The gap between the Pittsburghs and Notre Dames and Miamis of the 1980s and 1990s and LaVell's BYU was just as big--maybe bigger--than the gap between LSU and Wisconsin and USC of the 2010s and BYU. BYU didn't beat a lot of the top teams under LaVell, either, but it ALWAYS moved the ball. That was the BYU brand. I had no idea if BYU could stop Texas A&M from running wild on us in 1996, but I knew this: Sarkisian was going to throw for 300 yards.

Maybe the closest current analogue is Houston. They don't beat TCU very often. They aren't going to go undefeated every year. But they move the ball. They throw it all over creation. They pull the occasional big upset and have the occasional great season. They are always dangerous. Boise State is another close comparison to those teams (although this year isn't one of those years).

The thing that bugs me about BYU is that we aren't dangerous. You're not going to have Ty Detmer every year, guys that just get how to play the QB position in a way other people don't. And maybe--probably--we were spoiled at BYU by having such a long string of excellent quarterbacks. But the schemes were also conducive to that. Bosco had very few of the kinds of tools you'd think would translate to great quarterbacking, but LaVell made the most of them.

Times have changed. The reason BYU's offense today is supposed to be pro-style is because the OLD BYU offense dominated to such an extent that it's the one the pros now use. But that style offense won't get those results in college any more. What gets those kinds of results is spread option. Detmer will never run that. Maybe BYU will never run it. But it takes programs that have limited resources--Houston, Texas Tech, WSU--and makes them dangerous.

It also makes them FUN. And THAT is what picks up fans. That and winning. If you neither win nor are fun to watch, what then? Just what you describe.

It's not era. It doesn't matter when you became a BYU fan. Bronco Mendenhall did not have a measurably worse win percentage than LaVell did (except against Utah, but that's a function of Utah's improvement, not BYU's decline). His teams, though, were undisciplined, messy, and not terribly fun to watch. This team is far better disciplined, at least as talented, but absolutely boring as oatmeal to watch. Personally, I also don't believe that's going to change. More's the pity.