Head coach Kalani Sitake remembers glancing into the stands and seeing grown men shed tears of joy as thousands and thousands of BYU students poured onto the field.
Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick remembers how thankful he was for quarterback Jaren Hall, the engineer of that convincing 26-17 win over then-No. 21 Utah on Sept. 11, 2021.
Offensive lineman Connor Pay remembers it being his second career start, how BYU finally dominated Utah in the trenches, and how “that place was rocking” when future pro Tyler Allgeier picked up a first down in the final minute to allow the Cougars to go into victory formation.
Receiver Chase Roberts, who was redshirting that year after returning a few months earlier from a church mission in Calgary, Alberta, remembers feeling the pressure of the moment because only a day before BYU had accepted an invitation to join the Big 12 and it felt like the eyes of the college football world were upon the 12-year college football independent to see if it deserved the promotion to a Power Five conference.
The core memory for everyone in blue that night, however, was that Utah’s nine-game winning streak in the rivalry had finally been put to bed.
“It was pure elation,” said Roberts, one of only four players on that 2021 BYU team who is still in the program this year, along with safeties Talan Alfrey and Tanner Wall and tight end Ethan Erickson.
For the first time since BYU’s breakthrough win four years ago, the Utes and Cougars will tangle on the natural grass surface of LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday (6 p.m. MDT, Fox), this time as Big 12 members.
Another sell-out crowd is expected, and the stakes are as high as they’ve been in quite some time for a BYU-Utah game, as both teams are nationally ranked heading into the matchup for the first time since 2009, and both are still in the thick of the Big 12 race.
No. 15 BYU (6-0, 3-0) has won the last two rivalry games, beginning with that nine-point conquest in 2021, but the pressure this time around is squarely on both teams.
Utah (5-1, 2-1) can’t afford another league loss, after falling 34-10 to Texas Tech on Sept. 20 in Salt Lake City.
“Well, it is for sure the biggest game in the state this year. They’re coming in on fire right now. We are 6-0. I mean, this is a big game,” said BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill, who was coaching Weber State to a 41-3 win over Dixie State (now Utah Tech) that night in St. George.
The week before, Hill’s Wildcats had lost 41-17 at Utah, his alma mater, while BYU had looked average in holding off Arizona 24-16 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and did not appear capable of ending the futility streak against Utah. It was a win that few in blue saw coming.
Sitake: ‘Just incredibly happy for the fans’
Sitake entered the 2021 game, his sixth season in Provo, with an 0-4 record against the Utes, three close losses (20-19, 19-13, 35-27) and the 30-12 weather-delayed blowout loss in 2019 at LES. He said after the game the win was bittersweet because it came against his close friend and mentor, Whittingham.
“I didn’t mean to get that emotional. It was out of respect for the other people in the stands,” he said Monday. “I honestly looked up in the stands and saw grown men crying because of the win, and so I was just incredibly happy for the fans and maybe let my emotions get the best of me a little bit.”
Sitake said the moment took him back to his childhood, when he cheered unabashedly for the Cougars and former players like Whittingham, who wore the royal blue as well.
“That’s always going to be in me. I just try to make sure that doesn’t show as much (now),” he said. “My responsibilities and my demeanor need to be (different) as a head coach.”
Because COVID-19 limited the number of fans in the stands during the 2020 season, it was the first time since 2019 that the Cougars had played in front of a full stadium.
“The fans were really loud tonight and made a difference,” Sitake said in the postgame interview room. “I hope our fans know how much our players love them and how much they love playing for them.”
Quarterback Jaren Hall emerges as the hero
Hall, Allgeier and receiver Puka Nacua were the offensive heroes, as Hall threw for 149 yards and three touchdowns and ran eight times for 92 yards. Allgeier had 102 yards on 27 carries and Nacua caught four passes for 37 yards. Both are now in the NFL, Allgeier with the Falcons and Nacua with the Rams.
“I really remember Jaren Hall being a really good leader for our team,” Roderick said Tuesday. “I remember more (about) relationships with players that I do about how I felt after the game, or anything like that. But yeah, I just remembered Jaren Hall’s performance.”
