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Little know the faux segment. It's rivalry Week, It's the
Holy War Week. Got to get to know the foe.
The University of Utah. They are a good team this year,
maybe even a great team. We'll see how it plays out.
They are ranked, they are formidable. They're a one loss team.
They're only lost to the Big twelve favorite right now,
Texas Tech. So let's get to know the foe. It's
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out to the hotline. Welcome in Utah. Youtes Insider representing
KSL dot com. We got Josh Furlong on the night Josh,
how you living man?
Speaker 3: I'm doing well? Then, how you been doing?
Speaker 2: Fantastic man.
Speaker 1: It's the most wonderful time of the year where the hate,
the vitrel, the competition really starts brewing along the wassatch frout.
You've been a part of this rivalry, covering it for
a long time. When the outsiders, your friends, your family members,
those that are not within the state, maybe individuals that
cover the Big Twelve or other conferences, they ask about
this rivalry game, how do you describe it to them?
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a good question.
Speaker 4: I mean I get I get you know, fans of
by U n Utah messaging all the time, and you know,
it's it's fun to be able to kind of have
that conversation with different people outside of the state and
what this can be and you know, it's it's crazy
because like I think, you know, what we see on
social media is much more vitriol, but in reality, I
think there's just an evil and even level of respect
for each other even if you hate them, right like,
and I think that's what makes us fun is it's
a rivalry that clearly has a lot of heated passion
towards each other.
Speaker 3: And you know, there can be a lot of entertainment.
Speaker 4: On the field and none of these games wherever is predicted,
and that's that's what you want, right, I mean, I
think when you look at this, this is one of
those things where you want to make sure that in something.
I think in the years when Baus in independence and
Utah was in the Pac twelve, these didn't mean as
much and so the rivalry didn't.
Speaker 3: Always feel the same, and so.
Speaker 4: To have it back and to be you know, conference
implications too ranked teams. I mean, this is as good
as it can get. And I think you know, it's time,
you know, where you can embrace that and have fun
and enjoy it for what it is and know that
there's something meaningful, you know, on on the table instead
of just a simple game.
Speaker 3: So you know, it's it's it's fun, it's entertaining.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, when you strip down all of
the noise that can come out of it, sometimes it's
just it's just fun to be able to have a
game that means something in the middle of the season.
Speaker 1: Indeed it is is it the Do you feel like
this is the right time for the rivalry though, or
do you feel like it should be pushed back later?
Like do you have a preference covering it? Like hearing
from both fan bases, hearing from both coaching staffs, you know,
and even taking into account what the conference wants.
Speaker 2: Is just the right time middle of the season.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think when this this first all
kind of shook out and the twur in the same
conference again, you know, I think it was jarring to
not see it at the end of the year because
it just felt like it was you're building up your season,
You're going into that rivalry game. That's traditionally the week
that everybody has that game. And I've since kind of
come around to the idea that having it in you know,
late October is actually a pretty solid idea for these
two programs in the Big twelve because now you get
an opportunity to showcase this heated rivalry on a much
bigger stage than what you get. Like the reality is
is BUYU and Utah as good as it is, and
as much as the national media of respected and try
to prop it up in their own right, they're never
going to beat you know, the Ohio State Michigan game
or any of these other big time rivalry games.
Speaker 3: And so to be able to have this.
Speaker 4: Kind of on prime time, to be able to get
the opportunity to showcase this to the world, it's probably
the best that it can be, right And I think
that that matters to these programs. You want to be
able to market yourself, you want to be able to
put yourself on.
Speaker 3: That that national stage.
Speaker 4: It does have the risk that you know, you put
so much stock into this game in the middle of
your season that it can derail things later on. But
I think both of these programs understand it. They understand
how much it can, you know, propel the team forward
as well, and what it can be.
Speaker 3: So, I mean, you look at last year.
Speaker 4: There was no reason Utah had any business being in
that game last year. But because it's a rivalry game,
you know, you go in there and you have some
fun and suddenly it becomes a competitive game.
Speaker 3: So you know, both of these programs get up for it,
and I think it's entertaining and it's fine to have
it in October.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was looking a few stats up in preparation for
this game this week, and Cougar stats dropped a big one.
B YU and Utah have had more close games than
any other matchup over the last thirty years. The games
that are decided by eight points or fewer BYU and
Utah have nineteen of them. Florida State, Miami eighteen, Ball State,
Central Michigan eighteen, Wake Forest Duke seventeen, USC Arizona seventeen,
Misssippi State, Arkansas seventeen, Louisiana, Monroe and Lafayette seventeen. So
I mean these are yeah, some of these aren't the
most iconic rivalries by any means, but BAYU and Utah
could be the most competitive rivalry in college football over
the last thirty years.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's what makes it so great.
