Most sports fans across the country know about the rivalry between the Utah Utes and BYU Cougars, while the people who live in Utah know it for what it’s really like. The BYU, Utah game splits families, marriages, and friendships. My entire family for example bleeds pure Utah crimson, but who did I want to win? BYU. My late grandfather might disown me as family if he knew about my intentions Saturday night. Even with all of us here at HMHD currently attending Utah State, we can’t help but pick sides and bicker about the game. The Utah, BYU rivalry is, and always will be full of dislike, for a nicer term.
The game Saturday night was very ugly. The two Mountain West Conference teams combined for 173 yards of penalties, 113 of which belonged to Utah. The two starting quarterbacks Max Hall (BYU) and Jordan Wynn (Utah) combined to throw for 45%, connecting on only 33 of 73 passes. The game looked out of reach once Hall threw a touchdown pass to Manase Tonga to push the Cougar lead to 20-6 in the third quarter, but Utah rallied with two Joe Phillips field goals and a Eddie Wide touchdown run. The second of the Phillips field goals in the fourth quarter forced the game into overtime where Phillips also got the Utes on the board first with yet another field goal. However on the following Cougar possession Max Hall connected with Andrew George for a 25 yard game winning touchdown. In 11 of the past 13 meetings, this game has been decided by a touchdown or less.
The most interesting part of this game was definitely the comments made by Max Hall after the game. Hall, who has come out and apologized since, stated “I don’t like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, their fans. I hate everything,” Hall later added “I think the whole university and their fans and the organization is classless,” Hall continued. “They threw beer on my family and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of nasty things. I don’t respect them and they deserved to lose.” Last year, Hall threw five interceptions against Utah, and really had no room to talk. This year, he is a senior and doesn’t need to worry about playing Utah again, makes sense to bash on your way out.
This got me thinking about some of the notable alumni that Hall would be including in this bash. BYU is well known for their affiliation with the LDS Church, and four former presidents of the LDS Church attended Utah, plus the current president Thomas S. Monson also attended Utah. Current BYU president Cecil O. Samuelson attended Utah and so did the founder of the gaming system Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, Nolan Bushnell. Other accomplishments from Utah grads include the inventor of the artificial heart and the concept of the laptop computer. Products created from Utah grads include Pixar, Adobe, Wordperfect, and JetBlue. I don’t know Max Hall, you don’t like any part of the U? Utah has come up with some pretty good things, you need to stop focusing on Ted Bundy, he only went to Utah Law School briefly before he was arrested, you can’t bash the entire school because of him.
Written by: Matthew Flygare
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