Every season that Utah and BYU face off against one another in football, everyone wants to know beforehand who’s going to win and why. And in conjuring a stab at answering that question, those of us doing the guessing study the teams, look over the talent and the coaching and the matchups and the building where the game is to be played, the records, the stats, the tendencies, the highlights, the mistakes, the past and the present, and sometimes that’s enough.
Sometimes.
Sometimes it comes down to something and some things that are more difficult to measure in advance. Things that are mental, things that emerge out of emotion and motivation on that specific day or night. And sometimes, the mental is inexorably connected to the physical. Sometimes, in all the hubbub, it’s disconnected.
The best way to discern and navigate through all of that this season with the Cougars (8-0, 5-0 in the Big 12) and the Utes (4-4, 1-4, losers of four straight) is to go to the football oracle, to consider the words of Vince Lombardi himself, one of the greatest coaches to ever walk the sideline, the wise and wise-cracking coach with his name etched on the freaking Super Bowl Trophy, and apply them to the teams at hand. The exercise here, then, is to parrot a famous Lombardi quote, and then attach it to whichever rivalry team is positioned to win with it or lose on account of it. Lordy, here goes …
“It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re No. 1.”
Best application: BYU.
“What you got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not a winner.”
Best application: Utah.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) BYU football coach Kalani Sitake celebrates the teams 38-35 win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys to remain undefeated in Provo on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.
“We will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”
Best application: BYU.
“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.”
Best application: BYU.
“Winning is a habit …”
Best application: BYU.
“… Unfortunately so is losing.”
Best application: Utah.
“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.”
Best application: Utah.
“The [team] on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”
Best application: BYU.
“Football is like life. It requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and respect for authority.”
Best application: BYU.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Horned Frogs safety Bud Clark (21) intercepts a pass intended for Utah Utes wide receiver Luca Caldarella (19) as the Utes host the TCU Horned Frogs, NCAA football in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
“We didn’t lose the game, we just ran out of time.”
Best application: Utah.
“Confidence is contagious …”
Best application: BYU.
“… So is lack of confidence.”
Best application: Utah.
“Winners never quit …”
Best application: BYU.
“… And quitters never win.”
Best application: Utah.
“In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.”
Best application: Utah.
“When you go into the end zone, act like you’ve been there before.”
Best application: BYU.
“If you can accept losing, you can’t win.”
Best application: Utah.
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
Best application: Utah and BYU.
“Winning is not a sometime thing: it’s an all-time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time.”
Best application: BYU.
“The difference between a successful [team] and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
Best application: Utah.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Utes take to the field as the Utah Utes host the TCU Horned Frogs, NCAA football in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
“Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”
Best application: Utah.
“The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Work is the key to success, and hard work can help you accomplish anything.”
Best application: BYU.
“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it.”
Best application: Utah.
“Sooner or later, the [team] that wins is the [team] that thinks it can.”
Best application: BYU.
“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”
Best application: BYU.
“I firmly believe that any [team’s] finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all [it] holds dear, is that moment when [it] has worked [its] heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle — victorious.”
Best application: BYU.
“Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts.”
Best application: Utah and BYU, and everybody who roots for either of them.
