...Utah and Kwhitt own BYU and Bronco right now. He has been dominated by Kwhitt in this rivalry and it's beyond just some unlucky bounces of the ball or poor calls by refs.

It really stinks to see them pull away like that. Bronco's failures vs Utah has become a huge part of his legacy at BYU. Lavell turned the rivalry around during his time and dominated our in-state rivals, that's a part of his legacy that differentiates them. Bronco has taken BYU backwards vs Utah and now we're even starting to see Utah St pull even with us on the field.



The 2014 recruiting class (Geoff Martzen's first) was kind of a highwater mark for BYU as an independent and since then it appears that the mediocre play on the field and general malaise surrounding the program under Bronco and maybe his attitude towards the NFL and inability to develop kids into draft-worthy talent is influencing the upper tier LDS athletes to look elsewhere. Grant Bolles' recent release of his top 7 list doesn't include BYU (despite his having committed to us) but seeing Utah on the list hurts and further illustrates your point.

I like that BYU provides a great environment for good non-LDS and good LDS kids to come develop as YM and play football but this focus on character development over excellence on the field is too well-developed (after all, most of the kids we get are already good LDS kids, RM's, former Eagle Scouts, etc) and not enough is put into preparing players for the next level. There's already tons of structure in place at BYU to provide a strong spiritual atmosphere for players at BYU, between the Honor Code, student wards, religion classes, devotionals, the general ambiance and culture on campus as well as in Provo, etc etc that the sports programs themselves don't need to do anything additional to enhance that.

The mission of BYU includes assisting individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life and that assistance should provide a period of intensive learning in a stimulating setting where a commitment to excellence is expected and the full realization of human potential is pursued. I think being excellent on the football field (and not being content with winning more than we lose so we can get invited to one of the 40+ bowl games in existence) and helping guys get to the next level is a part of that mission of reaching the "full realization of human potential" and not something that is detracting from the mission of BYU.