BYU Cougars vs. Utah Utes

Mendenhall, who is leaving BYU (9-4) after 11 seasons to coach at Virginia, failed in his try at win No. 100 at the school.

Saturday will be the finale at BYU for Bronco Mendenhall after 11 years. As for the Cougars, they’ll be working overtime trying to transition from the second most winningest coach in school history, to one who will be doing it for the first time. I enjoyed my journey the last 15 years. Mendenhall put his team in position to rally, though, and that alone was an outstanding piece of coaching.

Sitake said he isn’t focused on the next rivalry game against Utah yet – that’s the second game next season.

And the storylines surrounding this special Sin City edition of The Holy War only add to the rivalry’s legend. While Utah has won the past four meetings, three of those have been decided by a touchdown or less. Wilson threw just six passes in the first half and 16 total for 71 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Not only does that number rank second in the nation among true freshmen, it’s also a BYU freshman record.

Mendenhall is the coach whose emotions could have conceivably compelled him to punch a wall at the start of the game. This stat may be a little bittersweet though. If he does play, the Ute defense could have their hands full with his power and speed.

BYU came out of the gates about as poorly as it possibly could, giving up a turnover and a touchdown on its first five possessions of the game.

Wilson will have to have a big game if the Utes want to continue the streak.

Kylie Fitts, DE, Utah – Fitts is a dynamic pass rusher who has caused nightmares for opposing QBs all season long.

Get one roundup of college football stories, rumors, game breakdowns, and Jim Harbaugh oddity in your inbox every morning. A win over the Cougars wouldn’t really mean anything new for the Utes, but a loss to BYU would have the effect of somewhat delegitimizing what has been Utah’s most successful Pac-12 season thus far.

One of the game’s top draft prospects, Utah running back Devontae Booker, did not play due to injury. If he can avoid the sacks and hit his receivers in stride, Mangum could pull out the win for the Cougars.

Utah enters today’s game banged up. On the third play from scrimmage Kylie Fitts forced Mangum to fumble. There was talk that they could make it all the way to the college football playoff, but they went on to drop three of their final six, all in conference, keeping them from even reaching the Pac-12 title game. On another fourth down at the Utah 4-yard line, Mangum rocketed a pass over the middle to Kurtz for a touchdown to get the Cougars within two scores with 10:33 to go.

The Cougars (9-4) managed to score 4 unanswered touchdowns, cutting the deficit to 7 points when freshman quarterback Tanner Mangum dove across the goal line for a 4 yard touchdown with 3:30 remaining, but could not get the ball back as Utah ran out the clock in Bronco Mendenhall’s last game as BYU’s head coach. As I said, Utah’s offense was basically nonexistent during this game.

“It’s emotional because you grow so close to them”, Mangum said.

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