PROVO — As painful and frustrating as BYU's 38-7 loss to TCU last month was, tight end Dennis Pitta and linebacker Matt Bauman know things could be much worse. They've experienced darker days as Cougars.

Back in 2004, Pitta and Bauman were freshmen walk-ons on a BYU squad that had serious off-the-field issues and finished with a 5-6 record. At the end of the season, head coach Gary Crowton resigned.

"The attitude then was, it didn't matter. We lost and it was just another loss," Bauman recalled. "Most guys didn't care. I came from a winning program in high school, at Skyline. We didn't lose much. It was tough coming in my first year and having a losing season."

"That was a rough year. I didn't know much else my freshman year," Pitta remembered. "We didn't have a great program."

Both Bauman and Pitta left for missions after that season and returned to Provo in 2007.

Now, as the No. 22 Cougars (7-2) get set to face beleaguered New Mexico (0-9) Saturday (noon, The mtn.), the pair of seniors own a unique perspective on how far BYU has come under coach Bronco Mendenhall, who inherited a program that had languished in the throes of three consecutive losing seasons.

Pitta and Bauman can appreciate the fact the Cougars have won 39 games since the 2006 season, claimed two Mountain West Conference championships and are headed to their fifth straight bowl appearance.

"When you experience the bad, it makes the good that much better. That's with anything, and it's certainly the same with football," said Pitta. "Fortunately, I was able to come back from my mission and enter a program that was turned around. It's nice to get 10 wins every year. That's not something I was used to before my mission. A lot of the guys coming in take that for granted sometimes and don't realize all the work that was put in to building the program up."

Bauman marvels at how the expectations and attitude have changed over the past four years.

"It's just a different mentality and guys care about the wins," said Bauman. "I definitely appreciate winning more because of what I went through (in 2004). It's great to be back on a winning track. We've had over 10 wins the last three years. We want to keep that going."

Bauman doesn't need to talk much with his teammates about what it's like to suffer through a losing season.