When legendary BYU football coach LaVell Edwards was beginning to build a college football powerhouse in Provo in the 1970s, the biggest hurdle to conference success wasn’t longtime rival Utah, or Wyoming, which had dominated BYU in the late 1960s.
It was Arizona, and Arizona State, schools that had joined with BYU, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming to form the six-member Western Athletic Conference in 1962. Either the Wildcats or the Sun Devils won WAC championships from 1969 to 1973, as Edwards struggled to gain traction with what at the time was one of the least successful football programs in the country.
In 1974, however, Edwards and the Cougars got a breakthrough win over one of the conference’s kingpins, walloping Arizona 37-13 in Tucson behind the passing of quarterback Gary Sheide and rushing of running back Jeff Blanc to snap U of A’s four-game winning streak in the series.
The victory gave BYU its first WAC championship, and something of a rivalry was born. Conference doormat BYU was suddenly a threat to the Arizona schools, and the mere thought of that didn’t go over well in Tempe and Tucson.
Arizona got revenge in 1975 with a 36-20 victory, despite Gifford Nielsen’s 387 passing yards. Three turnovers doomed the Cougars that day. Nielsen’s 43-yard touchdown pass to George Harris with three seconds remaining lifted BYU over Arizona, 23-16, in 1976.
Arizona and Arizona State left the WAC in 1978 to join what was the Pac-8, but as a nice little sendoff BYU throttled Arizona 34-14 in 1977 in the then-rivals’ last meeting as WAC members. Marc Wilson threw for 334 yards and two touchdowns — to Harris and Mike Chronister — in the romp in Provo.
BYU fell 24-13 to No. 17 Arizona State two weeks later in Tempe and the Cougars and Sun Devils tied for the conference title with 6-1 league records.
After the Arizona schools joined the likes of USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon on the West Coast, BYU played ASU in a nonconference game in 1978 (a 24-16 loss), and then not again until 1994.
BYU and Arizona went even longer before renewing the once-hot rivalry, finally matching up again in 2006; Nick Folk’s last-second 48-yard field goal gave the Cats a 16-13 win.
BYU and the Arizona schools reunited as conference foes in 2024
Fast-forward to 2024. BYU, Arizona and Arizona State are in the same football conference, the Big 12, for the first time since 1977. The No. 14 Cougars (5-0, 2-0) and unranked Wildcats (3-2, 1-1) will square off Saturday in Provo (2 p.m. MDT, Fox), while BYU and ASU are scheduled to meet on Nov. 23 in Tempe.
That’s not to say that BYU and Arizona don’t know much about each other; they met as recently as 2021, a 24-16 BYU win in Las Vegas, the Cougars’ third-straight win in the series.
So Saturday’s matchup, with the stakes as high as they have ever been and BYU’s undefeated season on the line, will be a tiebreaker, of sorts. The series is tied 12-12-1.
Since Folk’s heroics in 2006, BYU is 4-1 against Arizona, the lone loss coming in the 2008 Las Vegas Bowl, 31-21.
“We have a lot of respect for Arizona, and know their program really well,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said in Monday’s weekly press briefing. “… We have an exciting team coming into town. Arizona has tons of talent.”
BYU receiver Keelan Marion and Arizona cornerback Marquis Groves-Killebrew were high school teammates, so they will enjoy a reunion as well.
“I wouldn’t say (anything) stands out (about Arizona),” said Marion, who is from Atlanta. “They are a great program — great offense, great defense. I actually have a high school teammate I played with that plays corner, so I will be going against him — Marquis, No. 20. So I think it is going to be a great experience.”
One of Sitake’s greatest experiences as BYU’s head coach came in 2016 when his first game as the Cougars’ boss came against Arizona in Glendale, Arizona, home of the Phoenix Cardinals.
Jamaal Williams rushed for 162 yards and unknown freshman Jake Oldroyd made the game-winning field goal from 33 yards out for an 18-16 BYU victory.
“Oh man, now you are testing my memory. I just remember the game. Jake Oldroyd made the kick. I remember a fullback (Brayden El-Bakri) scored our first touchdown, which was nice,” said Sitake, a former BYU fullback. “It was a competitive game. It was just a lot of fun. That seems so long ago now. I think I was way better looking back then. Not that it is saying much about me now. But a lot of good memories. We have had some really good battles with Arizona.”
Arizona’s visit Saturday will mark its first appearance in Provo since a 20-7 loss to quarterback Max Hall, receiver Austin Collie and running back Harvey Unga and company in 2007.
