IN SEPTEMBER 2023, Colorado football coach Deion Sanders could have been licking his wounds in the immediate aftermath of a 42-6 thrashing at the hands of the Oregon Ducks.

Instead, he sat down in the postgame news conference at Autzen Stadium completely unbothered.

“One thing I can say honestly and candidly: You better get me right now,” Sanders said. “This is the worst we’re going to be. You better get me right now.”

Despite the Buffaloes’ 3-0 start, this was an admission from Sanders. He knew his team wasn’t ready to compete with the better teams in college football.

But it was also a warning.

“I know I got on shades,” he said. “But I can see the future, and it looks real good.”

As the season wore on and Colorado limped to a last-place finish in the Pac-12, it was fair to question how realistic Sanders’ early-season proclamation was. The offensive line couldn’t keep his son, quarterback Shedeur Sanders, upright, and the defense allowed the third-most points among all Power 5 teams.

An offseason of staff changes and roster turnover didn’t do much to positively impact external expectations as the Buffaloes were projected to come in 11th place in the official preseason Big 12 media poll.

But on the same day the poll was released, Sanders sat with ESPN and snickered at that possibility.

“I’d be an idiot to sit over here and not tell you we plan on winning,” he said. “I don’t know who sits down and says they don’t plan on winning. You got to be an idiot to say that. We definitely plan on winning.”

Ahead of Saturday’s trip to Texas Tech, Sanders’ plan has come to fruition, and his spiel in Eugene from last season comes off almost prophetic.

With an improved offensive line and a reliable defense, the Buffs are not only much improved from a year ago, they’re in the thick of the race for the Big 12 title and the College Football Playoff berth that would come with it.

WHEN SANDERS HIRED Robert Livingston to be the defensive coordinator in February, it was a bit of an unorthodox move.

Though Livingston had spent the past 12 years with the Cincinnati Bengals — the past eight coaching the secondary — he had never called plays before. And here he was joining a staff that was otherwise complete and just happened to have two of the best defensive players in the history of the sport — Sanders and Warren Sapp — in the building.

With all the attention on Colorado, this would be a new level of pressure, and early in the second quarter of Colorado’s opener against FCS North Dakota State, Livingston was already feeling it.

“I thought I might get tar and feathered,” Livingston said. “It was 17-14, North Dakota State, and I’m like, ‘Oh, s—.'”

The defense settled down, and Colorado won 31-26, but it wasn’t exactly the statement victory Colorado wanted, as the same flaws from last season were on display. In the first half against Nebraska the next week, it was more of the same as the Buffs trailed 28-0 at halftime.

Here we go again.

Since then, however, Colorado has been a revelation, winning five of six — narrowly losing to No. 19 Kansas State — with the defensive improvement serving as the catalyst.

After allowing 34.8 points per game last year, that number has dropped to 22.0 this year.

Livingston had several conversations with Sanders throughout the interview process, including calls, video conferences with the staff and an in-person visit. He wasn’t exactly targeting a return to the college game after last serving as a quality control coach at Vanderbilt in 2011, but it quickly became clear Sanders was the right person, Boulder was the right place, and the opportunity to serve as the defensive coordinator was too good to pass up.

“I fell in love with the place,” Livingston said. “It was a no-brainer for me.”

Livingston said he adopted the philosophy Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon took when he was hired as the defensive coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2021. He wasn’t coming in set on running a specific scheme. First, he wanted to understand the roster and then build a style to play to the strengths.

“It wasn’t going to be, ‘Hey, we got to do it this way, because this is the way I’ve always done it,'” Livingston said. “That’s lazy. That has always been a pet peeve of mine.

“You have to be able to ask the hard questions of, ‘Why are we doing it this way? Why are we teaching it this way? Why are we playing this coverage or this blitz?’ You have to be able to highlight the guys you want to highlight.”

For the Buffs, that starts with Travis Hunter.

His two-way prowess makes him one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy, but it was at cornerback where he first made his mark on college football. He leads the team in interceptions (2) and pass breakups (7), and he is one of five players to have forced a fumble.

“Travis is a unicorn,” Livingston said. “His feel for the game is very unique. He can kind of sense the problems coming two series away. He’s obviously one of the best players, if not the best player, in the country.”

