After three years away, the rivalry is finally back at Rice-Eccles this Saturday.

But with such a long hiatus, there are a number of key characters in this installment that haven’t been around this game before.

Quarterback Jake Retzlaff — a California kid who grew up outside of Los Angeles — is getting his first taste of it. He was raised in a college football household — watching USC-UCLA and Washington-Washington State — but he never dove into this one before.

“It is hard to get a good feeling on it when you are not here,” Retzlaff said. “I knew it was a rivalry. But it is hard to feel the intensity of it until you start being around the building and talking to people. We are going to be prepared come Saturday night.”

Retzlaff mostly stuck to the script of what he is supposed to say this week.

“They care about this game more than any other game in the season,” he said.

But he knows, with a chance to go 9-0 and walk into the Big 12 title game, there is plenty on the line.

“It is cool to see the in-state stuff for me,” Retzlaff said. “The Bama rivalry. The USC rivalry. BYU [vs. Utah] falls into that category. The Pac-12 is obviously something I watched a lot of growing up. The in-state rivalries make it so fun because they are really up the street. So it is important.”

The Big Thing

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Utah isn’t naming a quarterback.

Here we go again with a week full of questions on whether the Utes will roll with Isaac Wilson or Brandon Rose against BYU. Does it really add a competitive advantage?

Still, Cougars head coach Kalani Sitake isn’t faulting Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. He’s pulled this trick a time or two — he can’t really talk.

“I don’t think you can give Utah a hard time about that,” he said. “We have been there before. Trying to figure out who the best guy is. We just have to prepare for all of those guys.”

With the extra week of preparation, defensive coordinator Jay Hill dove into both Wilson and Rose.

Neither have been particularly good. Wilson has thrown for eight touchdowns and eight interceptions. Rose has a 45% completion rate plus a pick in 15 attempts.

“We have to look at all the quarterbacks on the roster. Jay has a good start on that,” Sitake said. “We have to prepare for anything they throw at us. It probably means being over-prepared, but that is OK.”

Question of the week

What do you think will happen in the rivalry game?

We opened this up to Salt Lake Tribune readers on Monday and here’s what the early returns look like.

BYU — 71.1%

Utah — 28.9%

And here are some of your predictions.

“35-20. BYU has a lot of momentum.” — David

“31-16. BYU is relatively healthy and is more united as a group of players. Utah seems to have lost their identity- they don’t have a solid quarterback and their run game seemingly has been absent from games. While Utah’s defense is good, the offense doesn’t compliment the defense.” — Romney

“35-21. It is a rivalry game so utes will play better. BYU will win.” — Spencer

“21-28. BYU will have control of the game for the whole game never trailing. BYU will be up 21-10 late and Utah will score a TD and a two-point conversion to make it 21-18 with 1:20ish left. Utah will attempt an onside kick, fail, and then BYU will kneel the clock out. Utah’s offense struggles while their defense is still good which is why I say they hold BYU to 21 points.” — Kade

Fourth down

1. Kalani and Kyle

Sitake’s perspective on this game is different than most. He coached under Kyle Whittingham. He played at BYU. This week, he spent some time unpacking his relationship with Utah’s head coach.

“He is tough. He holds his players accountable. But there is a good side to him that I’ve seen,” he said. “And I think a lot of people have seen that he cares about his players and cares about his staff. I’ve been a benefactor of that. I’ve been close friends.”

He continued, “Listen, he wants to win this game as much as I do. But I am honored to be his friend. And after the game is over, we will go back to being friends again. He’s taught me to do this the right way.”

2. Coaching tree

LaVell Edwards’ fingerprints will be all over this game. Kyle Whittingham and Kalani Sitake are both Edwards’ disciples. But so too are Jay Hill, Aaron Roderick and a number of coaches on each side.

“That’s going to happen when you got guys coming from the same coaching tree,” Sitake said. “We got LaVell Edwards connected to both programs.”

3. Connor Pay

BYU will be without its starting center Connor Pay again. Bruce Mitchell has played well in his three starts since Pay’s injury, but Utah’s defensive line might be the best in the Big 12.

4. LJ OK

LJ Martin should be fine. He got hurt at the end of the UCF game and sat out most of the fourth quarter. He had a full week to recover and Sitake called him “100%.”