Rocky Steele of the BYU News net throws out some interesting facts:

Things were pretty smooth for the Utes, until BYU hired a bright young coach named LaVell Edwards in 1972. Since then it has been almost all BYU, with 25 wins for the Cougars and just 11 wins for Utah. And that doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story.

The following facts should help clear up any misunderstandings.

BYU has won 21 conference championships since 1974, (’74, ’76, ’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’83, ’84, ’85, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ’93, ’95, ’96, ’99, ’01, ’06, ’07) as well as two division championships in the old WAC (’96, ’98).

Utah has won four conference championships in that span (’95, ’99, ’03, ’04), and no division championships (one less total championship than the ‘Pokes of Wyoming).

BYU has had a top three finisher in the Heisman race seven times since 1979 (Marc Wilson 1979, 3rd; Jim McMahon 1981, 3rd; Steve Young 1983, 2nd; Robbie Bosco 1984, 3rd; Robbie Bosco 1985, 3rd; Ty Detmer 1990, 1st; Ty Detmer 1991, 3rd).

The University of Utah has had no player finish in the top three of Heisman balloting in history.

BYU has had nine players win major awards since 1981. The list includes four Davey O’Brien awards, two Out-land Trophies, one Doak Walker, one Heisman Trophy, and one Maxwell award.

The University of Utah has never had a player win a major award (Utah State has one more major award than the Utes — Merlin Olsen won the Outland Trophy in 1961).

BYU has 15 top 25 finishes since 1977 — nearly once every two years for the last three decades.

Utah has finished ranked just three times in that time frame, and only four times in history.

Now with that Mouth full being said I’m not saying that Utah wasn’t a good team back in the day, and I’m not saying that football wasn’t football. What I am saying on the other hand is, If the Utes want to take this thing to the books and prove who is the better football team rather then proving it on the field let’s do it.

Just from those numbers alone, in the better half of the modern football history as we know it, the cougars have not only dominated the Holy War, they have dominated both the WAC and the MWC, that BYU has been apart of. Now I know that I’m going to get quite a backlash of people saying that nobody wants to prove this thing on paper, and that all BYU fans do is live in the so call “GLORY DAYS” but hey . . . at least we have “GLORY DAYS”

The major reasoning for me bringing this up is the stupid comments that I have seen of late from Ute fans saying that BYU hasn’t produced anything good in a really long time. Well guess what Ute fans all you have is 2004 with Urban Myer, who hasn’t been here since 2004. For Utah fans to say that they have this one in the bag, and the they are the better team this year they have overlooked the last 3 years, including this one which we have 90% of our returning offensive starters from last year who beat you.

Everything aside this years Holy War is for all the marbles. This is by far the most important game that BYU and Utah have been ivolved in, for quite some time. Of course the win for both teams is very important because of what it means for the team and for the rivalry, but there is also a conference championship on the line, as well as a possible BCS birth for both teams with other losses happening around the country. All I have to say at this point is, I don’t think that either team has BCS on the mind right now, the important thing is coming out of Saturday’s game with a win.

Go Cougars Bring home the Mountain West title!

My wife cannot stand that I make a big deal out of this but . . . I do. Call it whatever you want but when it comes down to it something in my mind will not let me wear red. On Halloween It took everything possible to get myself to wear the stupid costume for work, but that was to spite the Utah fans so it wasn’t so bad. I was talking to a colleague and he was telling me that his little 4 year old refuses to wear his RED underwear, and also exclaimed that he did not want Santa Clause to come this year, because he wants a BLUE Santa not a RED one. The funny part about that is, he picked that up all on his own. Of course he had a little help from family being BYU fans, but it also helps that he has some Ute fans as cousins who terrorize him all the time so it is pretty safe to say that he is gaining that Ute callus already, and will probably not eat off any RED plates when he is older either.

As we all know the last couple of years the Games have been really close, and have come down to the wire, and in 2006 the last second of the game. I think that it is pretty safe to say that this game is going to be a good one this year, having seen all the games that have been played by both teams. The beautiful thing about this game is that neither team has to do anything to get each other pumped up for the meeting, it just comes with the territory. Starting the second that you realize “This is the week” it is a non stop adrenaline pumping feeling that continues all the way through the game.

Rivalry week can get pretty crazy as we all know with stupid fans feeling like they need to go and vandalize each others property. I will never forget the year that Yewts painted the big red “U” on top of the “Y” on Y Mountain. I just remember seeing it then waking up to the daily herald with the picture of the RED “U”

Of course this thing can be taken to extremes, just like the terrible tragedy that happened after the LSU-Alabama game, but it can also be a lot of fun to get each other all riled up and excited to see the outcome of the game, for the bragging rights for another year. So just keep the trash talk going here you go YEWT fans.