Livingston said the ability of Hunter and DJ McKinney to hold up in man coverage has been a key for the defense’s pass rush.

“We’ve put those corners in some tough spots,” Livingston said. “It’s a testament to them that they can win their one-on-one matchups, because when the rush and coverage aren’t working together, then explosive plays happen.”

While coverage and pass rush stats have a chicken-or-egg dynamic to them, it’s worth noting Colorado ranks No. 2 in the Big 12 in sacks (22), No. 1 in QB pressures per game (14.88) and No. 3 in pass breakups per game (4). Its tackling percentage (85.4%) is up five percentage points from a year ago. Everything has trended better as the season has progressed.

NO FBS QUARTERBACK was sacked more than Shedeur Sanders a year ago. He was dropped 52 times in 11 games, eventually sitting out the final game of the season with an injury after taking a beating over the previous three months.

The pass protection was historically bad, and the rushing offense might have been worse. Colorado averaged just 2.21 yards per carry — the fourth-worst mark by a Power 5 team over the previous decade — which led to the demotion of offensive coordinator Sean Lewis, who was later hired as the head coach at San Diego State.

It was obvious to anyone who watched that an overhaul was required up front, and Coach Prime made it clear they would aggressively pursue linemen who could play right away in 2024. But as the season ended and that process played out, he also needed to find a new offensive line coach with Bill O’Boyle moving on with Lewis.

His preference for coaches with a professional pedigree led him to Norman, Oklahoma, where Phil Loadholt, a 7-year NFL veteran, was at his alma mater working as an offensive analyst.

“We got introduced through a mutual friend, and he asked if I was down to interview through Zoom,” Loadholt told ESPN. “But he was down at his place in Texas, so I told him I’d like to meet with him face-to-face.”

Coach Prime agreed, so Loadholt made the 2½-hour drive across state lines. They met for a couple hours, and it was a natural fit from the start.

With Pat Shurmur having been named the offensive coordinator, Loadholt came in with a strong understanding of the offense. The two briefly crossed paths with the Minnesota Vikings in 2015 — they spent OTAs together prior to Loadholt’s retirement that summer — but more importantly, they came from similar schools of offense.

“He comes from the same tree of a lot of guys I played for,” Loadholt said. “I feel like I have a great understanding of what he wants and how he wants to do it. There’s familiarity with that NFL style, and that made the transition a lot smoother for me, because even though we weren’t together long, we still speak the same language when it comes to offense.”

When Loadholt signed on, Colorado was all-in on rebuilding its offensive line through the portal. The prevailing wisdom was that was where they would find players ready to play from Day 1, and by the time the season opened, Colorado added 12 new offensive linemen, including nine transfers.

Through eight games, the results have been mixed. Shedeur Sanders has been sacked 25 times — only four FBS players have been sacked more — but the protection has improved throughout the year.

And for all the time spent adding players through the portal, those players haven’t been the ones to make the biggest impact.

Of the players on the five-man line combination the Buffaloes have used the most this season, only Phillip Houston arrived via the transfer portal — from Florida International Panthers — in the offseason.

Three others — RG Kareem Harden, LG Tyler Brown and C Hank Zilinskas — were on Colorado’s roster last season, while perhaps the best is five-star true freshman left tackle Jordan Seaton. UTEP transfer Mayers and Indiana transfer Kahlil Benson have also seen extensive playing time as Loadholt has searched for the best combination, rotating as many as eight players in a game. In the last game against Cincinnati, seven offensive linemen played at least 31 snaps.

Against Arizona, eight linemen played at least 19 snaps.

More than anything, Loadholt said, the first eight games have been a quasi trust-building exercise. He needed to learn what players he could trust, and they needed to build trust with each other and with their quarterback.

“I played with a Heisman Trophy quarterback [Sam Bradford at Oklahoma in 2008] and [Shedeur] is one of those types of guys,” Loadholt said. “If we can protect him and that trust is there, he’ll make us right.”

Before coming to Colorado, Loadholt met Seaton on a visit to Oklahoma. What stood out then has remained true this year.

