good fortune, stars lining up, willing ourselves to victory, etc.

I'm starting to see the genius in the Sitake/Holmoe/Reese approach (throw KY and his people in there too). There is a real investment at BYU in sport as a missionary tool and Kalani has translated it very well into a workable football approach.

Smart (well funded) hiring and recruiting combined with great culture and team philosophy - combining development, consistency with a new openness to great athletes with similar morals/motivations - has been slowly leading us to this point. It just came a lot faster than (maybe) any of us expected.

Now it's true we could easily have lost a few, still might, and we'd still have something to be very proud of. But this has taken years to build, going back even to the decision to go independent. It's also required quick adoption of new strategies, like with NIL. I think BYU is going to continue to build its brand for a while now.

I'll go even further and risk controversy by humbly, and not without doubts, suggest that you compare BYU's trajectory to Utah's at this moment. Could it be an instructive contrast in program philosophy?