that rational, sober people would not do those things.

You'll have to tell me why they are insecure, but their actions seem to demonstrate it.

I can only speak for those outside of Utah and will describe some more benign behavior that I have noticed. You'll only get it if you are LDS, though.

I've lived in several different cities not in Utah and whenever I have close contact with Ute fans, many of them demonstrate a high level of insecurity. For example, a member of my stake presidency sets me apart for a calling, then notices my daughter sitting there with a BYU fleece blanket (if you are LDS you'll know that church buildings have notoriously poor A/C balance), so he says "look at this!" and pulls out his UofU pen that has the drum and feather on it and sticks it in my daugher's face. My daughter has no idea what it is. Why does a man in that position (in Texas) feel the need to do such a thing? I found it highly inappropriate, especially given the setting.

Or a Ute fan Elders Quorum President who, upon hearing the introduction of a young, newly moved-in quorum member mentioning he graduated from BYU, insults the new member by saying "Oh, I'm sorry you couldn't go to a real school. We forgive you". His kid is even worse, making fun of BYU in his AP Quorum to other kids who probably couldn't care less.

Or the high councilor Ute fan in New Mexico, when giving instruction to a group of stake priesthood holders, somehow gets off topic and starts viciously bashing BYU.

Or the new move-in giving his first sacrament talk saying how great the U is comapred to "cough, cough" other schools (while the BYU grads in the same scenario may mention that they went to BYU, but don't ever seek to build up BYU or denigrate the U or any other school for that matter).

I can honestly say that in 25 years as an adult outside of Utah, I have seen this pattern over and over, but I have never heard the same kind of reciprocal behavior from BYU fans. And these Utes are otherwise very good people. I do not understand their defensive attitude.

So, if it is not insecurity over their status as a Utah grad when dealing with BYU grads, what is it?