“It was his attention to detail and the way he went about his business,” Loadholt said. “And then it shows up in our room, too. He’s the first guy to answer a question. He asks questions when he wants. He’s not scared to ask questions, he’s the first guy to answer you, he puts in the work outside of here, which has obviously been helping him out.

“He’s definitely wise beyond his years. He’s an intelligent young man who works his ass off, and I’m proud of him for how he’s been playing so far.”

Since allowing two sacks against Nebraska in Week 2, Seaton has allowed just one sack and two QB hits, according to Pro Football Focus.

The running game has been a work in progress, too. Only Florida State (2.67) is averaging fewer yards per carry than Colorado (2.77) among Power 4 teams, but the Buffaloes have more 100-yard rushing games over the past four games (3) than they did last season (2).

The gains are marginal, but they’ve made a difference, and that incremental improvement combined with the preexisting star power has legitimized the Buffs in a way that cannot be disputed.

Colorado is no longer a team that can be accused of “fighting for clicks.”

As MLB’s free agency officially opened this week, baseball’s top executives gathered in San Antonio for the annual general manager meetings, offering the first opportunity to hear front offices discuss their offseason goals.

From teams coming off deep October runs to clubs at a crossroads, we checked in with some of this winter’s most intriguing teams for insight on their hot stove priorities.

Teams fresh off a playoff appearance

Detroit Tigers: Harris aiming to raise bar after unexpected October success

After a playoff run nobody saw coming, the Tigers are in a strong position entering the offseason. Given the performance of their young core, they plan to continue to build from within but also have the opportunity to add from outside the organization this offseason.

In a subtle twist from the usual executive talk that “every team has a budget,” president of baseball operations Scott Harris indicated Detroit does things a little differently.

“We don’t go into an offseason with a firm floor or ceiling that we have to get to no matter what,” Harris said about his payroll. “We just go into the offseason trying to get better. I know Chris [Ilitch] is going to support us if we find compelling opportunities to get better that cost money — we’re going to do it.”

The Ilitches were big spenders while Chris’ dad, Mike, ran the team. The baseball world should find out in the coming years — as the Tigers keep growing — if Chris has the same propensity for high payrolls. In the meantime, Harris has been delivering a message to his team after a successful season.

“The message I’ve been sharing is we have to hold two thoughts at the same time … we can be proud of what we just did … but that second thought is we have to stay very hungry. We have to raise the bar for all of us. The beauty of a young team is it gets better.”

Milwaukee Brewers: Arnold preparing for possibility of life after Adames

General manager Matt Arnold was asked how his team will replace the production it received from shortstop Willy Adames, who had a career year and is now likely to leave via free agency because of the nine-figure payday he is projected to get this offseason.

“Really tough,” Arnold said. “Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz were fantastic. However we want to stagger those types of guys, I think we have depth there. They can cover us up the middle.”

While leaning on two young players already excelling in the organization is in line with how the Brewers often operate, a dip into free agency for a shortstop isn’t out of the question. Could that mean an unexpected reunion with Adames?

“We’ve always had support from ownership to do that, whether that’s the [Jackson] Chourio or [Christian] Yelich extension. [Owner Mark Attanasio] is case specific.”

Despite that support, it might be a tougher road to climb with Adames, as industry sources believe he’ll move on from the Brewers this winter.

New York Mets: Will Stearns land Soto or Alonso? Maybe. Starting pitching? Yes.

As expected, Mets GM David Stearns wouldn’t talk much about specific free agents, including Juan Soto and Pete Alonso, but he did acknowledge that he is in a different space this winter after joining an organization with money to spend on payroll compared with his time with the small-market Brewers.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Stearns said. “I think whenever you have access to every tier of agency and every tier available player, that’s a tremendous opportunity and it opens up doors and we have to decide which door to walk through or which doors to walk through at times.”

Whether the Mets will sign Soto or bring back Alonso — or both — will likely be the most talked-about topics surrounding the team this winter, but building up the starting rotation might be Stearns’ biggest need to address this offseason.

In a year that began with rotation uncertainty after the Mets had traded away Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at the 2023 trade deadline, New York found success in targeting veterans on short-term contracts last winter. With Sean Manaea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana all free agents this winter, the Mets have several spots to build and multiple paths to doing so. While it’s too early to know which direction they will go, there is no doubt New York will be busy adding starters this winter.

