SALT LAKE CITY, UT - NOVEMBER 24: Mitch Harris #98 of the Brigham Young Cougars and teammates celebrate a fumble recovery against the Utah Utes in the first half of a game at Rice-Eccles Stadium on November 24, 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images) /
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – NOVEMBER 24: Mitch Harris #98 of the Brigham Young Cougars and teammates celebrate a fumble recovery against the Utah Utes in the first half of a game at Rice-Eccles Stadium on November 24, 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images) /
The contenders
To really compare whether 2019 will be the toughest season ever, one must look back at other really tough seasons. Most seasons in BYU history have been stained with mediocre conferences like the WAC or the MWC limiting the amount of tough games that BYU can play in. Despite this however, some of these years the Cougars had really good non conference schedules and some really good teams in the conference. Here are the contenders.
1991 – There weren’t any super dominant teams that BYU played, but they did play five teams who went 9-3 or better. In fact, three of the teams the Cougars played ended up ranked in the Top 10 (Florida State, Iowa and Penn State).
2003 – Boise State (13-1), USC (12-1) and Utah (10-3) were the toughest games, and although not as tough as the 2004 opponents, the rest of the schedule was tough with the worst team BYU played being Wyoming who finished 4-8. In fact, Stanford (5-6) was the only other team BYU played that season that didn’t become bowl eligible.
2004 – USC and Utah both finished 13-0, Boise State finished 12-1. The rest of the opponents were not strong per say with the next best team being a 7-5 New Mexico or 6-6 Notre Dame. However, the quality of those three teams will probably never be matched in one season.
2016 – Although the opponents weren’t elite, this is probably to this day the toughest start to a season. Seven of the first eight games were against P5/Boise State teams. Of those eight teams to start off the season Utah, West Virginia, Toledo and Boise State all went on to win nine games or more.
2017
– After a free bonus game against Portland State, the next six games were really rough and the last six games were pretty easy with an exception to Fresno State. Each of the first six games BYU played against, LSU, Utah, Wisconsin, Utah State, Boise State and Mississippi State all went to bowl games, the only six game stretch of bowl eligible teams ever for BYU Football.
