If you match the pros / cons of going to Utah vs BYU right now and take away any sort of religious reason, chips are highly stacked in Utahs favor... So many excuses being made of why Covey didn't choose BYU, other than Utah is just in a better situation right now, which is true...They play in one of the best conferences in the country, and had a very strong year in both football and basketball...

They have had some good successes of players doing well in the NFL recently and they don't have any other major potential distractions (ie honor code)...

If you are not an fully active LDS person, I can fully understand why people choose not to go to BYU and even with active LDS kids, I fully understand why they would still pursue other schools... Outside of our little cougarboard bubble, BYU is a mid-tier program, that pops up on the news every now and then, usually for some honor code violation... I do think BYU offers a unique environment for kids and thats why many do choose it, but there is no reason choose BYU for performance / exposure. I mean Jamaal Williams has been a fantastic RB for us and there is not one non-byu fan that could name our starting rb...

We need to win games, and win against good teams... We eventually need conference affiliation so that other programs / fans of other programs are somewhat interested in our program and outcomes... We need coaches / staff that recruit really well and can give confidence to good players about playing at BYU... We need a defensive coach