...they plan to stay the course with Independence.

As far as Utah's back to back 10 win seasons, they've been feeding on a lot of San Jose St type teams in those 2 years and are 1-4 vs ranked teams with the one win a home field OT squeaker over what turned out to be a very overrated Pitt Panther team (BYU is 3-3 vs ranked teams in that same period). You can schedule a bunch of cream puffs and make your team look good on the surface but then when you play good to decent teams you get exposed, like last year with your combined 13-101 score in embarrassing losses to TCU, Notre Dame and Boise St. The 2008 team had a bunch of guys get drafted but have they maintained that pace year after year or was that closer to a one year wonder? A bunch of that 2008 group that got drafted was Urban Meyer's players cycling out of the sytem. 2009 should have seen the last few and 2010 are all Kyle's and we've seen a steady decline in the number of draft picks now that all of Urban's players are gone.

That's generally the opinion that most college football fans who live outside of the state of Utah have of the Utes. I will also bet you that you'll find more of the same consideration around the Pac10+2. There's not going to be this warm reception with high regard for the "esteemed" Utes around the league. The reason college football fans see seasons like 2004 and 2008 as flukes is because the Utes follow it up with things like a 6th place MWC finish in 2005 or scheduling a bunch of nobodies so you look good on paper like in 2009 and 2010. Because you don't have a history of following up spectacular seasons with more spectacular seasons they're just seen as "miracle" seasons (even a blind dog finds a bone now and then).

There's a lot of luck involved in finishing undefeated some of it you control and some of it's out of your control. In BYU's miracle season in 1984 they had some of both just like Utah did in 2004 and 2008. The 2001 BYU team had some very bad luck when Luke Staley, the main cog and MVP of their offense, went down with a season ending injury before their last game of the season (he was the one guy on offense they could least afford to lose). His staying healthy was as important to that BYU team as Wynn's will be this coming season for the Utes. Even though he's not in the same ballpark as Staley was, he's still the one player you can least afford to lose. If he goes down you're looking at a losing season for sure.

I think that during the Bronco/Kyle tenures the programs have been very equal. Kyle has been very mercurial while Bronco has been more consistent with results but the head to head has been even. Utah's past successes are just that, things of the past (like Utah fans are fond of pointing out about BYU's past successes) and it's all about where the teams are headed now. Utah's moment in the spotlight has clearly faded (this year's NFL draft shows) and will continue to fade when they become the new Washington St in the Pac10+2.

For BYU, the sky's the limit with ESPN and the massive quantities of exposure we'll enjoy both in nationally televised games and with additional exposure we'll get as a regular fixture on Sportscenter every night (ESPN will be pimping their product as much as possible to maximize their investment just like they did this past season in creating the Jimmer sensation). What potential new recruit wouldn't want to be a nightly feature on ESPN Sportscenter and have a chance to become an overnight Rockstar like Jimmer? Jimmer was an ESPN creation and you'll see the same thing happening for Jake Heaps and other BYU stars going forward.