The BYU-Utah rivalry has produced some incredibly memorable football over the years. It has also produced its share of frustrations for both sides. One thing is always clear when the Holy War kicks off: nobody knows exactly how the game will turn out. The Holy War doesn't play favorites. It doesn't care about your record or your stats, whether you're the home team or the away team. So even though BYU was favored on the road against Utah for the first time since 2012 heading into this game, and even though the Utes were on a four-game slide and playing arguably the worst football of the Whittingham era, BYU fans were nervous. And, as it turned out, they had every reason to be.
There was the classic pregame jawing from both sides. Utah running back Jaylon Glover, for example, made headlines with a profanity-laced interview where he referred to the upcoming rivalry clash as the "Cold War"—a natural mistake for a guy from outside the state and one that led to some pretty great memes. On the surface, this looked like an eminently winnable game for the Cougars—Utah's offense is terrible, and BYU's has seemed to finally get comfortable over the last couple of games. But the Holy War isn't just another game. The normal rules don't seem to apply. This game proved to be every bit as weird, wild, and unforgettable as any in the history of this incredible rivalry.
It was also a miserable game—borderline unwatchable for large stretches. Two solid defenses turned the contest into a brutal slog where both teams struggled to gain any offensive momentum. Utah led for most of the game, but BYU brought the score to within two points in the 4th quarter, eventually taking possession deep in their own territory with a little over two minutes left. After a few unsuccessful plays brought up 4th-and-10 with 1:53 to play, it looked like the Cougars' goose might be cooked. A brilliant, unbeaten season was going to come crashing down in the most galling way possible—an upset loss to their despised and significantly inferior rivals. And then, the unlikeliest of heroes stepped up for BYU—senior Utah cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn. Vaughn was burned badly by Jojo Phillips on the 4th down play and tried to make up for it by grabbing Phillips' shoulder pad (and possibly his facemask), blatantly twisting him off his route. It was an obvious defensive hold, and it probably saved a touchdown—Phillips was the first option on the play, and had Vaughn not held him, his speed might have turned a 4th-and-10 last gasp into a 95-yard score. In any case, a flag was thrown, and the ensuing 10-yard penalty gave BYU a miraculous new set of downs. The scares didn't end there—Jake Retzlaff threw an interception-worthy ball on the very next play that was mercifully dropped—but after that, the Cougar offense settled in, ripped off three straight chunk plays, and set up Will Ferrin for a 44-yard game-winning field goal which he coolly drilled.
With BYU snatching victory from the jaws of defeat (or, perhaps, Utah snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, depending how you prefer to see it), another dramatic chapter has been written in the storied history of the Holy War—and BYU's incredible win streak lives on. Now sitting at 9-0 and all alone atop the Big 12 standings, the Cougars are in complete control of their destiny. As long as they continue winning, they have everything to play for. Here are some thoughts from an unbelievable, astounding, mind-blowing, and completely bizarre 22-21 BYU triumph in the "Cold War":
The Good:
I'm doing something I don't think I've ever done before: I'm starting this section by talking about special teams. Is this the best special teams unit in BYU football history? I think there's a case to be made! Against the Utes, Keelan Marion recorded his second kickoff return touchdown of the season (the first time BYU has had two in a season since 1989, when Stacey Corley had two in the same game against Air Force) and Will Ferrin was 3/3 on field goal attempts and made his only PAT try. That's a total of 16 points scored on special teams. On a night when the BYU offense spluttered and struggled for most of the game and really only put together two sustained drives, only one of which actually resulted in a touchdown, the Cougars' special teams unit quite literally won them the game. And that kind of production has been consistent throughout the season—it seems like the Cougars have had at least one major special teams highlight in nearly every game! There has justly been a lot of talk about Jay Hill's transformation of the defense this season, but I don't think enough love has been given to the other replacement coordinator hired last year. Kelly Poppinga, brought in for his second stint as BYU's special teams coordinator to replace the ineffective Ed Lamb, has rebuilt the Cougars' special teams unit from a borderline liability into a decisive asset.
