They tried to relegate the program permanently to a lower tier by blowing up our plans for independence. They tried to relegate us with refusals to schedule us, downplay our rivalry, stop so much as saying our name, etc. They've negatively recruited specifically against BYU for decades.

But Holmoe, and also Kalani, have to go about things in a certain way. They answer to powers that the U does not, and those powers are not as likely to be interested in pulling every dirty trick in the book to get a leg up on a rival college athletic program, however dirty the may be willing to play. It doesn't help that this same program is in the church's home state and was attended by a large number of LDS.

Kalani and Holmoe aren't naive. They're playing the hand they've been dealt in the way they're required to play it.