The state of Utah has had college football since 1892 with Utah, BYU and Utah State. In that time frame, all three schools have been bowl eligible during the same season just five times including this season.
Utah, BYU and Utah State all enter the bowl season with disappointing losses. The Utes lost in the Pac-12 Championship to Washington, the Cougars lost to Utah in the regular season finale, and the Aggies lost to Boise State, missing their chance to host their first Mountain West championship.
The West Coast Conference announced that BYU forward Yoeli Childs has been named Player of the Week. Childs was also named NCAA March Madness' National Player of the Week.
BYU’s successful starts in the first and second half of the game was the difference in their second straight win over Utah 74-59 in the Beehive Classic.
With the Cougars already up big in the second half, BYU center Yoeli Childs nearly brought down the roof at Vivint SmartHome Arena with a thunderous slam dunk over two Utah defenders.
Nick Emery made his long awaited return to the basketball court with the BYU Cougars on Wednesday night as the Cougars beat Utah State 95-80 at the Marriott Center.
The year 2011 marked a new era for the Utah-BYU rivalry. Both schools left the Mountain West Conference and entered new territory. Utah joined the Pac-12 Conference and BYU became a member of the West Coast Conference.
After sitting out the entire 2017-18 season, withdrawing from school and serving a nine-game suspension, Nick Emery returned to the BYU lineup against Utah State.
It was a game that BYU desperately needed to win and it came at the most opportune time as the Cougars beat a very good Utah State team 95-80, snapping a three-game losing streak.
Like “everybody else,” BYU head coach Kalani Sitake was nervous before finding out his team's bowl fate. Now that he knows the Cougars will be facing Western Michigan in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, he can start the planning for the game.