We are slowly and steadily moving on from the remainder of the past season, all the debates, flakes, and highlights in between. But the discussion won’t be empty, no worries. Some new cheers and hauls are gearing up to turn the tide amidst the compelling season. On the same note, the BYU Cougars have taken a step ahead to pinpoint their 2025 path to the highly touted glory. The Cougars couldn’t do much in their pretty average season, but they still showcased some serious splashes of supremacy. Take the overwhelming Colorado vs. BYU Cougars game back in December, where they handled the Heisman trophy winner, Travis Hunter, to clinch the win in the Alamo Bowl in a spectacular fashion.
However, the highlight of their season still seems to be their high-flying traditional rivalry against Utah, where the Cougars toppled the opponent by one point. Guess what? Pretty soon, the Cougars will have to put their mojo on the line again, and it would be a jackpot for the channels involved.
BYU-Utah is all set to bring back their high-octane rivalry
The Big 12 released the 2025 football schedule Tuesday morning, spelling out every BYU matchup. Perhaps the most head-turning aspect of the Cougars’ schedule is the rivalry game against Utah. The holy war is far from holy, engaging the highest amount of passion, love, dedication, and the intense air of commitment.
In the second year of the 16-team introduction, BYU is fixed to host the Utes on Oct. 18 at LaVell Edwards Stadium—quite early in comparison with the history of this rivalry. “It is a game that could stand alone and garner massive viewership because people care about BYU and Utah. They know the name of the holy war. There isn’t some big flamboyant trophy that is touted with this one; they didn’t have to do that with other rivalries,” said Drake C. Toll of the Locked on Big 12 podcast during his appearance on the College Football Addiction podcast.
Well, we all know about the rivalry weekend in college football. Towards the end of the regular season, you see heated rivalries. Teams who despise each other enter the field with a singular motive: destroy their rival. Just a few months back, during the last rivalry weekend, we had the flag hoisting incidents throughout college football. Of course, the famous one is the Michigan Wolverines planting their flag on the field of the Ohio State Buckeyes after embarrassing Ryan Day’s team for the 4th straight time. However, as you can see, this rivalry game is in the middle of October—weeks before teams even begin to think about the rivalry weekend.
A Holy War to go down in history as BYU comes back late to remain undefeated
#9 BYU vs. Utah Game Highlights#GoCougs | #Big12FB pic.twitter.com/QpC8oUCOYR
— Big 12 Studios (@big12studios) November 10, 2024
Host TJ Pittinger talked about the matchup, saying, ”I should say they do with this; it’s just good old-fashioned faith-based hate, and what the Big 12 didn’t do is try to put that on the marquee slate of college football next to Alabama and Auburn. What they didn’t do is try to put this game next to an Ole Miss at a Mississippi State or a budding rivalry like an Arkansas and Missouri or an LSU and a Texas A&M on a Friday night or on that Saturday.”
How did it get going in the first place?
The Holy War: the lost origin of the name and significance
The Provo-based franchise also ties their Salt Lake City game for several days for the longest win streak. BYU clinched a full-fledged nine-game winning streak from 1979 to 1987, while Utah put together nine-game win streaks from 1929 to 1937 and 2010 to 2019.
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