Written by J.D Sheppard
As a die-hard BYU fan... this is hard for me to admit... BYU needs the University of Utah. Allow me to explain.
Now that Utah has left for greener pastures in the Pac 10 we are all wondering what will happen to our sacred rivalry with the team up north. Will the game that has been the highlight of November (eclipsing Thanksgiving) be over or only played once every other year? Maybe it will be played in September every year, and if so, how will that change the game? Although I don’t know how, or even if it will be played in the future, I am going to recount some of the more memorable rivalry games between BYU and the U in the last decade.
We will start in 2001, the very first BYU-Utah game that I ever went to. It was magical. There was something about the wave of blue and white that made me feel like I was a part of something special, something beyond football. I felt that was on the right side, I was a fan of the greatest football team that ever played the game. I felt indestructible, nothing was going to ruin this great day. Then, with doubt blanketing the stadium and the cougars trailing 21-10 with only 3:30 left, Brandon Doman and Luke Staley took me on a roller coaster ride that would start my love/hate relationship with this game.
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| Look at the calves on Luke |
The next game I attended was in 2003. The men in my family drove down to Provo with dark threatening skies, and hope that this year would be just like my last visit to Provo. I was ready for a feast of great football, just to sit through the worst football game I have ever watched… my beloved Cougars shutout 3 to zip.
In 2005-2007 I was on my mission in Spain. Near the end of my mission I was put with a companion who was a die-hard Ute fan… which made for a pretty miserable transfer. One day, after a zone-conference, my mission president called my companion and me into his office and showed us the final play where John Beck pulled a miracle out of his hat and found a wide-open Jonny Harline in the end-zone. I was grinning ear to ear for the rest of the day but my companion didn’t exactly share in my jubilation.
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| No, I will not put "Harline is still open" as a caption |
In 2007 I found out that we were having Thanksgiving at my brother’s house in Arizona. After begging him to get an upgrade in his cable package so that we could watch the game, we sat and watched as the Cougars trailed 10-9 and faced what seemed like in insurmountable 4th and 18. As we all know, magic happened and Max Hall threw a 49 yard bomb to Austin Collie before Harvey Unga put the nail in the 17-10 BYU victory...the emotional roller coaster was back.
Last Year, wow what a ride. It almost seemed like Max was toying with me... before he delivered a strike to Andrew George. All I will say is that rushing the field after that game was one of the greatest memories I have as a Cougar fan.
No game has ever made me feel the way the BYU Utah game makes me feel. No game has ever sent me so high and so low so many times, and isn’t that why we watch sports? Granted, watching BYU beat Oklahoma last year was spectacular, but it didn’t have the history behind it, or the bragging rights to my friends and in-laws. It didn't have Max’s comments after the game, and it didn’t have the buildup of every store, radio station, and person in Utah. Emotions are what make sports great, and no game makes me feel more emotion than the rivalry game. So yes, BYU needs Utah, but to be fair...Utah needs BYU as well.
Nice!
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