blue-chippers year in and year out. BYU would be a much, much better team if it signed the majority of guys like Manti Teo, Haloti Ngata, Deuce Lutui, Stanley Havili, Anthony Moeaki, Star Lotulelei, Simi Fehoko, Garrett Bolles, etc., etc., etc. Every year BYU misses on the majority of the really elite LDS prospects.

I don't see the tide of recruiting shifting in BYU's favor until they a) manage to land in a P5 conference, and/or b) get really, really hot and have some truly great seasons, though.

Even then, I think a lot of LDS kids just don't want BYU. I know I didn't when I was a teenager/newly returned RM considering where I wanted to spend the next 4 years of my life. I saw my older siblings go to BYU and have run-ins with the shaving police and the honor code Nazis...and they were good kids who lived the gospel to the letter of the law (I was never that devout). I knew I didn't have a prayer of making it 4 years at BYU without getting kicked out or becoming bitter about having to live some of the more ridiculous aspects of the honor code.

Like it or not, BYU is a weird place. It will probably never appeal to a relatively high percentage of the truly elite LDS prospects.