The idea that somehow, the bar has been generally raised since 1985 is, of course, ridiculous. You don't have a different number of top 10 teams now than you did then and, the truth is that BYU has done as well the last 10 years as the did in the late 80s or 90s. The sad fact is that a lot of BYU fans are mostly upset with the current state of the program only because Utah has done better. Sad.
BYU could be better and I expect and hope that they will. But I think it's important to keep in mind that BYU has had 4 seasons since 1985 in which they finished in the top 25, beat Utah and won the bowl game. 3 of those are under Mendenhall. But even with that relatively good record, if I knew, with any kind of confidence, that we could get a coach that would do a better job than Mendenhall and take a program with a strict honor code that's not part of a P5 conference and stuck in a small town in the middle of the mountain time zone to a higher level, I'd go for it in a heartbeat. I'm not ready to change for the sake of changing, because, unfortunately, there's a potential direction other than up for this (or any) program. And those fans who think BYU has a divine right to be better or that has such an intrinsically strong program that it just takes a so-so coach to make it better are the guys with their heads in the sand.