BYU Football: Is 2019 the toughest schedule ever?

For years 2019 has been seen as the toughest season perhaps in BYU Football history, but now that we are here, is that true?

Utah, Utah State, Boise State, Washington, USC and South Florida were all ranked at some point in the 2018 football season. If you go a year further back San Diego State and Tennessee join those schools. In other words, in the past two seasons, 66% of BYU’s opponents have been ranked at some point. That is also seven of their first eight games.

Seeing that, one would think that it is the toughest schedule that BYU has ever had to play week in and week out, and there is a valid argument for that. But when we really look closer, it isn’t as bad is it may seem on paper. The schedule will be tough, and BYU very well may go 7-5 this season, but it won’t be because they are playing elite teams every week.

Here is the breakdown of how good these teams actually may or may not be.

Idaho State, UMass and Liberty are games that the Cougars should win by double digits and don’t need any more explanation.

The real deals

Utah and Utah State are both returning a bulk of their production from last year. The hype that is around these two games is real and deserves every bit of concern that it is being given by Cougar fans. Both of these teams probably should be better, which is scary when you consider that Utah was ranked as high as 17 in the AP polls and Utah State was No. 14 in the same poll. If they can continue to do what they did last year, Utah State could realistically go undefeated this year . Yes, they have a new head coach, but the talent is there and they could easily have a Gary Crowton kind of season where the talent makes the coach look better than he is. The Utes could go 10-2 or better with a weak division in the Pac 12 and no Oregon and Stanford on the schedule.