“Starting pitching is certainly a priority for us,” Stearns said. “We have three free agent starting pitchers combine for a lot of starts, a lot of endings for us.”

New York Yankees: Cashman isn’t deterred by Game 5 meltdown

As GM Brian Cashman starts an offseason in which the focus will be on courting Juan Soto to return to New York, he’s still dealing with the aftermath of a poorly played World Series that culminated with the defense unraveling in the fifth inning of Game 5. During the GM meetings, he was asked to address the team’s issues in the field and on the bases.

“I think some of it is inherent to certain players that we have,” he said. “I know the big fifth inning that people obviously can point to. Those players are pretty fundamentally buttoned up, but sometimes you have consistently good players make mistakes that exacerbate other circumstances.

“This team obviously wasn’t the best defensive team that we’ve had, and this team also had obviously made some baserunning mistakes, but the Game 5 situation was involving players that ultimately are really, really good and consistent in what they do. Whether it be a Gold Glove at shortstop or typically high-end defender at first or the ace of our mound, Gerrit Cole, that’s as good of a baseball mind as they come. And Aaron Judge catches a fly ball a billion times out of a billion.”

Despite the frustration from the fan base about New York’s World Series disappointment, it is expected that manager Aaron Boone’s contract option will be picked up soon — and he could be in line for an extension as well, especially if the Yankees want to avoid him managing with another potential expiring contract next season.

Philadelphia Phillies: Division series exit has Dombrowski searching for answers

It’s not exactly a full panic in Philadelphia after the Phillies’ early exit at the hands of the division-rival Mets, but president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski isn’t using the notion that anything can happen in the playoffs to rationalize his team’s loss in the division round. He’s digging deeper, and it could lead to a busy offseason for the NL East champs.

“I never look at it as it’s just what happens in the playoffs,” Dombrowski said. “Other people say that. In our situation, we didn’t swing the bats very well as a club, and our bullpen didn’t pitch as well. I really don’t know why our pen didn’t pitch well. They were so efficient all year long. You scrutinize those things for sure.”

Dombrowski wouldn’t comment on Bryce Harper‘s desire, via agent Scott Boras, to possibly extend his contract a few more years to bring him to retirement. Harper still has seven years left on a 13-year, $330 million contract he signed before the 2020 season.

“Bryce wants to set up a platform where he can achieve all of his goals, long term in Philadelphia,” Boras said at the meetings. “Certainly, other owners have done this with players of his ilk. That’s his objective.”

Dombrowski responded: “I never really discuss contract situations.”

San Diego Padres: Preller enters offseason eyeing starting rotation depth

Padres president of baseball operations AJ Preller had a bit softer view than Dombrowski regarding his team’s division series loss.

“We felt like we had a team that could win the World Series,” Preller said at the meetings. “It’s not every year you can look up and feel that way. We were up 2-1 [on the Dodgers] and the narrative changes a lot if we win that one game. But we didn’t do it. I don’t think we can over-evaluate that. You factor it all in and balance it the right way.”

One of the reasons San Diego thought it was set up as well as anyone heading into October was the strength of its starting rotation, but pitching depth has become an area of focus after the Padres lost Joe Musgrove to Tommy John surgery.

“That was a big competitive advantage for us going into the playoffs because we had four [good starters]. [Yu] Darvish, Musgrove, [Dylan] Cease and [Michael] King can beat anyone’s No. 1. We won’t have Joe next year … so we’ll use our depth but that will be part of this offseason, trying to find more starting pitching options for us.”

Teams on the edge of contention

Boston Red Sox: Breslow looking to find the right balance

After taking a step in the right direction with a third-place finish in the AL East, Red Sox president of baseball operations Craig Breslow is prioritizing left-handed pitchers and right-handed hitters this offseason. To find the right lineup mix, Breslow could deal from a position of strength that other teams covet: Boston’s stockpile of left-handed hitters.

“We are thinking about how we can balance it out in the other direction,” Breslow said.

Boston’s pitching staff was one of MLB’s big surprises during the first half of the season but tanked in the second half, ranking 25th in ERA after the All-Star break as opposed to fifth before it. Injuries and workload capacity led to some high-scoring affairs for the opposition.