Outside of the 2nd quarter, which I'll address in a moment, the Utah offense did not score a single point. Yes, you read that right—all of Utah's points came in the 2nd quarter. Aside from that stretch of three great possessions, the Utes were held completely in check by Jay Hill's defense. And the most impressive part is that, particularly after halftime, the Cougar defense constantly faced a serious field position disadvantage. The defense's last two possessions were its most impressive—given how hard it was for the BYU offense to move the ball, Utah just needed a field goal on either drive to virtually put the game out of reach. But despite starting with the ball at their own 46 and the BYU 49 on those two possessions, the Utes ran a total of six plays for -6 yards and went three-and-out twice. That's incredible. The highlights were numerous and the stars shone brightly for Coach Hill's unit—Jakob Robinson and Crew Wakley each had game-changing interceptions; Marque Collins landed multiple highlight-reel hits and broke up a couple key passes; and the BYU front seven, led by Tyler Batty, Isaiah Bagnah, and Jack Kelly, played with ferocious discipline and stifled talented Utah RB Micah Bernard for most of the game. Though the Cougars didn't actually record any sacks, they kept the pressure on Utah QB Brandon Rose all night and had five tackles for loss. Other than perhaps the 3rd quarter against UCF, this was the BYU defense's best performance since the Kansas State game. In fairness, it's not all that hard for a defense to look good against Utah's moribund offense. The Utes have already moved on from their OC and their quarterback in the last three weeks, and as badly as the BYU offense played in this game, the Cougars still outgained the Utes by over 100 total yards. Stars like Micah Bernard and Brant Kuithe notwithstanding, the Utah offense hasn't scared anyone all season. But even still, this BYU defense looks good enough to make some serious postseason noise.
The BYU offense mostly had a terrible game against Utah and I don't have a lot of good things to say about it, but I do want to shout out the unit that saved the offense from complete disaster: the wide receivers. All hail Fesi Sitake, who might be BYU's most underrated assistant coach. On a night when an injury-riddled offensive line left Jake Retzlaff under constant pressure on almost every dropback, BYU's pass-catchers came up with one huge play after another, bailing out their struggling QB by repeatedly laying out for underthrown balls and getting open against tough coverage when it mattered the most. Chase Roberts recorded a team-high PFF grade of 75.6 for the game, catching 6 passes for 91 yards—none bigger than the diving 30-yard grab that saved the Cougars' final drive from stalling out following the defensive holding call. Darius Lassiter also had a strong game, and also punctuated it with a big first down reception on that final drive. BYU's receiving corps has some real depth and speed with players like Keelan Marion, Jojo Phillips, and Cody Hagen, but it's Roberts and Lassiter who truly change the game. Defenses have such a hard time accounting for both of those guys when they're on the field, and they have taken what amounts to a your-turn-my-turn approach to dominating games throughout this season. They're a big part of the reason the Cougars are 9-0.
I want to finish this section by talking about BYU's coaching staff and program leadership. From Tom Holmoe to Kalani Sitake to Jay Hill, Aaron Roderick, Kelly Poppinga, and the position coaches, this BYU football program is blessed to be led by some genuinely incredible human beings. If you haven't yet, take a moment to watch this week's edition of The Cut, BYU's weekly cinematic game recap. Listen to Kalani Sitake's pre- and post-game speeches. This is a man who understands the value of competitiveness but also the value of loving your neighbor and living the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Julius points out in Remember the Titans, "Attitude reflects leadership." BYU has an incredibly healthy locker room right now, and while part of that is undoubtedly because winning fixes pretty much any problem, I feel like it's mostly a product of a coaching staff that has built a sustainable culture of brotherhood and selflessness.
