I remember 2011 so vividly. In 2010, we felt robbed, Brandon's knee was down. Should have been our game. Jake Heaps looked awesome in that game. We had a great recruiting class in 2010 and we were gonna be good in 2011.

Yet, the Utes were on their way to the Pac-12, and we all felt sad--they were about to get a windfall in cash, recruits and sour patch kids that was going to for sure tip the recruiting advantage FURTHER to the Utes. Not cool. Spurned. We didn't deserve to be left out, and yeah, they had done some great things in the 2000's but BYU was pretty ok too!

I just moved to Utah for a new job, around the time of the 2010 game, and I met my first really annoying Utah fans. I didn't really care about Utah losing until I met them--the worst. At the time I labeled them "the most insecure people I ever met." On my commute, I sometimes listened to 1280 the zone, and quickly stopped, because of how annoying it was a fully invested, brand new BYU season-ticket holder. I was pretty sure BYU would stomp and I engaged in all the smack-talk, and there were receipts.

I believe that BYU was a a 3-point favorite going into the game. Yeah, we had concerns about Jake's toughness in the Ole' Miss game. Our offense was not looking that great, but we were pretty confident we were gonna destroy Utah. Then we saw the worst football play ever, the fumble touchdown in the end zone, the Defense flashing the stupid U in the end zone. We just kept giving them the ball, drive after drive. I went through every stage of grief in that game. Lugubrious.

The week after 54-10, the idiot Utah fans proceeded to be loud for the remainder of my time knowing them. They made bright-red "Stay Down: 54-10" t-shirts and put them on my desk--they didn't even really know me. These were people that were picked on when BYU was in its Glory Days, went to Utah because they got rejected by BYU, or whatever. These were really hurt people.

I was able to flush it down the toilet and enjoy the rest of the season. The next home game against UCF had a crappy feeling at the beginning, but it was gone once it started moving.

Literally, when Utes would be annoying, I would give them all sorts of attention and say how cool they were, and it kinda took the wind out of their sails and they would eventually realized after weeks that they were being terrible people. Around me they would shift and actually become good people to be around.

I decided, that it wouldn't always be like this, that BYU would be good again and Utes would have some similar struggles at some point. I just didn't want to be like them when the tides shifted.

All this is to say, hating crappy behavior is fine. So, don't be crappy. You have little impact on the outcome of the game so don't be dumb. There are really good people on both sides. We all know that objectively, the Utes can totally take out the Cougs if their defense plays perfect and the offense plays ok.

I believe this staff will have the boys ready, and they are plenty motivated to play their best ball and win. I love the Cougs in this matchup.