“We had a fairly novel approach to pitching in terms of limiting fastballs,” Breslow explained. “The league reacted. There was a period of time that we were slow to correct for that, but over the last month of the season our rotation was good again. We could upgrade there. It’s not a secret our rotation is all right-handed, so if we can balance that out, it’s something that could benefit.”

Chicago Cubs: Hoyer ready to make a splash — but maybe not the biggest splash

The Cubs aren’t likely to reel in a top-of-the-market free agent, but they could add from a second tier that includes players like Max Fried and Jack Flaherty. The team will cast a wide net for a starter to join Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga near the top of the rotation. Wrigley Field played big last season. That might not be the case in 2025, so the team wants to fortify there.

“I do feel like our offense was hurt by Wrigley last year, but our pitching staff was helped,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “You can’t look at the Wrigley factor on one side only.”

With Cody Bellinger opting to return to Chicago, the Cubs are mostly locked into their position players via long-term deals and team control for younger players. Additions to the offense are most likely to come via offseason trades or through players rising from the farm system.

“You always want to be creative, but there is room for it this year,” Hoyer said. “Certainly looking to improve [on offense].”

Teams looking to level up

Pittsburgh Pirates: Cherington aiming to build a lineup that can back Paul Skenes

General manager Ben Cherington has a young ace in Paul Skenes who is emerging as a generational pitcher, so the offseason focus in Pittsburgh is on how to build a contender around him after missing the postseason for the ninth consecutive year.

“We have to score more runs,” Cherington said. “That’s a combination of our own internal position players taking a step forward and finding a way to add to that base.”

The mantra within the building is “get better, faster.” One important decision on Cherington’s to-do list to help speed things along is hiring a hitting coach. He said the team is being thorough in its search after Pittsburgh ranked 24th in runs per game in 2024. The Pirates also could look to trades as a way to upgrade their offense.

“Starting about a year ago, we understood we were deeper in pitching than position players, and recognized that at some point, it was going to make sense to turn one of those pitchers into a position player. We did that a little bit at the last deadline, but we’re open to it again.”

One thing is certain in Pittsburgh’s lineup: The Pirates are committed to playing Oneil Cruz in center field after he moved from shortstop this season.

“He’s like an NFL wide receiver,” Cherington said. “He’s better in bigger spaces.”

Washington Nationals: Don’t be shocked if Rizzo has Nats in the headlines this offseason

There has been a growing buzz in the industry that Washington will be active this offseason, and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo isn’t shying away from that kind of talk. The Nationals are starting to see the fruits of their mini retool after trading Juan Soto and others to stock the system with young talent in recent years.

“I think it’s important to supplement that good, young group of players and surround them with some talent,” Rizzo said. “We think our time is coming. We’re getting closer. This thing is cyclical. There was a time they were looking up at us, and now we’re looking up at them. We feel the time is coming that we can play in that end of the pool.”

Rizzo admits he has talked to Scott Boras about former Nat Soto (and other Boras clients). After trading Soto for a haul of players in 2022 that included CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore and James Wood, it’s not impossible Rizzo could now sign him to a megadeal right when the Nationals are ready to win again — in part because of the players they received in the trade.

“When I get a feel for where we’re at after these meetings, we’ll meet with ownership and construct a plan,” Rizzo said.

Teams in transition

Chicago White Sox: Getz knows Crochet’s trade value is high — and Robert’s could be higher

Chris Getz has displayed a level of transparency in his first season as White Sox general manager, with both reporters and those inside the industries. He showed that again during the meetings, acknowledging the high trade interest in pitcher Garret Crochet while dimming any thoughts of the team dealing center fielder Luis Robert.

“What Garret did in the second half [taking the ball every turn] answered a lot of questions,” Getz said. “He goes into next year without any restrictions. Based on conversations I’ve had with other clubs and potential trades, Garret certainly garners a lot of attention.”

Robert is a July trade candidate — if he can stay healthy and produce like he has in the past.

“The Luis market is a tough one because of the year that he had,” Getz said. “He’s ultra-talented but got injured early in the year and was out of sorts when he came back. It’s all about matching up on value. It needs to be appropriately valued for us to make sense.”

