Utah 3 BYU 0: The Day Utah Football Grew Up

Nov 2, 2013; West Lafayette, IN, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer in the first half against the Purdue Boilermakers at Ross Ade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports

First let me give a shout out to my partner in crime Raider Ute for pointing out that today 11/22/13 was the anniversary of this game.

Utah 3 – BYU  0 in a game that was an ass kicking worthy of a 50-0 game

Utah won it’s first conference title in a half century and Essentially that day was the day Utah football grew up.

ESPN recently wrote about the Utes and our injury issues.  I continued my own thoughts on the subject here.  Part of the point that I’ve been making and Ted Miller at ESPN made.  That Utah fans are nuts to be so very pissed off at Kyle Whittingham right now.  And part of it is because they’ve lost perspective.

Urban coming to Utah was 10 years ago.  So much of our growing fan base either doesn’t know or has forgotten what it was like under Ron McBride.  And Ron McBride was Nick Saban compared to the previous 50 years of Utah football.  The name Tom Lovat should horrify you.

As for the game itself, well it was remarkable.  It was played in a blizzard and the aftermath of a blizzard.  Utah scored 3 points on a Brian Borreson field goal and that would be two more points than we needed.  BYU would drive into Utah territory just one time that day.  The Utes could have added a glory touchdown at the end, but somehow kneeling at the 10 yard line really put the sweet sweet icing on this victory.

The symbol of this victory was even sweeter.  Urban Meyer had taken the first step in dragging the Utah Athletic Department and fanbase kicking and screaming towards what it could really become.  Don’t forget, a year earlier, Gordon Monson chastised the U saying we couldn’t get someone as good as Ron McBride.  He also essentially said that we could never be a serious football program and that we can never have nice things.  The sad thing was, I think far too many Utes thought the same way.

And it set the table for 2004.  Not to mention, it ended this never being shut out streak that BYU had going and their fans wouldn’t stop talking about.

If you want to read more about the game, here is a great blog Raider Ute found.  Although I would disagree with him wildly on the ranking of the top 20 games in Ute history. (Topics for summer Thursday’s With Raider)

So enjoy your little slice of Ute History