I think for DR Hill that was his main reason, but I don't think he would have been able to sell it to the Board of Regents and Boosters. So he went with the SOS and PAC wont let us excuse. As we have seen was a failure as well since the boosters were not at all happy about dropping BYU from the schedule. The SOS argument makes them look scared and the PAC excuse was obviously a lie since we were able to schedule other PAC teams almost the day after Hill said it. IMO it was all Hills anti Mormon doing. Beating your rival is one thing. Marginalizing them is actually bad for your own program.
I do believe Kryle sells his soul for the BYU game, but I don't believe that he has prep for the game "mastered". There have been too many close games that were decided on bad calls or unlucky bounces to say he has dominated BYU.