“I honestly looked up in the stands and saw grown men crying because of the win, and so I was just incredibly happy for the fans and maybe let my emotions get the best of me a little bit.”
— BYU coach Kalani Sitake
Defensively, linebacker Keenan Pili had seven tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss; Earl Tuioti-Mariner added seven tackles, Atunaisa Mahe added two TFLs, and defensive back Isaiah Herron made two pass breakups and recovered a fumble.
In the end, though, it was Hall who won the day, becoming the first BYU QB to beat Utah since Max Hall in 2009. He did something that guys like Jake Heaps, Taysom Hill, Tanner Mangum and Zach Wilson could never do.
“Winning this huge rivalry game, it’s very important to our program,” Hall said after the game, noting that it would springboard the Cougars into the Big 12 in 2023.
Little did he know at the time that Utah would be a member of that conference, too, in the not-so-distant future.
Connor Pay and company get their payoff
If there was a difference between BYU and Utah teams throughout the Utes’ nine-game winning streak, it was Utah’s superiority in the trenches — and the Cougars’ penchant for committing costly, devastating turnovers whenever they faced their rivals.
Pay and his teammates knew all about that, the former BYU offensive lineman said Tuesday. They worked all offseason to be ready physically for the showdown, with the Utes and the other four Pac-12 teams on their schedule — Arizona, Arizona State, Washington State and USC.
Pay got the first start of his career the week prior against Arizona in Las Vegas, while Clark Barrington, James Empey, Harris LaChance and Blake Freeland rounded out the starting five on the offensive line.
“The final drive was the first thing I think of from that game, because we went out there and we knew we needed to get a first down to seal it and win,” Pay said. “We knew we needed to run the ball. They knew we were going to run the ball. Everyone on planet earth knew we were going to run the ball, and we just ran it right down their throat, and got the first down.”
Pay said Allgeier proved to be the kind of running back that the Utes had used against them in so many previous matchups, a battering ram who wore down opposing defenses.
“When Tyler cut back on that zone run play and got a crease, we were like, ‘Omigosh, we are going to take a knee, and we are going to win.’ Like, it is still surreal,” Pay said. “What a great memory.”
Alfrey, Wall and Roberts watched it unfold from the sidelines
The aforementioned Alfrey, Wall and Roberts will be key players in Saturday’s game, Alfrey on special teams and Wall and Roberts as position players on defense and offense, respectively.
Alfrey had torn his Achilles two months before the 2021 game and was wearing a protective boot on the sidelines when the fans stormed the field.
“I got a piggyback ride from one of my teammates, I don’t remember who. I couldn’t run to join the celebration,” he said Wednesday. “That’s my favorite memory. It was super relieving to end that streak and start our own streak. Guys were super-focused, super dialed-in all week, and we executed the way we needed to, which is huge against Utah because emotions run so high.”
From American Fork, Roberts grew up in Utah and was familiar with the losing streak to the Utes, but did not realize how frustrating it had become for the Cougars and their fans until the lead-up to the 2021 game.
“The outside stuff that goes on with the fans is incredible,” Roberts said Tuesday. “For us players, it is just another hard-fought game that we want to win. That’s especially true because we have close buddies on the other side. We grew up together, playing on other teams.
“So being able to stop that streak, knowing that going forward we were going to be playing each other more made it that much more exciting,” Roberts continued. “Knowing that we are 2-0 against them, at least in my career, is exciting. We want to go and get that third (straight) win.”
Wall, also a senior who will be playing in his final rivalry game, became familiar with the rivalry on Nov. 25, 2006, when he watched John Beck throw the famous touchdown pass to Jonny Harline with no time remaining on the clock to give the Cougars a 33-31 victory at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
He remembers watching the game at his grandfather’s house in Virginia and how his family “dogpiled on the coach with my dad and my uncles and my grandpa” after that BYU win 19 years ago.
As far as the 2021 game went, Wall was a walk-on receiver who had made a couple of plays on special teams in practice the week before the game, so coaches allowed him to dress for the first time ever.
“I just remember when we rushed the field and won, somehow, amongst all those tens of thousands of people, I found my dad down on the field,” Wall said. “So that was pretty crazy. That was a really special memory for us.”
Special enough to make grown men cry.
