Utah, BYU and a rivalry game that delivered in every way - ESPN

SALT LAKE CITY — It's one thing for three young dudes in visiting blue to walk a sidewalk past a backyard full of amped-up bloodstreams and take on a brief barrage of invective. It's another thing for three young dudes in visiting blue to walk a sidewalk past a backyard full of amped-up bloodstreams and take on a brief barrage of invective at 7:58 a.m.

Were you the kind of person who prefers your invective to arrive after 8 a.m., the 98th Holy War between BYU and Utah on Saturday might have come as jarring or amusing. A rivalry nationally underrated — as are many sporting things in the American West — had found its loftiest chapter with two top-10 teams and BYU winning the last three editions as spice. It had found also a 10 a.m. local kickoff time courtesy of television scheduling, and that provided for intense groggy-hour sights and sounds, plus the realization that while BYU still forbids profanity around campus, Utah opts for a freer linguistic approach.

One young woman even shouted barbed language about BYU down to the sidewalks from a window on a seventh floor or so, hoping her message would cascade down to visiting recipients. One young man came out to his porch to yell swear words at BYU passersby all while appearing to have no other purpose for coming out to his porch. When four BYU buses pulled up at the beautiful front of the University of Utah around 7:40, and people in marching-band T-shirts got out, people on the sidewalk made vomiting sounds without actually vomiting, and a car went by and a window went down and a voice rang out with a spate of unkindnesses. Full yards of students booed blue clothing spotted across streets.

It's rare to take in so much so soon on any clock.

If descending toward the game