The First Top-10 Holy War Ever: BYU's Streak Meets Utah's Perfect Season

In 103 meetings, BYU and Utah have never both shown up ranked in the top 10. Not once. Saturday morning in Salt Lake City, they do — No. 3 Utah, No. 7 BYU, the 104th Holy War, and for the first time in the life of this rivalry, the whole country has a reason to watch a fight the state of Utah has never needed help caring about.

Start with the streaks, because they point at each other. Utah has won 14 straight games, the longest active streak in the country, and opened 8-0 for the first time since 2010. The Utes are one of three unbeaten teams left standing. And the last team to beat them? BYU — 24-21 in Provo last October. The Cougars have won three straight Holy Wars, and both wins since Utah joined the Big 12 came the hard way, rallying from fourth-quarter deficits. Utah has not won this game since 2019. Morgan Scalley, in his first Holy War as Utah's head coach, gets his first crack at ending that on his own field.

Devon Dampier, Utah's quarterback, has spent a year living inside that fact. "I couldn't go anywhere without hearing about this game," he said this week. "I understand what this means to the state, for sure." Dampier has earned the stage he's walking onto: 1,876 passing yards and 18 touchdowns this season, 18-2 as Utah's starter across two seasons, and at Cincinnati last week he became the most productive rushing quarterback in school history. Utah just hung 49 on Cincinnati, with Dampier throwing for 260 yards and three scores.

Across from him is the other half of why this game works. Bear Bachmeier, BYU's sophomore quarterback, wears No. 47 and plays like he means it — 1,750 passing yards and 12 touchdowns, and a year ago he was hurdling Utah defenders on a touchdown run in this very game (that's him in the picture above, mid-flight, in last season's win). Bachmeier has already beaten Notre Dame this season, 28-24 in Provo. His one loss came at UCF in double overtime, which is why BYU arrives with no room left: at 7-1 and 4-1 in the Big 12, a second defeat doesn't kill the Cougars' season, but it hands Utah the league and leaves BYU chasing help.

The numbers say this is a collision, not a coronation. Utah has scored 311 points in eight games; BYU has scored 259. Utah's defense is allowing fewer than 16 points a game, BYU's fewer than 19 — and here is the receipt that should worry Provo: Utah has allowed six first-quarter points all season. Six. The Utes start games like the kickoff offended them, and BYU, which trailed its way back in both of the last two Holy Wars, cannot count on a third comeback against a team that doesn't give away first quarters.

The one question that could tilt it is standing on BYU's sideline. Running back LJ Martin — the 2025 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year — has missed four straight games, and without him BYU's run game has been shrinking week by week, down to 47 rushing yards in last week's 27-20 win over Arizona State. ESPN reporting this week has Martin trending toward playing Saturday and having some impact; other reporting cautions he won't be at full strength if he does. Bachmeier with a real run game behind him is one problem. Bachmeier carrying the whole offense into that Utah front is another one entirely.

The table is set wider than the state line, too. Utah sits first in the Big 12 at 5-0; BYU is second, with Texas Tech level with the Cougars and waiting on the result. The winner leaves Rice-Eccles holding the inside track to the Big 12 championship game — and, with Utah No. 3 and BYU No. 9 in the first College Football Playoff rankings, holding a playoff position the loser will have to fight to recover.

One scheduling quirk before you set the coffee down: this kicks off at 10 a.m. local time, a breakfast kickoff in Salt Lake City so the game can sit in the noon Eastern window on ABC. A top-10 Holy War before lunch. The rivalry has waited more than a century to be this big at the same time on both sides — it can survive an early alarm.

By early Saturday afternoon, one of these streaks is over. Either Utah is 9-0, alone on top of the Big 12, having finally beaten the team that keeps beating it — or BYU has won a fourth straight Holy War, in the other team's building, and turned the Big 12 race upside down. There is no quiet version of Saturday. There never is with these two. This time, the rankings finally match the noise.

Watch it: No. 7 BYU at No. 3 Utah, Saturday Nov 7, 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET, Rice-Eccles Stadium, ABC. More on the College front.