Speaker 4: It's no matter what the record is for either one
of these teams, most years, it's going to be a
competitive game, right like, for whatever reason. And when we
get it, like the players want to play up for
this game, it becomes this. You know, I don't want
to go quite that same level that everybody wants to
call it the super Bowl.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't believe that's the case for either one of
these programs. But you get the true passion, right and
you get to see that this game really does matter.
And even if it doesn't matter to some of the
players that have transferred in, they finally get bought into
it once they start playing the game.
Speaker 3: And it's just this is what college football is about.
Speaker 4: When you strip down everything away from you know, the
transfer portal and nil and everything, this is why we
love college football. We want to be able to see
competitive games. We want to be able to see you.
Speaker 3: Know, your hated rival and and different things that way.
Speaker 4: Those things are so much fun and it gives people
kind of a purpose to watch. And so if you
can always get that, you know, that notch on the belt,
it's just it's just one more cool little thing to
add and you could still be the better team and
the other team wins. So it's it's fun. I think,
you know, don't take it for granted because this is
one of the best rivalries in the country.
Speaker 1: Josh Furlock, he're on ESPN thefan represent a kshal dot com. Josh,
you were able to get out in front of the
coaching staff as well as maybe some of the players
this week. What were your takeaways from the press conferences
this week?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think this year Utah is trying
to be very measured in how they approach this game,
trying to not say anything to earth shattering, to to
kind of create.
Speaker 3: Locker room fodder or whatever that may be.
Speaker 4: If you remember last year, Utah running back Jalen cover
Glover kind of threw out some stuff that they got
people a little upset inside in Utah because they don't
want to add that that added hate or give the enemy,
so to speak.
Speaker 3: You know, a extra fuel to the fire.
Speaker 4: But then you can argue that Kyle Whittingham kind of
did that himself by not wanting to even mention anything
about BYU.
Speaker 3: So, you know, it's an interesting situation.
Speaker 4: I've never seen Kyle go fully that way where he
just says, we're not even going to talk about them
outside of talking about his friendship with colonus Take or
you know, the coaches that have been on his staff.
Speaker 3: But it's definitely a different strategy.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think at the end of the day,
whether he said something or not, you know, he's in
a no win situation. All of these coaches are. I
think it's so easy to twist and contort and spin
certain things from these guys, and for whatever reason, he's
decided that that's just not the direction he wants to go.
And if this is the last year he's coaching, which
many believe it is, maybe he just feels like this
is the best strategy to not have the noise or
even give any indication that maybe he's going to say
something inappropriate or not about a certain player or team
or different things that way.
Speaker 3: So different strategy, for sure. I can't say that I've
ever seen that before.
Speaker 4: But you know, he's a man that does what he
wants and that you know, there's not much you can
do to change his opinions on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I look at his trajectory, I look at his life.
Speaker 1: I look at his football career and his football coaching career,
and I see an extremely competitive individual. And he's a
he and it's a different level of competitivism. It's actually
petty competitivism where and look, there's a lot of greats
in any sport that are petty competitive, creating stories in
their brains and their minds, being superstitious about certain things,
what they say, how they approach the games, how they
approach the competitions.
Speaker 2: He's a petty competitor, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: And that has led him to become the greatest coach
in University of Utah football history. And it's not even close.
My question to you is this is his legacy. Is
it's cemented due to his dominance over his rival or
his ability to win big time games and win championships
in the Pac twelve, right Like, I look at both
of those and even you know in the Mountain West
Conference too.
Speaker 2: If you want to go back into his early tenure.
Speaker 1: Which one do you think, from a fan base standpoints,
maybe lends itself to more like validation cementing his legacy
at the University of Utah.
Speaker 4: Do you think, Yeah, that's a that's a really good
and fascinating question that I don't know that I've actually
really thought about, you know, and I think, ooh, man, Like,
I obviously like a nine win consecutive streak over your
rival is not something to not look at, right, I
think that's that's an important stat that many Utah fans
are going to look at with Wittingham and say, look
for a nine year well it was more than nine years,
but at the point the nine consecutive games, it was
you know, pure dominance from them, and that's going to
give them, you know, a lot of respect. But I
kind of get the sense that Utah fans are more
interested in those championship runs and kind of how he
developed the program that way. But even saying that that
feels kind of like empty, right, Like I feel like
there's there's more there, and so I don't know that
you can fully separate them.
