Both teams are SUBSTANTIALLY better against the field, if you will, than they were in the 90's when Utah went to their first bowl games in 30 years and USU hadn't even done that yet.
The world is different now. He might think that USU and Utah benefitted from his perception of BYUs demise, but one could argue than most of Broncos teams would beat three of his teams. Arguably, BYU is better as a whole right now than the BYU of the late 90's (96 excepted, of course).