Los Angeles Angels: Manasian focusing on adding veteran presence to Halos’ roster

The Angels have been the most active team in baseball early this offseason, trading for slugger Jorge Soler and signing pitcher Kyle Hendricks. The moves are an indication GM Perry Minasian wants to supplement his young team — and improve it — with some veterans who have played in the postseason and understand how to win. Soler joins a group of righty hitters who surprisingly finished fifth in home runs from that side of the plate — and that’s without Mike Trout contributing much due to injury.

Speaking of Trout, Minasian provided an update after the oft-injured veteran tore his left meniscus in August:

“He’s feeling good. Obviously, the last four years have been tough. He’s as frustrated as anyone about that, but he’s feeling really good. He’s doing what he has to do to show up to spring ready.”

Hendricks will be a coach in a player’s uniform while hoping to regain some consistency. His ERA in the second half was a bit more respectable (4.41) than his overall number (5.92).

St. Louis Cardinals: Mozeliak and Bloom are entering a transition period in St. Louis

The Cardinals continue to be open about where the team stands with Chaim Bloom set to take over for longtime president of baseball operations John Mozeliak after the 2025 season. In the meantime, St. Louis is updating processes across the organization following consecutive seasons without a playoff berth. The Cardinals got to this point by answering one question.

“Is this sustainable forever?” Mozeliak said. “It’s been a good run. There’s been a lot of success. But in the last few years, we weren’t as focused on where we could squeeze a little more out of the fruit; instead we’re trying to squeeze more for payroll. For a collective of reasons, now is the time to try and hit that reset and reposition ourselves to have another great run.”

WHEN TOM HOLMOE arrived in Provo to play football in 1978, his understanding of the BYU–Utah rivalry was next to nothing.

He was not then a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he grew up in Southern California watching the USC–UCLA rivalry with his brother playing for the Bruins. So when the Cougars’ bus rolled up to Rice Stadium in Salt Lake City his freshman year, Holmoe was curious how the atmosphere would measure up. He was redshirting, and BYU had already clinched the WAC title, but the intensity he felt on the sideline was unlike anything he had ever experienced.

“It was a cold day, but it was hot on the field,” said Holmoe, BYU’s athletic director since 2005.

BYU’s six-game winning streak in the rivalry ended that day, and while the Cougars would still be playing in the first-ever Holiday Bowl — back when reaching a bowl game was a genuine achievement — it was a bitter pill for Holmoe to swallow. He remembered a cartoon in a local newspaper downplaying the bowl bid in light of the rivalry loss.

“It was not a great feeling, and that was my first experience,” Holmoe said.

Holmoe went on to win all four games he participated in — three with Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham as a fellow standout on defense — and over the past four-plus decades has become convinced the “Holy War” is as intense as any game in college football.

“I love college football,” he said. “And I think one of the greatest things about college football is the rivalries. I don’t know where BYU-Utah ranks, I just know it’s one of the great rivalries of all time.”

The first meeting took place in 1896, and for most of its history, it was played as a conference game. After starting their early days in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the schools moved as a pair to the Skyline Conference (1938), to the WAC (1962) and, finally, to the Mountain West (1999) before the Pac-12 came calling and pried Utah away before the 2011 season, ushering in BYU’s independent era and move to the Big 12 last year.

Those who have taken part in this rivalry over the past 13 years say the lack of conference stakes had no bearing on game day. In fact, Utah’s departure and elevation to Power 5 status introduced a new point of contention between the schools. Still, things were different. They started playing in September instead of November and — for the first time since World War II — took years off.

“I think Utah tried to diminish it a little bit, because now they were in the big leagues and BYU wasn’t, and I think BYU fans felt like they were being dissed a little bit,” said former BYU AD Val Hale, a lifelong BYU fan who is writing a book about the 24 years he spent working in the athletic department. “Utah was trying to say, ‘Oh, this game isn’t that important to us anymore.’ So, I think there was a little bit of offense taken on the part of BYU fans. I think some BYU fans would say that the Utah fans were a little bit snobbish, and were trying to look down their noses at BYU because we weren’t in the Pac-12 like they were.”

