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SALT LAKE CITY — With nine days to prepare, the University of Utah turned its focus to rival BYU Thursday.
“It will be fun,” safety Chase Hansen said following Utah’s 37-16 win over North Dakota Thursday. Hansen’s comment was made as if holding something back — a sort of hesitancy to overhype a game that needs no more emotion. In an almost afterthought, he muttered under his breath: “They’re a good team.”
Hansen, like most of the players involved in the heated rivalry over the years, doesn't need to be told how big of a game the BYU matchup is. Since the two programs split from the Mountain West Conference, the rivalry game has taken on a different life, but still important in what is a winner-take-all battle for state supremacy and bragging rights for another year.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for the Cougs, but I think we both know that it’s an intense rivalry and for whatever reason the fans get even more intense,” Hansen added. “The atmosphere should be fun and we’ve got a lot of preparing and a lot of work to do.”
On Sunday, Las Vegas betting lines were released showing BYU as a slim favorite over the Utes. For receiver Darren Carrington, it’s just another opportunity to prove to people what Utah is about.
“That just means a lot of people might lose their money,” he said while laughing.
Coaches and players on both sides want to see a victory, but Carrington feels it’s a little more personal for him, despite never playing in the rivalry. Carrington said that after his dismissal from Oregon and subsequent signing with Utah, several negative posts in the media and fans have added to his desire to beat the Cougars.
“Yeah, super excited. They wrote some stuff about me in the media and talked about me a little bit badly. It’s all good, but I’m ready for them,” Carrington said Monday. “To me, it’s funny that people take the time out of their day to try and make you look bad. So I just fuel off it and just work harder.”
Both teams enter the game Saturday with a long list of areas where they’d like to improve to give their respective team the upper hand once the final whistle is blown at LaVell Edwards Stadium. However, BYU may have slightly more considering their less-than impressive offensive performances in the first two games of the season.
BYU is coming off its worst offensive performance since 1974 Saturday, where the Cougars managed only 97 yards of total offense against a superior 13th-ranked LSU team that apparently didn't have to utilize much of its playbook, according to LSU head coach Ed Orgeron. BYU failed to cross the 50-yard line all night and only managed 38 plays from the line of scrimmage.
That won’t cut it against Utah. Simply put, that won’t cut it against most football programs in the country.
But if history is any indication, past performances and past records mean little in the rivalry game. Utah does control a six-game win streak, dating back to a close 17-16 win at Rice-Eccles Stadium in 2010, but the Utes will never take the rivalry game for granted. Its crazy history demands more.
“But this game is its own entity. You know, it almost doesn’t matter what’s happened prior to this game, you know, and if you look back through the years it’s always a battle and it’s always a hard-fought, close game right down to the wire, at least a majority of the time,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said at his weekly press conference. “Regardless of what happened in the past or whose record is what or who is ranked and who is not ranked, it seems to bring out the best in both teams.”
And while Utah may seemingly have the upper hand given its better offensive performance in the first week of play, Whittingham believes there is far more work to put in to compete against a tough BYU program, regardless of their performance in the first two games of the season.
Following Thursday’s game, Whittingham said his offense needed to improve upon many issues, but pointed out ball security, pass protection and keeping his starting quarterback alive to see another down as three of the top issues.
Utah managed 272 yards of offense on the ground against North Dakota, but Whittingham said his players were carrying the ball too loose and risked opportunities of having the ball stripped and fumbled — an area where BYU’s defense will undoubtedly take advantage should the opportunity arise.
Sophomore running back Zack Moss has the potential to be a difference maker against the Cougars, particularly with the struggles the Cougars had containing LSU’s Derrius Guice, who finished the night with 120 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries. Moss could pick up where Guice left off, but securing the ball will be key.
Add to that a far more mobile quarterback, Utah’s Tyler Huntley, than LSU’s Danny Etling and the defense could be left scrambling for a stop. However, Whittingham pointed out that his sophomore quarterback, who naturally wants to extend plays, needs to be “more judicious” in taking hits.
“He’s got to dive for daylight and do a better job of hitting those cracks in the defense,” Whittingham said of Huntley. “He’s got to be a little bit more evasive and not take those straight-on shots — he’s a tough kid — and he’s got to do a little better job getting out of bounds when the opportunity is there, or like I said getting down. That’s a talent that you can develop, is getting down and diving and avoid hitting those direct shots from the defense and he needs to do that.”
Huntley is confident in his ability to lead the offense in a high-emotion game despite only witnessing the game from the sideline as a backup to former starting quarterback Troy Williams. Nevertheless, Huntley believes Utah’s offense is up to the task.
“We’re going to go down South and we’re going to handle our business,” Huntley said. “That’s what we’re going to do.”