The Bad:
As mentioned, the BYU offense was not good in this game. In fact, Aaron Roderick had his worst game as a playcaller—and Jake Retzlaff his worst game at quarterback—since week 2 against SMU. The Cougars couldn't move the ball at all in the first half—they only had one drive longer than six plays, and it resulted in a field goal (their only offense-generated points of the half). Most frustratingly, Roderick struggled to balance run and pass calls well—something I've criticized him for in the past but praised him for in the Cougars' last two games. LJ Martin ran extremely effectively against the Utes, putting up 72 yards on an impressive 6.2 yards per carry, yet Roderick seemed to go away from him at the worst times. I will give Roderick a little credit—he did make some halftime adjustments, and the Cougars sustained three scoring drives in the second half, including their only touchdown drive of the game. In fact, that particular drive, which spanned the last couple of minutes of the 3rd quarter and the early 4th quarter, was honestly one of the more impressive offensive drives I've seen from BYU this season—randomly inserted into a game where the Cougars could otherwise barely move the ball. On that drive, the Cougars went 95 yards in 9 plays, highlighted by back-to-back-to-back deep completions by Jake Retzlaff. Other than the three big plays of the final drive, it was the most effective the offense looked all game. It's worth saying that Utah's defense was easily the best left on BYU's schedule—Kansas, Arizona State, and Houston aren't exactly a bunch of defensive powerhouses. But the Cougar offense needs to get back to playing balanced football, taking the pressure off Jake Retzlaff, and sustaining drives. Every great possibility is still ahead for the Cougars, but to seize their moment, they have to do a lot more on offense than they did in this game. One offensive touchdown just isn't going to cut it with the College Football Playoff on the line.
For three quarters of this game, the BYU defense pitched a shutout and looked every bit like the unit that held Kansas State and SMU's high-flying offenses to zero touchdowns each. The 2nd quarter was a...different story. On three straight drives, the Utes met very little resistance in scoring easy touchdowns (though the third drive was sustained by a controversial phantom facemask call against Isaiah Glasker). BYU defenders looked disjointed and slow, seemingly a step behind the Utah offense. Fortunately, that offensive production wasn't sustainable from a Utah team that (as just one example) only managed seven points against a terrible TCU defense. The Ute offense isn't much of a threat, and the BYU defense eventually reasserted itself and thoroughly dominated the second half. Against a much better offense in the form of Kansas this week, the Cougar defense will need to be steadier and avoid getting rattled.
Unfortunately, this section would not be complete without discussing the postgame antics of Utah's fans and—more importantly—its program leadership. In quite possibly the all-time most spectacular meltdown by a major college athletics director, Utah AD Mark Harlan stormed onto the field to berate the officials over their defensive holding call against Zemaiah Vaughn—while the final play was still live! Will Ferrin's go-ahead field goal split the uprights with three seconds still on the clock, forcing the Cougars to defend one final kickoff return (and a return TD wasn't exactly hard to imagine, given that Keelan Marion had literally taken one back earlier in the game). But even as the Utes managed to advance the ball near midfield with a series of laterals, a flag was thrown for unsportsmanlike conduct. Though the officials didn't specify who the flag was on, video footage seems to clearly indicate that Harlan was the target of the call. Imagine the chaos if the Utes' kick return had miraculously succeeded and they had scored a game-winning touchdown, only to have their own athletics director ruin the play with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. I've never seen anything like that before! I've never seen a coach get penalized for entering the field during his own team's play, let alone the athletics director! And Harlan wasn't done. Oooh no. He was just getting warmed up. He then proceeded to continue his run of doing bizarre things that I've never heard of an AD doing before and took over the mic in the postgame press conference ahead of the coaches and players, who have an NCAA-mandated cooling-off period before they're allowed to take media questions. Harlan, who had no such restrictions, went in front of the assembled local and national media and sounded off, blatantly and bitterly accusing the officials of intentionally stealing the game from Utah and declaring that Utah didn't want to be part of the Big 12 because of its unprofessional refereeing (never mind the fact, apparently unknown to Harlan at the time, that this officiating crew came directly from the Pac-12 after its functional dissolution last year and included a couple of that conference's most respected officials). A professional satirist couldn't have come up with a more ludicrous statement for an athletics director to make after a game. It elicited a furious rebuke and a $40,000 fine from Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, which was followed up by a rather weak non-apology from Harlan which essentially just acknowledged that he had expected the fine.
