That is more of a result of the regression of BYU Football, and not the ascension of USU. The year you finished ranked (almost beat Auburn that year, I think) was a good year for you, your best actually. But the only reason the past few games have been close is because BYU has regressed a fair amount and USU has come up a little.

This is not a rip on USU, just saying that USU has not all of the sudden achieved the success that BYU has normally enjoyed. You guys aren't at that level. You have improved, but the ceiling of USU is way below the ceiling of BYU in terms of how high the programs can climb and how long they can maintain that level. Good that you've improved, but if your best team in history is barely able to beat or hang close with some of the worst BYU teams of the past decade, that ain's saying much about your program. It is much more an indictment of BYU than praise of USU...