1. In basketball, all you need is a good coach, who can recruit, and inspire his team, and a core of maybe 3-4 talented players. (Look at USU.)
2. Independence is killing BYU football. The AD has to frontload the schedule with 4-6 solid P5 teams- which not only leads to starting out 1-4 or 1-5 or 2-6, but it also demoralizes the team, and leads to injuries. (NO other FBS team plays a more bruising front part of the season.) At that point, all the team has to play for is a meaningless bowl game. ALSO, losing hurts recruiting, which means less depth, which means that by the end of the season, you're also going to lose a couple games that you otherwise wouldn't. And the cycle perpetuates itself- weaker recruits → less depth → fewer wins → less relevance → weaker recruits.

At least in basketball, we're in a conference. I don't KNOW if Rose can right the ship. Maybe he can, and with a few key additions to the team, he can generate enough momentum to turn the program into one that can compete with Gonzaga- if not, at least St. Mary's. If Rose can't, hopefully the next guy can.

With basketball- it's ALL about personnel. Get the right coaches and players → win.

With football, it's institutional. As long as BYU is independent, no personnel change is going to vastly change the direction of the team.