I'll admit that I have a very small sample size of players, so any former players during this time on the board are free to add to this or refute it.

I tutored some of the players on the team during this time and kept in touch with some of them after. It was interesting talking to them about what they were going through in game prep. i would ask them what they were doing to get ready for Utah and the response was pretty much the same: They weren't doing anything. Utah was no different than any other opponent. The coaches never looked ahead to the game and didn't do anything special to prepare for it or get the players up for it.

This clearly wasn't the same on the other side of it. It was pretty obvious that the Utah coaching staff placed great emphasis on the BYU game. Even during the years where we clearly had better talent (and a better record going into the game) it looked and felt like we were out-coached. One of the guys told me that while "Harline is still open" and "4th and 18" were amazing moments, it never ever should have come down to those situations. As I was watching the Andrew George OT win in 2009, a former player said, "Awesome win, but why was it that close? Whitt just out-coached us." I asked him if we were better talent-wise. He didn't hesitate when he said yes.

The truth is that in the state of Utah, the Utes have surged ahead in the last 10 years, and I can understand the frustration. While the fans and recruits cared about the rivalry, the coaches didn't. But it feels like this is changing. You can tell Kalani really cares about turning this around. Because of this, I'm optimistic that things will improve.