BYU struck gold, caught lightening in a bottle, etc. in a way that few programs EVER do with Lavell and the innovation of the spread passing attack.

It could be argued, and I’m essentially making that argument here, that our admin, then proceeded to squander the subsequent opportunities brought on by this success in a spectacular way.

We heaped rules on ourselves, ratcheting down the screws of our honor code over Lavell’s tenure, then one upping ourselves again in this regard after Crowton. We insisted that we wouldn’t leave our terrible conference, full of teams that hated us, for greener pastures, without bringing Utah, a terrible team that hated us. We continued to pay our coaches on the cheap. Even now, our letter of the law holds coaches to abstaining from alcohol, coffee and tea and in spirit, we have the asinine “must be LDS” rule for prospective head coaches. Donations must be spread across programs. The policy makers, knowingly or otherwise, seem hades bent that we get and stay in our own way.

And yet, there has still been quite a lot of success relative to most programs—just not compared to top-tier (i.e. the ones that really matter).

Meanwhile the Utes, free from such hindrances, snuck out from underneath our shadow and torched our claim as the in-state top dog while BYU essentially fiddled. Utah wants to win, prioritizes winning, and is winning—big games too. And make no mistake, that success takes a direct toll on BYU. In good years, BYU bonks its head against the ceiling of self-imposed limitations. But mostly, we don’t even get close to that.

My kids would claim BYU as their favorite, but they aren’t as deeply attached as my generation of fans and the one prior. Why would they be? There’s no Miracle Bowl, 1984, Miami + Ty’s Heisman, or 1996 for them.


There’s a lot of pretty good, and more pretty bad than I experienced. For most people, this just doesn’t espouse the same type of fandom.