“I am really excited that they are in the conference, and that we get to play them here in Provo. I also have a lot of friends and a lot of people I know that are on that staff. They do an amazing job,” Sitake said. “I have a lot of respect for them and their fanbase. I know that their families and their fans will be treated really nicely by our fans here. Hopefully it is a great overall experience, except that it works in our favor on the scoreboard.”
How BYU’s Sitake, Arizona coach Brent Brennan became close friends
Another fun storyline this week is the friendship between the head coaches, Sitake and new Arizona coach Brent Brennan, who replaced Jedd Fisch. Brennan was San Jose State’s head coach from 2017 to 2023, but before that he and Sitake were on the same staff at Oregon State in 2015, the year before Sitake replaced Bronco Mendenhall at BYU.
Sitake said he and Brennan “became really close” in Corvallis and that they still keep in touch quite often.
“Obviously not as much now, especially that we are playing against each other,” Sitake said. “But there are a lot of guys on that staff that I admire and know really well that are friends of mine. And I know that they will have their guys ready.”
At his news conference Monday, Brennan said he and Sitake lived in the same neighborhood in Corvallis and their children and families spent a lot of time together.
“He’s one of my favorite people on the planet,” Brennan said. “He’s just an incredible human being, great father, great husband, great football coach.”
Brennan said nearly 10 years ago his three kids and Sitake’s crew “were just running the neighborhood.”
“And it was great,” Brennan said. “They would show up at their house for dinner, and then they’d send the whole crew (over) and they would end up at our house for ice cream.”
The coaches butted heads in 2017, when Sitake was struggling through a 4-9 season at BYU, but still managed to down SJSU 41-20 in Provo to snap a seven-game losing skid.
“They are a good football team,” Brennan said of the 2024 Cougars. “… We are going on the road, in a hostile environment, and they are extremely physical. They are very well coached. They play hard. To me in some ways, like physicality wise, they are similar to what you experience when you play Utah.”
Arizona upset then-No. 10 Utah 23-10 at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Sept. 29.
What BYU coaches, players are saying about Arizona
Among the current BYU players who participated in that win in Las Vegas three years ago are Keanu Hill (three catches, 22 yards), Jakob Robinson (three tackles), Ethan Slade and defensive linemen Tyler Batty (four tackles), Blake Mangelson (one tackle) and John Nelson (one tackle).
Chase Roberts, Kody Epps, Micah Harper, Miles Davis, Hinckley Ropati, Mason Fakahua, Talan Alfrey, Tanner Wall, Brayden Keim, Connor Pay, Ethan Erickson and Josh Singh were on the roster but didn’t get into the game.
Arizona’s roster is almost completely different, too, thanks to the coaching change. But Sitake says Arizona defensive coordinator Duane Akina is “a legend in the business,” especially among Polynesian coaches like himself, and will have the Wildcats playing aggressively.
“They have proven that they can get after the quarterback, that they can stuff the run, stop the pass. They play an aggressive type of defense. They create turnovers, which is what gave them a spark and momentum over the weekend,” Sitake said.
Sitake, who was born in Tonga and spent much of his childhood in Hawaii, said he’s learned a lot from Akina throughout the years.
“I just really really appreciated him as a leader, and him as an example to all of us. He is one of the OGs, one of the original guys that has been in coaching. So a lot of us, especially on the defensive side, appreciate him and his mentorship as we grew up in the profession,” Sitake said. “He was always kind and always accommodating to all of us. It has been awesome to have him around and see what he is doing with that defense. He has done an amazing job with his staff.”
Marion, the receiver who returned a kickoff 102 yards against Wyoming, said a big key for the Cougars’ pass-catchers will be to get off the line of scrimmage against the physical Arizona corners.
“I think the bye week gave us a good advantage to know to be more prepared for what we need to see out there. They had a game against Texas Tech. We were on a bye week. We obviously watched the game. We saw some stuff we can attack. We saw some stuff we think we can beat,” Marion said. “They have a great defense, have some great players over there. But I think the bye week gave us a big advantage to be more prepared.”
Arizona also features one of the top receivers in the country, Tetairoa McMillan. He has 37 catches for 664 yards and four touchdowns. Quarterback Noah Fifita looks for the junior early and often. Weber State transfer Marque Collins and fellow corner Jakob Robinson will be tasked with containing the 6-foot-5 McMillan.
“He is a great player, makes great plays. But at the end of the day it is about the things that I do,” Collins said. “My mentality going into the game (is that) I am just expecting the ball every play. Whether that is third and long, whatever. I know they want No. 4. So that is how I am going about it and we will see what happens.”
