When I arrived on the BYU campus in the fall of 1958, there was optimism in the air. The BYU football team that coach Hal Kopp had assembled stood a good chance to defeat the University of Utah.
Dating back to the 1920s it had been a Utah-dominated rivalry. There was a tiny reprieve in the ’40s when the Cougars didn't lose to the Utes for five consecutive years. Once more light is shed upon that statement, it wasn't that promising. The Cougars had a tie and a win in the early ’40s … but then there was no college football for three years during the war.
The 1958 win by the Cougars in Salt Lake City was the only triumph over the Utes in the decade of the ’50s. That meant that up to the point, there had been four decades of dominance by Utah.
Coach Tommy Hudspeth, along with QBs Virgil Carter and Marc Lyons, as well as a bunch of football-playing ex-Marines, managed three straight Cougar wins over Utah in the mid-60s, but once again the Utes dominated the decade with seven wins.
When LaVell Edwards was elevated to head coach at BYU, the tide turned. Once the doormat, the Cougars vaulted into national prominence as well as having dominance over the Utes for two decades. At one point, Edwards was 19-2 against Utah in the rivalry.
But that pendulum swing was not to last. In the 1990s and the 2000s, the rivalry wins swung back and forth until the dust cleared. By the time the pass from Max Hall to Andrew George — that gave BYU a thrilling overtime win over the Utes in 2009 — each program had won five rivalry games in both of the decades. It appeared that old-time rivalry dominance had disappeared.
Not so fast. Beginning with the comeback win by the Utes in 2010, this has been a rivalry recently dominated by Utah. With only three games left between the teams in this decade, Utah has already captured bragging rights for this period.
With most of the games hotly contested in the past few years, it is interesting to note that this will be the first dominating decade for the Utes since the 1960s. It is also a bit unnerving for Cougar fans that this will be the third consecutive decade in which BYU has not dominated the rivalry.
Coach Kalani Sitake is assigned to right the ship in the rivalry, first to establish some parity with the hope of dominance down the road. Since the last BYU win over Utah was the game in 2009, it is time to reverse course. The fans need another more recent win to watch on BYU TV reruns.
Coming off a 27-0 spanking by a powerful LSU team in New Orleans, the BYU team has all of the motivation it needs to send the season and the rivalry in the right direction. The Utes appear to be a quite formidable and capable opponent. The game could very well be like the last six out of seven contests and go down to the wire.
It won't be long until the truth is revealed. The hometown Cougar crowd is thirsting for a victory and putting an end to the recent dominance trend by Utah. It will be loud, fun and direction-setting for both teams.
Ken Driggs of Mesa, Arizona, is a BYU graduate and served as Cosmo in the '60s. Contact him at kkdriggs@gmail.com.