Fan the BYU-Utah flames yet again.

The Cougars and Utes aren't scheduled to play each other on the gridiron until next season, but Fox Sports' Stewart Mandel made a bold prediction Friday that would see a showdown happen sooner.

Mandel figured his guess would cause a stir, as he tweeted the following, along with a link to his projections.

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Ohio State, Texas A&M, TCU and Auburn are his picks to make the playoff.

Cupcake saga ends sweetly for Utes

After recently putting a sour taste in the mouths of University of Utah players and coaches, Popular Mechanics provided a sweet ending to its cupcake calendar saga on Thursday.

The magazine, which on a calendar in its most recent issue called the Utes a “cupcake” opponent for the Michigan Wolverines, sent Kyle Whittingham’s team a few dozen of the sweet treats, along with a note offering best wishes for the Sept. 3 game.

Cornhusker's mustache scouted

BYU head football coach Bronco Mendenhall said at the close of fall camp Wednesday that he hadn’t yet jumped into preparations for his team’s Sept. 5 opener against Nebraska.

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One area of scouting he surely won’t get into is examining the facial hair of Cornhusker players. Thankfully, for those interested in such nuances of the game, that was done Thursday as CBSSports.com highlighted the handlebar mustache of Nebraska defensive end Ross Dzuris.

Dzuris hasn’t played a down for the Cornhuskers in three years on the team, but that didn’t stop writer Tom Fornelli from making this assessment:

“Dzuris is competing for a spot in Nebraska's defensive line rotation this year, and if new coach Mike Riley wants to win, he will let Dzuris play this year. You simply cannot keep a mustache that magnificent off the field if your true goal is to win as many games as possible.”

Ryan McDonald is a sports reporter at DeseretNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ryanwmcdonald.

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