Speaker 3: I feel like they do go hand in hand.
Speaker 4: But it's also tough because during a lot of that time,
Utah and BYU were in different areas meeting independence in
the Pact twelve, and it did mean something different to
Utah fans, right. They didn't feel like the rivalry game
was that important to them because they had other games
that were more important in the standings. The only value
that it provided, at least from a season to season
thing was just being able to have another you know,
dominant win or something like that over your rival. And so,
you know, I think they go hand in hand, but
I think it also was different because of the different
nature of the time that they were in. So, you know,
maybe it's a copa aunswer to say both, But I
don't know that it's easy to separate those two because
they do come at very differing periods of time. But
I do feel like later in this in this era,
it's becoming much more back to where that Dyu game matters, right,
And I think you start to see much more of
the fans wanting to have this win more than anything,
and having Kyle win this game is much more important
to them than it's ever been.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The reason why I bring it up because you study
the rivalry over the last fifty years plus from like
nineteen seventy two to nineteen ninety two, it was complete
and utter dominance.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: I think Utah maybe won three times, maybe four times
that in that section of the rivalry. Ronnie Mack comes
in and changes the game, and from like ninety two
to you know, two thousand and four, will say it
was kind of split down the middle. It's kind of
fifty fifty even through like two thousand intents. So for
like ninety two or twenty ten, it was kind of
it was it was fifty to fifty. And then what happens.
Utah gets the invite to the PAC twelve. They get
you know, thirty twenty thirty million plus and TV revenue,
they get the branding of the PAC twelve, access better recruiting.
They don't, you know, necessarily have to deal with what
Blau has to deal with with like honor code in
other things maybe academically, and they just take off right
as dominance and and and so it's kind of a
social study for me, you know, because where do we
get the most validation from is humans. It's comparative competitive culture. Right,
It's like my neighbor, my social circle, how do I
compare to them?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: And even though Kyle Whittingham time and time again said
labeled this game as the in state rivalry, there's nothing
that leads me to believe that actually the Utah USC
game was actually a rivalry because you have to have,
you know, synonymous feelings like did USC really feel that
it was a rival or did Colorado feel like it
was a rivalry game? Did did ASU or U of
A feel like it was a rivalry? Does that make sense?
Like it feels a little bit contrived, And so that's
where I lean into, like legacy. It's like, Okay, did
Utah ever win a championship? Did they actually get to
a h that upper echelon of like winning a big
time bowl game and winning a outright championship?
Speaker 2: And I don't know if they did.
Speaker 1: And that's what I kind of lean into, like, but
he dominated his neighbor, he dominated in recruiting, and wins
his neighbor. And so that's what that social study of
validation and legacy being cemented. Yeah, it's a little bit
of both obviously, but I feel like it lends itself
more to yards the robbery game that elevates him to
like this immortalized status.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think you know, especially the years that
these two programs didn't play. You know, I feel like
there was always kind of this feeling between both fan bases,
but what about going against the other team?
Speaker 3: Right, But at the same time, like I kind of.
Speaker 4: Look at it the same way as you know, I
think we expect, you know, Ohio State and Michigan to
probably have one of the most heated rivalries in all
the country.
Speaker 3: And I feel like those teams.
Speaker 4: You know, you could go win the national Let's look
at Ohio State, they go win the national championship, but
lose to Michigan, like that drives them absolutely crazy that
it just it buzzed them that they yes, they won
the national championship and you're going to celebrate that more
than anything. But internally they're all talking about, you didn't
beat Michigan, and Michigan can take that. I don't know
that Utah and BA you were quite to that level.
And obviously neither.
Speaker 3: One of them are in that reign right now where.
Speaker 4: They can can necessarily be considered national title contenders. But
I think, you know, they're there's still some totalitary hot
I can't even say the word right now, but there's
it still kind of goes into the complete picture where I.
Speaker 3: Think it all matters and it all comes in. But
you're right.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think this rivalry is always going to
be something that that these these.
Speaker 3: Coaches are judged on.
Speaker 4: Kyle Whittingham will one hundred percent be judged on that,
and you know it'll he'll be judged on that even
more if they lose this game on Saturday, Right, Like,
how do how do you go in and have this
dominance over a team where you you know, quote unquote,
have this leg up on them forever being in the
power for and then suddenly the way you comes in
and steps.
