Reigniting one of college football's best rivalries in BYU vs. Utah - ESPN

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