The following column appears in today’s Currents, the Standard-Examiner’s digital-only section on politics and culture. Call (801) 625-4400 to access Currents.
Can you feel it? The Holy War is getting closer. The bite in the air indicates this is going to be a rough Nov. 28 of football in the Top of Utah.
You didn’t think I was talking about the Holy Lands, did you?
On Nov. 28, The University of Utah football team will head to Provo to face the Brigham Young University football team. It’s a late start for the Holy War, which is usually plays a week earlier. This post-Thanksgiving date brings mild hope that the game will be played in the swirling snow, with game plans rendered obsolete and only brute force and feet that don’t slip deciding victory.
I’m a big fan of the University of Utah football. I did some post-graduate work at the school and I taught there as an adjunct for two years.
I’m a bigger BYU fan. I lived on the campus, first in dorms then in the Elms apartments. BYU was not a transit school for me. It was my home and where I earned my degree, learned to be a journalist and sat through 15-plus football home games. About the only expected thing I didn’t do while at BYU was find a wife. However, as fate would have it, my wife is a BYU graduate.
So, I admit that for one day I hate the University of Utah. This year it will be Nov. 28. My “hate” will reach a peak for three to four hours starting at 3 p.m MST. If BYU wins, the “hate” ends and I can enjoy feeling sorry for the Utes.
If the Utes win, I’ll be over it sometime before the sacrament is passed the next day in Sacrament meeting.
And, when Utah’s football team gets its bowl game assignment, I’ll root for them.
I’ve found out that I’m unique in more or less liking Utah and BYU. It’s hard for me for me to grasp their reasoning, but there are Utah fans who would like nothing more to see BYU be 0-11 when the team faces Utah. Conversely, there are BYU fans who would prefer that an 0-11 Utah face the Cougars this year.
Making allowances for the fact that rivalries inspire pride, hate and loathing and have the unusual ability to make us attach our personal self worth to that of a team that has nothing in common with us, I have to ask these folks who want BYU or Utah to always lose — are you nuts? Of what worth would The Holy War be if it was the equivalent of University of Florida versus Utah State? (Sorry, Utah State fans. I’m a fan too, but isn’t it about time the Aggies started winning at least five games a year?)
My larger point: There is no rivalry between Utah or Utah State or BYU or Utah State, no real need to see the game scheduled every year because one of those teams can’t muster consistent winning seasons.
So, to all the Facebook friends an commentators who cackle with glee when BYU or Utah loses: Remember what would happen if you were able to cackle with glee every week. The Holy War; Utah’s biggest sports rivalry, would cease to exist.
This year’s game has the potential to be a good one. I’m picking BYU to have one loss, Utah two. Both should be in the top 25. The Utes have amazingly had two perfect seasons during this decade, and that includes BCS bowl wins. BYU has not blown out in Utah in a Holy War game since 1996 (that was at Utah). The Utes have recently enjoyed blowout wins over BYU in both their BCS years (2003 and 2008). The games, for the most part, have been exciting. Utah won five in a row earlier this decade, BYU took two and the Utes won last year.
Before the LaVell Edwards era at BYU started in the mid-1970s Utah tended to win most of the games. Edwards’ teams won most of the games until the Ron McBride era in the 90s. McBride was able to win about half of the games against BYU. Urban Meyer’s Utah teams easily handled Gary Crowton’s BYU teams. Crowton was 1-4 in Holy Wars. So far, Bronco Mendenhall and Kyle Whittingham have split four games.
Steve
on Oct 16th, 2009
@ 5:04 pm:
I spent a year at BYU then transferred to the U, where I graduated. I figure spending that year at BYU means I’ve earned the right to loathe BYU and hope fervently for them to go winless. And I do believe that any season where Utah beats BYU is a successful season, regardless of final standings. I take great joy in hating BYU and loving the Utes and I don’t think the Big Game would be nearly as much fun without that passion.
flatlander100
on Oct 18th, 2009
@ 2:53 pm:
Oh, Mr. G., hating a school’s athletics can add so much to watching college football. For example, it gives you a passionate rooting interest in two games each Saturday, instead of one. You root enthusiastically for whatever your team is, and just as passionately for whoever your hated-team is playing that week. It’s the Wrigley System of College Sports Rooting: Double your pleasure, double your fun. When my team loses, someone — anyone — beating Notre Dame can save the Saturday for me.
Many many years ago, on a Boy Scout tour of West Point before attending a game at Miche Stadium [it was Boy Scout Weekend at West Point], our cadet guide explained that Army could have a fine year going 1 and 7, just so long as the 1 was Navy. He understood. So should you.