Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
For the past 30 years, the BYU/Utah State Rivalry has been dominated by the Cougars. Utah State would like to change that beginning on Friday night in Provo.
The Aggies have won just twice in the last 24 meetings. The last time Utah State won in Provo was in 1978 when Eric Hipple led a 24-7 Aggie victory before going on to play in the NFL.
The fact that this in-state rivalry has been one-sided doesn't diminish it's value in the eyes of BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall. He wants to see the rivalry continue.
First year Head Coach Gary Anderson now takes on the challenge of trying to end the Cougars dominance in the rivalry. He knows BYU very well after spending several years as an assistant at Utah. He has tremendous respect for BYU's program and the talent of their players.
"BYU is a tremendous football team," he said. "They've won 10 games consistently for years and years. Bronco has done a great job and they have tremendous football players."
Related:
GAME WEEK: (20) BYU vs. Utah State
BYU (3-1, 1-0 MWC) will compete in its final non-conference matchup of the season when it hosts in-state rival Utah State (1-2) Friday evening at 7 p.m. MT.Coming off a 53-34 victory against Southern Utah and an impressive showing at Texas A&M, the Aggies are confident as they prepare for BYU.
"We feel like we can do a lot of things against BYU as far as scoring points offensively, racking up yards, and coming up with a victory," said sophomore running back Robert Turbin.
The chance to knock off a Top 25 team on the road added to the emotion that comes in a rivalry game will have the Aggies fired up Friday night. BYU fans might worry that Cougars don't have the same type of motivation and may have trouble matching that emotion. But the players don't believe that will be a problem after seeing so many big upsets this season in college football.
"I think anybody can get beat on any particular week." said BYU linebacker Coleby Clawson. "We look at it as a big game and it's definitely an in-state rivalry for us."
Senior captain Jan Jorgensen says the Cougars won't fall into that trap and plan to match the Aggies emotion on Friday.
"Because of the way they get up for this football game we have to bring that same emotion." says Jorgensen. "We have to match those things when we come out to play them because if we don't we're gonna be in trouble."
Friday's game kicks off at 7 p.m. MT.
E-mail: jjensen@ksl.com
