“It was something new and something different,” said BYU running backs coach Harvey Unga. “We thought this was going to be awesome for the program, but a couple years into it, I’m not going to lie, it was rough. I remember being in Chicago, a bunch of my (Bears) teammates there were heckling me and giving me crap about the team. It was nonstop. It wasn’t the same.”

“Being an independent was fun at times, but it was just flaccid,” said former wideout Mitch Mathews. “You got to go play big teams in big-time games, but there was zero structure. There was no recruiting power. It was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to probably play a bunch of random teams across the country, I hope you enjoy your time here.’”