I wish that was the only classless thing that happened after this game, but it wasn't. And I want to go over the rest, too, because Utah's response to this loss, as a program and a fanbase, unfortunately defined the game far more than it should have. Kyle Whittingham took to the press conference mic after Harlan and proceeded to falsely accuse Jakob Robinson of intentionally injuring Utah tight end Brant Kuithe with a dirty tackle (Kuithe had actually suffered a non-contact injury on the play prior to Robinson's completely legal hit). Whittingham then stormed out of the press conference, theatrically kicking over his chair as he left—the melodrama was off the charts. And in the stadium, things quickly went from bad to worse. Furious Utah fans began throwing water bottles and other trash onto the field, culminating with one fan being arrested and charged with Class A misdemeanor assault after he threw a half-full water bottle at the head of BYU cheer coach Jocelyn Allan, striking her in the face and knocking her out. It was an ugly scene, and one which jubilant BYU fans and players were no doubt happy to leave. It's maddening that, to a large extent, the bad behavior of Mark Harlan, Kyle Whittingham, and the Utah fanbase marred BYU's victory in this game. Cougar fans who just wanted to celebrate found themselves instead inundated with controversy, with the validity of their hard-earned and desperately-needed win called into question by a bunch of sore losers. And unfortunately, national media figures like Joel Klatt have irresponsibly amplified and given credence to Harlan and Whittingham's complaints.
I'm going to leave my discussion of that unpleasantness there. At the end of the day, BYU won this game fair and square, and did it in unforgettable fashion. Will Ferrin is the king of Provo—since making his historic game-winning kick, he has crowd-surfed with jubilant BYU students and been awarded free food for life at Chubby's restaurant in Orem. It's not often that a placekicker gets to be the man of the hour, particularly for a 9-0 playoff contender. And Ferrin is just one among many heroes who have stepped up for BYU this year, propelling them toward conference title and playoff aspirations. Jake Retzlaff has been the face of the team, but so many other guys have taken their turns in the spotlight. This truly is a great team.
Where do the Cougars go from here? Last night's CFP rankings elevated BYU to #6 and slotted them as the third seed in the playoff. However, that assumes the Cougars win out and win the Big 12 championship. If they're going to do that, they have to get past Kansas first. Kansas? The Jayhawks are 3-6 and are only spared the ignominious position of the Big 12's most disappointing team because Utah and Oklahoma State are somehow even worse. But they're coming off a surprisingly convincing win over a ranked Iowa State team, and their offense finally seems to be clicking. The Cougars will have their work cut out for them if they want to win this game. Fortunately, they have one key advantage—it's a night game at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The ROC will be electric, and the Jayhawks may find that their offense doesn't quite flow as well when their O-line and skill players can't hear the playcalls.
I expect BYU to beat Kansas, albeit in a competitive game. From there, the Cougars' last two games are against Arizona State and Houston. Houston isn't scaring anyone at this point in the season—the Cougars in red are probably the closest thing to a sure win left on BYU's schedule. But Arizona State is a different story—the Sun Devils put up 35 points against UCF this week despite Cam Skattebo missing the game with an injury. And while UCF's defense is one of the worst in the P4 at this point, ASU has heretofore been totally ineffective on offense without Skattebo. If the Sun Devils can score without him, BYU will need to be extra prepared for a slugfest in that game. The bottom line is that the Cougars' final three games are no cakewalk—and if they win at least two of those three, they then face a much tougher test in the conference title game. But as long as they keep finding ways to win, they still have the chance to make history as one of BYU's all-time greatest teams.
This is such a special season to be a BYU fan, highlighted by what has become an incredibly fun team to root for. These Cougars form a whole greater than the sum of its parts—they aren't dominated by their offense, defense, or special teams. They play the very definition of complementary football, with each unit making up for any deficiencies in the other two. The result has been a season where the Cougars are an unbeaten top-10 team in November. How they win might vary from week to week, but they find a way every time. Just as past generations idolized the 1984 national champions or Ty Detmer's Heisman campaign or the 1996 Cotton Bowl team or John Beck and Max Hall's run of dominance in the Mountain West, a generation of young BYU fans will grow up idolizing Jake Retzlaff, LJ Martin, Chase Roberts, Darius Lassiter, Tyler Batty, Jakob Robinson, and the rest. We will be rewatching highlights of this season for decades. Bask in the glow, Cougar fans. Seasons like this don't come around every day in Provo. We're witnessing something very, very special. Enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts.