BYU's 2012 Football Schedule

Here is how I would rank the difficulty of BYU's games this season, taking as many factors as I can think of into account, while being as brief as I can (more detailed reports to follow...).  This isn't a prediction as to how likely BYU is to win, just my thoughts on the difficulty of the win:

12: Weber State.  Weber State is an FCS school and should be at a lower level than any other team on BYU's schedule.  Plus they hired a coach and lost him within the month.  That'll set a program back!

11: Idaho.  It's at home, on senior day, against arguably the worst FBS team on the schedule.

10: at New Mexico State.  New Mexico State might be the only team that can compete with Idaho for worst on the schedule.  NMSU lost a lot of their bad players from last year.  Their back-ups now have to start?  Easy W.

9: at San Jose State.  They have a lot of experience returning on the D.  They threw the ball well against BYU last year.  This game is on the road so who knows.  This is a better team than NMSU...

8: Hawaii.  There has always been a little healthy bad blood between Hawaii and BYU.  Add Norm Chow as HC at Hawaii and things could really get nasty.  Still, Hawaii is not a very good team right now.

7: Utah State.  This game is turning into a real rivalry of sorts.  Last year, Utah State made it's first bowl game in 14 years.  The Ags ran all over BYU last year.

6: Washington State.  The opener is always a tough one to win, particularly against a BCS conference team returning 14 starters, including a Senior QB.

5: Oregon State.  The Beavers were down last season, but Mike Riley is a good coach.  They return a lot of talent.  If the OL comes together, this becomes a very tough game.

4: at Georgia Tech.  The option is a difficult offense to defend.  BYU is quasi-familiar having played Air Force so much, but they haven't seen it with these kinds of athletes (combined with the experience of this year's GT team).  Bobby Dodd Stadium is a tough place to play with Paul Johnson amassing a 20-6 record there, however, he has lost at least one home game a year, so it's not an impregnable fortress.

3: at Notre Dame.  Historic venue.  Talented team.  If the QB situation weren't so in flux and Brian Kelly weren't so much of a wild card with his anger management issues, I'd probably have them in the top two in difficulty to win.

2: at Boise State.  The blue turf is a tough place to play.  Chris Petersen always has a well-coached team.  So combine that with a Thursday night game immediately after playing at rival Utah, and this will be a tough game to win.  ND is better than Boise State, but at least BYU has a full week to prepare for the Irish.

1: at Utah.  After a shellacking in Provo last season, Utah certainly holds the psychological edge over BYU (and, in my opinion, has for the last 9 years).  This is perhaps the last football game ever between these two long-time rivals, in Salt Lake, against a talented team that probably competes for the Pac 12 South.  Outside of playing a top 10 team on the road, I don't think BYU could find a more difficult game to win in 2012.