It might as well have been written by O'Henry or Charles Dickens.

The Utes were an afterthought and a laughing stock for nearly 30 years. They had some rivalry wins in the 1990s but save for one great Scott Mitchell year they always came into that game playing the spoiler. I certainly gave them my share of crap during that time.

The Urban years temporarily changed things and then the early Bronco years had us winning 3 of 4 at one point. The P12 came along, we haven't been able to buy a win against them in a long series of mostly one-score games, and their recruiting in the P12 has picked up to the point where they are talented enough that some (not entirely deluded) individuals think they could possibly be a playoff team or play in the Rose Bowl. Their competitive advantage will be tough for us to overcome in the long-term. We will eventually steal some rivalry games from them, that's probably inevitable, but a lot has changed, and most BYU fans would probably be happy to just have it be an evenly matched rivalry again. I don't think anyone sees BYU returning to dominance any time soon (although when Kyle retires a lot could happen).

I can understand why a lot of them are the way they are at this point. They went through a lot of years in the wilderness.