU from the schedule to replace them with Fresno St (what did that change?). They dropped them for 2 yrs and then started scheduling with them again?

What did that accomplish other than give Kyle 2 yrs with no rivalry to try and get a fresh start and change the culture he created? In years past the game was always the last one of the season so they could circle it and cash in all their chips for the game and have time afterwards to recover and gear up again for their bowl game.

Now the game comes early in the season and the emotional effort tended to leave the yewts deflated for several weeks after and subsequent conference losses in those following weeks being even more deflating. In the month following the BYU Bowl Kyle has gone 1-10 in Pac12 conference games despite an almost equal split in home and road games yet the last month of the conference season he's gone 8-6 with 8 games at home and 6 on the road. Also, it was very noticeable that they lacked defensive intensity and offensive focus in those weeks following the BYU Bowl and their defense gave up about a TD more per game than they did the last month of the schedule, some of that also due to turnovers leading to points for the opposition.

I think Dres Anderson's comments pegged it with a bullseye.