Last summer, the future of the rivalry was in jeopardy. Conference realignment has a nasty habit of breaking up rivalries, and while it had already been chipping away at the tradition in Utah, BYU’s move to the Big 12 gave the Cougars less scheduling flexibility and less incentive to schedule a difficult nonconference game.

In a strange twist of fate, however, the Pac-12 collapsing created a domino effect that led to Utah joining the Big 12, reuniting the Utes and Cougars as conference rivals once again. On Saturday (10:15 p.m. ET on ESPN), Utah hosts No. 9 BYU in what could be the most consequential rivalry game for BYU in a generation, as a conference title will result in a berth in the College Football Playoff.

ONE OF THE first things neutral fans might notice from the game is that both teams will wear their home uniforms: Utah in red; BYU in blue.

It stems from Holmoe’s roots in Southern California. For several decades, as UCLA and USC shared the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, they both donned home uniforms. It’s a tradition that went away in 1982 when UCLA started playing home games at the Rose Bowl, but USC coach Pete Carroll brought it back in 2008, despite it being a violation of NCAA rules. The rule changed in 2009, permitting both teams to wear home uniforms, and soon after Holmoe went to his counterpart at Utah, Chris Hill.

“I said, ‘One of the great things about the USC-UCLA rivalry is they play in their home colors for every game. Let’s do it,'” Holmoe said. “And he goes, ‘What do you mean?’ I say, ‘Well, you wear red, we’ll wear blue no matter what the sport is or where the game’s played.’ And so we started this tradition (in 2011), and it’s kind of fun because the color and pageantry of college football comes out.”

For Utah natives like BYU captain Tyler Batty, the game’s importance is ingrained into their consciousness from a young age.

“My earliest memory was probably in elementary school,” Batty said at Big 12 media days this summer. “Just me and a bunch of friends getting together at someone’s house and watching the game. It’s not like you’re really watching that much of the game when you’re 10, 11 years old, but you’re catching on to how competitive it is. It’s pretty legendary.”

Some of the most legendary moments are only tangential to the results.

In 1999, there was an infamous incident in which a BYU fan came over the railing from the stands and attempted to tackle a male Utah cheerleader, who had been running with a flag.

“The cheerleader jumped on top of him and started pummeling him,” Hale said. “Everybody in the stadium — 65,000 people — is watching this. All I could see was someone pummeling someone on the ground. I thought it was an usher.

“So, I went running down the sideline — here’s the AD running down the sideline — and by the time I got down there it had been broken up. I went to talk to the Utah cheerleading coach and he was telling me what happened, and to this day there are still stories out there that I got in a fight with the cheerleader. You know how stories get warped and twisted.”

Another bizarre moment that doesn’t get twisted came in 2012, the year Utah fans rushed the field three times during and after the Utes’ 24-21 upset of then-No. 25 BYU. The first came after fans thought time had expired following an incomplete pass, when there was still 1 second left on the clock. The next came during a 51-yard missed field-goal attempt, which triggered a 15-yard penalty and gave BYU a second, closer field goal try. When that one failed, too, the fans rushed the field for a third time.

UP UNTIL LAVELL Edwards was named the BYU head coach prior to the 1972 season, the rivalry was lopsided in favor of Utah. Then, with Edwards at the helm for the next 29 years, BYU controlled the series.

In 2001, the first year after Edwards retired, BYU took a 10-0 record into the game in Provo and trailed 21-10 with 3:30 to play before Luke Staley, the eventual Doak Walker Award winner, scored two touchdowns in the final minutes as the Cougars sought to become the first nonpower-conference program to reach a BCS bowl. (They would lose three weeks later at Hawai’i and miss the BCS.)

When quarterback Alex Smith signed with Utah a couple of months later, the pendulum swung back in the Utes’ favor. Smith’s introduction into the rivalry was similar to Holmoe’s: He came from Southern California, didn’t know the history and watched the first game, in 2002, from the sideline.

“I think both teams were not very good at that point, but I remember thinking how crazy the game was,” said Smith, who is now an NFL analyst for ESPN. “Sold out and just how intense the game was for both sides.”

When Urban Meyer was named coach at Utah the following year, he turned up the heat on the rivalry, refusing to call BYU by name, referring to them only as the “team down south.”

Come rivalry time, the Utes were 8-2 and needed to beat BYU to win the Mountain West title. The forecast called for a blizzard.

