In 100 Days

They always have a crazy amount of hubris about anything and everything

Any given Saturday

They are confident because they always have the attitude that the better team lost. Meaning it is always some anomaly that causes them to lose. In the Vegas Bowl it was bad luck with turnovers. Or 2016 was bad calls by the refs. Or Bradlee’s knee was down. Or whatever. Sooo close they think.

Now, take last year. Up 27-7 in the 2nd half. Then, Kaufusi gets injured and voila! That “allows” Utah to score 28 points alone. I mean if Kaufusi hadn’t gone down they would have won, they think. Combine that with Zach Wilson tearing up Utah in the first half according to them – well if you put two and two together it just adds up to a big BYU victory in August. Because they will be fresh with bodies and won’t have a “Kaufusi went down” event since it is the first game and their best players will be available and that won’t let their lack of depth lose it for them.

Something like that. So goes their thinking.

Rivalry game. Talent matters but all bets are off for rivalry game. Even OSU has been able to keep it close with Oregon some years and USC lost badly last yr to USC. I love the rivalry game, it’s always fun (except when we lose) and having bragging rights over your rival matters, especially when it comes to recruiting. 

Frankly, I am confused why Utah fans think BYU does not have a chance. Should Utah win? Yes. But on-the-field results from recent history show that the games are almost always very close. Until Utah starts winning by large margins, there will be justified confidence from BYU fans that they could win the game. I often hear Utah fans disparage BYU fans about paper championships…but claiming that BYU has no chance against Utah is essentially the same argument–all on paper. Has Utah consistently won over the last decade? Yes. But to say that BYU has no chance is contrary to reality, i.e., past performance and how close the games have actually been.

Obviously some on this board were not Ute fans during the 70’s and 80’s. I remember being the very same way as the current Zoob…thinking the Utes were going to win…HOPING they were going to win. When a rivalry is so lop sided, the team on the wrong end of it has NOTHING but hope.

They are used to believing things that make no logical sense. It’s not a stretch to jump from one silly line of thinking to the next.  

idk about you bro but I always enjoy this game, just because of bragging rights. to BYU, it means the world if they beat us (and their ego will shoot up the roof). but if we beat BYU they’ll go back to their caves for the next 365 days and cry on cougar board about how next year will be the year. lol.

We do compete with them for recruits.

As it has been stated, we definitely compete for recruits, especially in-state. And there are a lot of talented in-state LDS recruits. Our big edge would be touting the P5, the fact that we compete for a Rose Bowl, and the wins over our rivals. Snagging the Covey’s and the Chase Hanson’s is crucial to our success. Plus, not only are those guys fantastic talents on the field as well as great leaders, but they are awesome off the field as well. 

Why in the world would Utah stop recruiting LDS kids? Let’s take a look at just a couple of high impact LDS Utes of recent times (and no, this is not even close to comprehensive, just naming a few that stand out to me):

Britain Covey
Chase Hansen
Garrett Bowles
Matt Gay