Ever since the LSU game (I was in NOLA for it), attending the Wisc game and being a fan for the last 20 years, from my limited perspective, as a fan base, we need to adjust our expectations of the future of BYU football. This isn’t a dooms day post but I do believe that the days of consistent national relevance are long past and likely not ever coming back. The way I look at it, no matter the coaching, conference affiliation, more money, or even a great season, the honor code (HC) is the biggest road block in our way of becoming consistently relevant again (I would define relevant as consistent top 20-15 finishes). The HC isn’t going anywhere and there are too many other variables in the way to overcome these restrictions.

I know many of you are tired of this argument and I’m not spouting anything novel or unique. But I think the time has come to own this monumental obstacle, strive for greatness, but learn to live with the results of 7-6, 8-5, or the very rare 10-3/11-2 season. I’m not talking about being pessimistic or giving up, but rather staring reality in the face. This is not a post bashing the coaches. I actually really like the coaches we have and I don’t place all of the blame on them for our current situation. In fact, I place only a little. I do believe we need to give them time and I’m fine with being patient. This post also not a post knocking the HC. I went to BYU and I’m fine with it. A few tweaks could be made but overall, it’s attached to our faith.

I give you a comparison from the field of psychology and my own experience. My dream was to be a professional volleyball player. I was really good in high school and competed at a very high level at my young age. I even played middle blocker in college on a top club team (our setter was Casey Patterson who played in this past Olympics) but I was also only 6’ 3” (which is very short for a middle blocker) and my genes wouldn’t let me grow taller. Thus, I gave up on that dream when I was 23 years old. Was I pessimistic? Nope. I saw the reality of my genes, and conceded my dream to a more realistic and attainable outcome.

When it comes to CFB, as the old adage goes, recruiting is the life blood of a program. The honor code is in our genes and it has and will continue to severely limit our recruiting. This is the number one reason, in my opinion, BYU will forever be, in this new age of CFB, an “ok”, occasionally “good”, but never a consistently “great” program, in terms of top 20-15 finishes, again. It’s just not in our genes.

In psychology, there is a theory of physical attraction called matching theory. Basically, the theory postulates that, when it comes to picking an attractive mate, we will end up with a spouse who is at our same level of attraction within a point or two. Thus, according to this theory, a 6 in attractiveness is not going to be with a 9. From my perspective, compared to the 8, 9, and 10’s of the CFB world, the BYU football program is probably a 6 or 7. We aren’t “ugly” but we will never again be an 8, 9, or 10 program and, therefore, we will never attract (or get enough) a 9 (4 star) or 10 (5 star) recruit. They are not attracted to us. It’s just not in our genes.

BYU football has a lot to offer as a program and I love this school and always will. However, it also has a lot of “unattractive” characteristics, the main one, in my opinion, being the HC. This factor alone, is what will keep BYU from being a consistent top 15-10 program. It is only attractive to active LDS recruits and an occasional non-LDS recruit who espouses solid Christian values or higher standards of living.

The way I see it, BYU and the BYU football program is built to be a school and football program for active LDS kids. Can a non-LDS kid make it at BYU? Of course they can but it takes a certain type of individual and there really aren’t a lot of non-LDS kids out there willing to give up their “freedom” to be at BYU and live the standards no other school requires. Granted, the HC does drive some kids to BYU but, in the end, repels most non-LDS top athletes. Regardless of our coaches, very few 18 year old non-LDS kid wants to commit to the WoW and Law of Chasity. The demographic of kids these days has dramatically shifted and there are too many better programs with more to offer without the restrictions BYU has.

Therefore, as a program, we are stuck with mostly active LDS kids. Unfortunately, that narrows down our recruiting significantly. There are only so many top LDS recruits on this earth every year and of those few, not all of them will want to come to BYU and of those who do sign with BYU, history tells us only a handful will see the field whether it be transfers, injuries, poor performance, or HC issues. At the end of the day, in my opinion, we will never be able to consistently compete with the top 20-15 programs year end and year out. We just aren’t “attractive” enough. Even winning doesn’t overcome the honor code.

Further, because BYU is a 6 or 7 in attractiveness, I don’t believe we will ever get into a P5 conference and will therefore never get P5 money and never be able to pay for top end coaches. At the same time, even if we did get into a P5 conference, I don’t believe for a second that our recruiting would experience a dramatic uptick in 4-5 star recruits based on being in a P5 conference. It raises our level of attractiveness only slightly but not enough for recruits to look beyond the HC and therefore not enough to get the recruits needed to have the talent and the depth to be a consistent top 15 program.

Another argument some put forth, “If we had the money to get the best coaches, we could do it.” Still, let’s remove the LDS requirement of the head coach, even the best coach in CFB could not create a sustainable top 10 system here at BYU due to the honor code. That coach would have to recruit so many non-LDS players and have all of them live the HC for four years….Even the most optimistic poster on here knows that’s not going to happen.

Thus, unless you want to be perpetually unhappy as a BYU fan, you’ve got to understand the obstacles and accept the fact that we are a 6 or 7 attractiveness program and will never be an 8, 9 or 10 program consistently. It’s not about being pessimistic—it’s reality. I will never play in the AVP. I have accepted this reality but I do get to still have fun and play volleyball occasionally. My life is great.

Some will argue, “But we beat OU, MSU, and Miss. St.” We caught those teams on down years. We will likely get beat soundly by Miss St this year. Our record against top 25 P5 teams is not great. You could argue that we have had some good years in the last 15 years. I would say we’ve had 2-3 very good years but if the last seven have showed us anything, CFB has passed us by and we will be perpetually “ok” to “good” from here on out.

So you can rant and gnash your teeth about the coaching and how we need better coaches or not being in a P5 conference, and that might be true but our affiliation with the LDS Church keeps us out of a conference and the university’s policy of an LDS head coach handcuffs the option of top coaches as well as the HC for other non-LDS top assistant coaches. But even without that, as I mentioned, recruiting is the life-blood of college football and BYU can’t compete when we have the restrictions that we have.

In the end, it’s not about settling and it’s definitely not about being pessimistic. It’s about embracing out identity, knowing our limitations, and trying to do the best with what we’ve got and, ultimately, blooming where we are planted. But we can only bloom so much. The HC is here to stay and I’m fine with that because the major restrictions are connected to my faith.

It's great to always hope for BYU to compete for top 20-15 finishes every year or even being in a CFB Playoff game and this is what I do. But it’s also ok to understand the reality of our place in the CFB world. There is really nothing wrong about accepting reality and living a contented, unremarkable, happy life as most of us live. Yet striving for greatness.

In the end, what I am optimistic about and that I do believe is in our genes is BYU will continue to be a force in the CFB world and other teams, even top teams, will have to prepare well for. I have faith in the coaches that they will turn things around and we will have some good years and maybe a great 10-3 year and maybe end the year ranked in the top 25-20. Heck, I think we will even beat Utah in the next three years. I will continue to support the Cougs, attend their games, and cheer loud. I bleed blue and always will. I love Kalani as our coach and I think Tom deserves a raise!

(p.s. I also believe this is why Bronco eventually left. He saw the writing on the wall that independence wasn’t sustainable, we weren’t getting into a P5 conference, and he saw that we will never be better than a 9-4 program due to insurmountable recruiting restrictions. He then looked at our upcoming schedules and said, “I will likely have another 8-5 and 7-6 season and be fired…I’m out here while the getting’ is good.”)