Utah vs. BYU, Las Vegas Bowl 2015: Utes survive Cougar comeback effort in Holy War

The question came up during nearly every conversation.

“Who are you rooting for, BYU or Utah?”

Including a delightful Celebration Bowl between NC A&T and Alcorn State — a 41-34 A&T win — there were eight return touchdowns (three punt returns, a kick return, three interception returns, and a fumble return) and 10 touchdowns on gains of 30-plus yards in Saturday’s six bowls.

Eighteen touchdowns via defense, special teams, or huge gainer, combining to gain 1,082 yards. Are you not entertained?

On the 35th anniversary of BYU’s greatest comeback victory, the Cougars spotted archrival Utah 35 points and nearly pulled off something even more memorable.

A blind look at the box score or a viewing of the game’s final three quarters would actually lead one to believe BYU dominated in Bronco Mendenhall’s last game before becoming Virginia’s head coach. It’s true; the Utes had about half the Cougars’ yardage for the entire game, finishing with a 387-198 deficit.

Via ABC

Utah punter Tom Hackett said a mere week ago while being named the country’s best punter that he plays the position because he doesn’t like to run. And yet here he is, running well and catching archrival BYU slipping in the Las Vegas Bowl while up 35-14.

In head coach Bronco Mendenhall’s final game before leaving for Virginia, BYU got off to a rotten start against archrival Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl. Look at this crap, via ESPN.com:

That was followed by a missed field goal and some punts and stuff.

HE WENT THERE! BRENT WENT THERE! He’s not wrong. Utah isn’t just beating BYU, this is a potentially historic butt whooping. The first quarter just ended and it’s 35-0. This is the kind of game that would drive you to drink -- but Mormons aren’t supposed to drink, unfortunately.

At least they’re in Las Vegas. They can get over this game with a hand of poker or perhaps a round at the slots. Oh ... wait.

Bronco Mendenhall has one last chance to break his recent losing streak against Utah, and it will happen in Sin City.

The Holy War showdown between BYU and No. 22 Utah wasn’t supposed to take place in 2015, but a pair of 9-3 records just happened to move that game to the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 19. These two teams had faced each other every year between 1946 and 2013 before a two-year hiatus put their in-state hate on hold.

Utah punter Tom Hackett is one of college football’s most interesting men. It’s been a busy year for him between losing his prize Subaru “Basil” and telling the world “deep down he’s fat” after winning the Ray Guy award. Now he’s ready to stir up even more trouble ahead of the Sin City Holy War.

Lets make something super clear here, because people will get worked up about it: The term “bastard” in Australia is a lot softer and more jokey than it tends to be in the USA. While it can be used angrily, it’s also the kind of term you endearingly use towards your friends -- “Did you hear Bill won $200 on a scratch lottery ticket? The bastard.” Or “Those bastards at the post office took too long to sell me stamps.”

It isn’t often that the Las Vegas Bowl is one of the most exciting games of the bowl season, but this year, it’s going to be must-see TV, and it’s already a hot ticket -- the game sold out in under 22 hours. That makes sense, as it matches longtime rivals Utah and BYU, who haven’t played since 2013. The Utes and the Cougars used to meet every year as Mountain West members, but now that Utah is in the Pac-12 and BYU is independent, they don’t play.

And in this Holy War, both teams are facing some interesting circumstances. The most interesting is that this will be Bronco Mendenhall’s last game as BYU’s coach. Mendenhall has accepted the head coaching job at Virginia, but he wanted to coach this final game. The Cougars won at Nebraska and against Boise State to start the season, but they’ve tripped up without quarterback Taysom Hill. However, Tanner Mangum has proven to be a legitimate backup in a 9-3 season.

That’s Utah senior defensive tackle Seni Fauonuku at a Las Vegas Bowl event, telling BYU players “y’all a good team, but you’re a dirty team.” “Don’t start nothing, won’t be nothing,” he advised.

Fauonuku is referring to the Cougars’ knack for being caught on camera doing things like punching opponents in the delicates and last year’s bowl brawl with Memphis and track record of large penalty counts. (I’m not calling BYU dirty. All football teams are by definition dirty. The amount of dirt piled atop the required level can be difficult to gauge. But no one in Provo can deny this team has been proficient at raising unique awareness of its dirt.)

When you create a mid-tier bowl like the Las Vegas Bowl, with solid conference ties but little hope of ever hosting a top-10 team, you hope for exactly this: A game between two historical rivals who don’t have far to drive. This year’s Vegas Bowl sold out in approximately eight seconds and will end up ensuring we only had a one-season gap without a Holy War between BYU and Utah.

When a coach leaves for another job, there are frequently some hurt feelings to work through. This goes double if the job he’s leaving for isn’t a clear step up.

The Holy War is moving west. No. 22 Utah will try to earn a fifth straight victory over rival BYU when these two teams meet in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 19. So far, the odds are in their favor.

At the halfway point of the season, the Utes were a top five team. Despite a 3-3 finish, they hold wins over No. 14 Michigan and No. 15 Oregon. BYU, conversely, needed a Hail Mary to beat 5-7 Nebraska and lost to a Missouri team that ranked 126th out of 127 FBS teams in scoring offense. It’s no surprise that ESPN, the oddsmakers at Oddshark and all but one of SB Nation’s college football writers are choosing the Utes to win this one.

BYU and Utah will be facing off in the Las Vegas Bowl next weekend. This gives everybody a chance to watch one of college football’s most intense rivalries in a special setting.

The bad news is that it’s probably going to spawn a bunch of terrible jokes about how weird it is that a bunch of Mormons are going to Las Vegas.

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Once upon a time the California Raisin Bowl packed up and headed to Las Vegas, and in 1991, the Las Vegas Bowl was born. It has had a revolving door of title sponsors in the more than two decades since the move, but 2015 will be the third year of the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl.

For three consecutive years, the Las Vegas Bowl featured the Boise State Broncos beating up on Pac-12 teams and the BYU Broncos winning in three of the four years before that, but in the last two years, UCLA and Utah reversed the trend with big wins over Mountain West opponents.

Virginia has hired BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall to replace Mike London, the school announced Friday. The news comes as a significant shock. A few names had been mentioned as potential replacements for London, including Cal HC Sonny Dykes and former Rutgers HC Greg Schiano, but Mendenhall has no apparent ties to the region or the East Coast in general.

The move comes directly after two other high-profile hirings in the division. Miami hired former Georgia HC Mark Richt, while Virginia Tech hired Memphis HC Justin Fuente. That gives the Virginia-Virginia Tech game some extra flavor, as Mendenhall’s BYU and Fuente’s Memphis brawled at the Miami Beach Bowl in 2014.