“Just calling it snow wouldn’t do it justice,” Smith said. “It was a complete whiteout blizzard, and our senior running back had gotten hurt, so we were down to a true freshman, I think. I’ll never forget on the sideline, Urban was like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna call your number a bunch. Just hang on to the football.’ I think I had like 24 carries for 40 yards or so, but we won the game 3-0 and it was awesome. Just an ugly, ugly game, but it didn’t matter. What a good drive back to Salt Lake from Provo.”

The shutout compounded the disappointment for BYU, which entered the game having scored in an NCAA-record 361 straight games dating back to 1975 — a streak that has since been passed by Michigan, Florida and TCU.

“It was something we bragged about all the time at the end of every game,” Hale said.

The next year, BYU’s visit to Utah set the stage for one of the best days in Utes history.

“[ESPN’s] ‘College GameDay’ came to Utah for the first time ever. We had a chance to clinch our undefeated season, break the BCS, win our conference and beat BYU all at the same time,” Smith said. “Incredibly special. Sold out crowd again, the whole country is watching, to get the win and the students rush the field and there are sombreros everywhere. Pretty epic win and, again, to do it against BYU made it even sweeter.”

BYU got some measure of revenge two years later with “Beck to Harline,” an iconic finish that saw the Cougars win with an 11-yard touchdown pass from John Beck to Jonny Harline on the final play of the game that became known as the “Answered Prayer.”

Then the Cougars followed that memorable win with another the next year, best remembered for a fourth-and-18 conversion on a pass from Max Hall to Austin Collie, which prompted Collie to deliver a famous line: “Magic happens.”

After Utah moved to the Pac-12 in 2011, BYU had a hard time conjuring that magic again.

“They started to take some of our kids away on the recruiting trail because they were part of a [Power 5] conference,” Holmoe said. “And that was hard on us.”

Utah won the first eight games in the series after leaving the Mountain West, including a 2015 appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl, when the nonconference game was on a two-year hiatus.

BYU ended the losing skid with a 26-17 win in 2021 — when Utah would go on to win the Pac-12 and play in the Rose Bowl — but that was the only meeting in the past four seasons.

Had the Pac-12 remained intact, infrequent matchups likely would have remained the norm. Utah’s move to the Big 12 this summer changed that.

“The state gets wildly excited about that game, and it has been hit and miss the last several years,” Whittingham said. “But now that we’re both in the same conference, and it’s going to be an annual thing. It will be the single biggest sporting event in the state of Utah every year.

WHEN BIG 12 teams gathered in Las Vegas in July, it was Utah that received all the preseason adoration. Utah was selected as the favorite to win the conference, largely in part due to the expected return of quarterback Cam Rising, who led the Utes to Pac-12 titles in 2021 and 2022.

BYU’s Darius Lassiter was complimentary of the Utes at the time, but issued a warning ahead of their arrival to the Big 12.

“I think it’s going to be more of a surprise to them than what they might think,” he said. “… It’s not an easy league at all. There are a lot of good teams here and then we just added three other teams including themselves, so it is not going to be just a walk in the park for them.”

Perhaps he undersold it.

After starting the season 4-0, Utah has dropped its past four and lost Rising to another season-ending injury. The Utes are 1-4 in the Big 12, and their dismal offensive performances led to the departure of offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig. At this point, if the Utes reach bowl eligibility it would be a surprise.

“Certainly the seasons have gone in completely different directions than what was anticipated at the onset,” Whittingham said. “I guess that shows that those preseason rankings and thoughts really don’t mean a whole lot.”

BYU is the inverse example.

The Cougars debuted at No. 9 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday, and while there are compelling arguments for why they should be higher, it’s an enviable position for almost the entire country.

Playing spoiler isn’t what the Utes originally had in mind, but it is a powerful motivator.

“To own the state of Utah, to sour out those guys’ season, it would be big for us and the team,” said Utes running back Jaylon Glover, who also levied an expletive toward BYU in an interview with local reporters this week, for which he issued a follow-up apology on social media.

Just as they were for Holmoe all those years ago, the rivalry burns hot. And while pride has been enough to fuel this rivalry, meaningful stakes are sure to turn up the heat.