The upside is the home schedule is very good.
BYU will have a very Senior lead team as well, so its a year in which to make a run at everything.
Frankly I think this year's team would have been very good as well based on the various programs BYU was slated to face. Minnesota was the only team I thought really loaded from last year. ASU and MSU were in rebuilding mode at key spots. Utah was going to be good, and we'll see if that holds true when they start playing in ... (what comes after December???).
Missouri was coming to Provo and based on what I saw in their first game, not ready for prime time. Boise State has great skill players back, but is missing some pieces to and was not ranked very high in preseason polls. Next year BYU will see better ASU and Baylor teams, a rebuilding USC and good teams from Virginia, South Florida and Washington State.