1) Hiring a horrible person but elite coach in Urban Meyer, who directly won them one BCS bowl and set them up for one more
2) Getting a PAC12 invite they didn't deserve to give them an unfair advantage over BYU in both money and recruiting

But sports are cyclical, and now that both of those have dissipated, yewtah's edge is slipping away as the natural order of college sports in Utah self-corrects.