have been spoiled with winning seasons, great football game plans and execution, excitement from players, etc. We got spoiled. Our expectations are always on the plus side of the win/loss board, Beating teams ranked higher than us or staying close to them in the scoring department has been a product we've expected and seen on many occasions.

At other schools where losing records is a regular occurrence, their loyal fans hope each year hope their team does well and supports them in most cases.

This year will define the future of BYU football and fans for at least 2-3 years (and possibly more). IMO, if this year's team crashes and dies at any point and ends up like last year, the fans will leave in droves and put their funds and time elsewhere. Hope it's not the case, but just stating the obvious.

My only frustration left over from last year is that the defensive coaches are still on board. They coach a vanilla brand of football, changed from a 3-4 to a 4-3 and whatever else the coaches knew how to run. The 3-4 worked at BYU because of the type of players BYU had recruited only the past several years. The defensive coaches had hopes and dreams their design would work, it didn't and it won't (IMO). I have to be careful in how I say this, but loyalty to a certain culture kept our defensive coaches around which doesn't bode well for this year. It is my belief the players will start with passion at the beginning of the season, but this year's schedule isn't a what they need. The team will get beat up at the beginning, thus, the players will lose whatever enthusiasm they had at the beginning of the season and the product on the field will go south, simply put.

Lastly, if this year's team tanks it, you can expect recruiting to continue to spiral and it will take years for the Cougars to get back on track. Keeping my fingers crossed here (all of them). For lasts year's recruiting class (though they are probably all great individuals), the overall talent level that arrived on campus will not support a winning team.

Again, I'm just rambling and stating my opinion.

I wish the team and coaches success this year (a winning record). I hope the fans don't turn away no matter what happens in 2018.