Unbeaten Utah Hosts BYU In A Holy War That Could Shape The Big 12 Title Race

A Holy War starting in the breakfast hour is going to set the stage for a furious finish in the Big 12.

No. 3 Utah hosts No. 7 BYU in what should go a long way toward determining a spot in the Dec. 4 conference championship game in Arlington, Texas.

The tight league race will come down to whether the Utes (8-0, 5-0 Big 12) can hold onto their first-place perch with second-place BYU and No. 13 Texas Tech lurking. 

The Cougars and Red Raiders both are 7-1 and 4-1 in the conference, and another loss could jeopardize their chances of playing for a title and making the 12-team College Football Playoff. 

Texas Tech does not play BYU or Utah during the regular season.

Neither Utah nor BYU has won a Big 12 title. BYU lost in the championship game last year to Texas Tech, which became the league’s lone playoff representative.

The Utes and Cougars will kick off at 10 a.m. local time at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City to accommodate a noon time slot for television on the East Coast.

“Early, 10 a.m.,” Utah coach Morgan Scalley said. “But I know our fans are juiced and fired up and they’ll be there early and excited for this one.”

BYU coach Kalani Sitake tried to play nice about having to roll out of bed for the early start.

“It’s a little bit different,” he said, adding there’s no doubt his players will be ready. “The guys are really focused. There’s more energy and more effort towards the preparation for this game than ever before.”

BYU has won three straight in the series that Utah dominated with nine consecutive wins before that. Utah quarterback Devon Dampier said he couldn’t go anywhere the entire offseason without hearing about the rivalry.

“I understand what this means to the state, for sure,” he said.

Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire plans to pay attention to his television set, first when the initial playoff rankings come out Tuesday night, then on other games that will have playoff implications. The Red Raiders host West Virginia on Saturday night.

“Yeah, I’ll be tuned in. It’s going to be really interesting,” McGuire said. “And then it’s going be really interesting, like, as a college football fan and then a guy that’s tracking everything right now. This weekend is huge for a lot of football teams.”

The Big 12 is the only Power 4 conference never to have multiple teams in the playoff.

McGuire expects the Red Raiders to start out in the initial playoff ranking around where they are in the AP Top 25 poll, “which is good — striking distance,” he said Monday. They’ll need to finish in the top 11 because the 12th spot will go to the highest-ranked Group of Six team, which currently is No. 20 Boise State.

He points to SEC matchups including No. 2 Georgia at No. 12 Mississippi, and No. 9 Alabama at No. 15 LSU. Then there’s No. 11 Ohio State, minus quarterback Julian Sayin, hosting Oregon and top-ranked Miami traveling to No. 4 Notre Dame. McGuire said this week “is probably as big of a Saturday as we’ve seen in college football in a long time.”

Utah can count on a high ranking as one of three remaining unbeaten teams along with Miami and No. 5 UCLA. Scalley went into a two-minute explanation promising that his team won’t get caught up in the CFP hype.

“I’m pretty confident in our guys that they’re not going to look beyond this week,” he said.

Scalley and Sitake are coaching at their alma maters and several members of their staffs coached or played at the other school. Sitake was a fullback under BYU coach Lavelle Edwards. Scalley was a safety and punt returner for the Utes.

They worked together on the staff of Utah coach Kyle Whittingham when Sitake was the defensive coordinator and Scalley the safeties coach. Sitake left in 2015 to become defensive coordinator at Oregon State, then was named BYU’s coach in 2016. 

Scalley became Utah’s defensive coordinator in 2016 and replaced Whittingham, who stepped down last December after compiling a school-record 177 wins, then was hired two weeks later at Michigan.

Scalley and Sitake are close friends. Before the season they had dinner together along with Utah State coach Bronco Mendenhall, a former BYU coach.

Scalley said Sitake is “the ultimate competitor. Respect him so much as a human for the good that he does, the good that he is.”

Sitake recalled that he and Scalley believed during their time at Utah that they could be head coaches someday, “but I don’t know if we saw this happening where he’s coaching his alma mater and I’m with my alma mater.”

Two weeks ago, Texas Tech, BYU and Utah all were 6-0. BYU lost at UCF in double overtime the same day that Texas Tech fell on the road at Cincinnati. Texas Tech rebounded to beat No. 24 Arizona last Saturday while BYU beat Arizona State.

Utah has won 14 straight, the longest active streak in the FBS. The Utes’ schedule is considerably tougher over the final month of the season after outscoring their first eight opponents 311-127, including last week’s lopsided win at Cincinnati. 

Utah also plays at Arizona and TCU, then finishes the regular season at home against West Virginia.

BYU has games remaining against Baylor and Cincinnati sandwiched around a road contest at Kansas. Texas Tech has road games at Oklahoma State and Baylor, then hosts TCU to finish the regular season.

The four teams tied for third place with two league losses, Arizona, Baylor, No. 17 Houston  and Oklahoma State, haven’t been mathematically eliminated but need collapses by the teams above them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.