Is there a specific reason? The only thing(s) I can think of would include it being all the way across the country, but that hasn't stopped BYU from putting up points before. They're a program that is going to have a bunch of really good athletes that could hurt BYU at any time, but I think coaching and overall depth holds them back.
One could make the argument that they finished the same as BYU, but you can't look at records. BYU was trending up and found a QB. USF lost 6 in a row to end the season. I wonder what they do to not let that carry over into next season. They return a solid number of guys, but their game is the run game and that should be our strength to stop.

It just seems pretty common on here to be counted as a loss, so I'm curious what the reasoning is. Does it even have to do with USF, or just a lack of faith in BYU?

Other than that, 8-10 wins is plenty reasonable and realistic. It doesn't mean it will happen but it's very realistic. This is not a scary schedule and I think we catch a number of teams at the right time as well, on top of being a team that now has things settled at QB and OL, which is step #1 every year.