When we went independent, we kind of promised the world to recruits, and have largely failed to deliver on our promises. From a win/loss perspective, we haven't done too bad since going Indy, but the lack of signature wins and big bowl game wins or even appearances has been detrimental.
At least several of the top G5 teams can say that they've made a BCS or NY6 bowl, along with beating solid P5 teams every once in a while. That's what I want BYU to be able to say, but we'll never make a NY6 bowl as an independent.