An avalanche of turnovers, penalties and sloppy tackling kept BYU from snapping Ut…
BYU · UtahThe upset-minded Cougars blew a rare opportunity to get a win in Salt Lake City, get their College Football Playoff hopes back on track and snap their rivals' nation-best winning streak on Saturday afternoon. The number everybody on the blue side will remember is the four turnovers BYU committed against a ballhawking Utah defense that was otherwise pushed around most of the day.
Although BYU head coach Kalani Sitake wouldn't dare say it himself — preferring to heap praise upon the Utes than say the Cougars simply committed far too many turnovers and mental mistakes to win — the truth is that BYU faltered in the second half, while Utah soared. The Utes had the clutch gene in beating the Cougars for the first time since 2019, and BYU did not.
The Cougars got away with an awful second half in their 28-24 win over then-No. 2 Notre Dame that now seems like a distant memory, but that kind of failure never works in this rivalry. Neither team is ever out of the games in this wild and wacky
Leave it to BYU freshman Legend Glasker to sum up what happened to the Cougars (4-2, 7-2), who must now win out and hope that either Houston or Texas Tech loses down the stretch. "I feel like the second half we got too big-headed and thought the game was ours and it just slipped away," he said.
KEY POINTS
- An avalanche of turnovers, penalties and sloppy tackling kept BYU from snapping Utah's lengthy winning streak When it was over in front of 52,901 at Rice-Eccles Stadium, only one digit really stood out.
- A lot of numbers were thrown around before No. 9 BYU traveled to No. 3 Utah in the most significant football rivalry game in the long, heated and often tumultuous series between the Beehive State foes.
- So the undefeated Utes ran off with a 28-20 victory — snapping the Cougars' three-game winning streak against them — and put what was once the most-anticipated season in school history on life support.
- Utah Utes safety Davis Andrews (12) celebrates his team's 28-20 win over the BYU Cougars in a football game Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026, at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.