Speaker 1: In so three you know it WoT straight right and
lead him into retirement, right That That's.
Speaker 3: Exactly it would.
Speaker 4: And I think that would that would make witting him
really frustrated for his own legacy that he wasn't able
to go out on top. Even if you know, they
could go to the playoffs, they could go win their
first game of the playoffs. I think that would still
bug him tremendously to not go out on top against
his rival.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's interesting.
Speaker 1: I was looking at Annalys right, and obviously Utah is
a slight favorite heading into anime territory, and that very
well could be validated through metrics sp plus. I think
has Utah ised like the eighteenth best team BYU is
the twenty third best team from an efficiency standpoint, offensively, defensively,
special teams. And so, how do you see this game
from your perch, from your perspective going into enemy territory
they are favorite looking at the spread, looking at some
of these objective data points, compared and contrasting the data.
Speaker 2: How do you see this game playing out?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean this one, this one is as close
as you can probably get. I think You've got two
teams that are really solid. They have a lot of
similarities in how they operate. Obviously built a little bit
differently in how they operate, but they operate in kind.
Speaker 3: Of a similar mindset.
Speaker 4: Having you know, all of these coaches essentially work together
in different times in different areas, but it's just kind
of they mirror each other in a lot of way
on the field of how they operate. We know that
both programs are going to have tremendous defenses and then
they can go out there and stop and stop everything.
Speaker 3: And so for me, you know, the big decider is
honestly going to be on offense.
Speaker 4: And maybe that's an easy, you know, explanation for this game,
but I think whoever can be most efficient, whoever can
win the battle and the trenches, you know, you don't
turn the ball over. I think that's going to be
a true decider. And if I'm not mistaken, the two
games at BAUS won most recently, they haven't had a turnover.
So you know that that's been a big key in
this game where trench play, turnovers, those types of things
are going to be a big factor.
Speaker 3: And that may be enough, right, Like, that may be
enough to be able to come in there and help.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm really fascinated to see, you know, BYU's
defense go against this Utah offense.
Speaker 3: It's been pretty efficient this year. Obviously, they they got
tripped up against Texas Tech.
Speaker 4: And you know, we'll never know if that was fully
on Devin dan Pier being injured or Texas Tech is
just that good.
Speaker 3: I tend to lean that Texas Tech is is really good.
Speaker 4: But you know, we'll see what that brings and if
there's any separation between these two teams. But statistically, I mean, yeah,
some are going to be led. You know, each team
is going to lead in different areas, but this is
this is as closest I think you're ever going to
get between these two teams. And that's that's what makes
it so entertaining, is you can go into this game
and both fan bases can honestly feel confident that their
team's going to win, but still feeling, you know, that
hesitation that caught, you know, that cautious optimism, knowing that
there's a real possibility that the other team will come
out on top.
Speaker 1: Josh, you're about to drop a piece at KHL dot
com or you may have already dropped it. What's its
entitled or what's it is it entitled? In? What do
you delve into there in your piece in the lead
up to the Holy War?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and this one's this one's more just usta specific
in the sense of, you know, looking at the mid
season and kind of where Utah is that offensively in
their efficiency. You know, last year was clearly not the
year for them. It's actually been the last two years,
but they haven't been great. And you know, through the
transfer portals, through bringing in Jason Beck, who has a
much more simplified offense, that that allows these guys to work.
Speaker 3: You know, Devin dan Pier the offensive line.
Speaker 4: This has been an offense that has been far more efficient,
and it's been effective. Right, there's no game this season
this year that Utah has won, well, they've won by
less than twenty five points. So you know, it's a
complete overhaul in the offense and it's just kind of
looking at how you Tah out there and what it's
really kind of gotten to get there.
Speaker 1: Josh Furlong, Ladies and gentlemen, great segment. Make sure you're
following him on x check out all of his content
at cashal dot com. Also, you've got a podcast as
well for Cougar fans to peruse if they have the time.
Speaker 3: Yes, the Utah Checkdown Podcast.
Speaker 4: Happy to Happy to talk with anybody or share that
with anybody and kind of give some insights. It's not
a perfect platform to get it all, but it's an
opportunity to just kind.
Speaker 3: Of go a little deeper than what some written articles
could be sometimes.
Speaker 2: There you go check it out today.
Speaker 1: Josh Furlong, Ladies and gentlemen, Josh, appreciate you man, thanks
for joining us.
Speaker 2: There's always our pleasure having on our airwaves.
Speaker 3: Sounds great membership it all right.
Speaker 2: There you have it.
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