BYU Football: Game-by-game predictions for 2019 season

STARKVILLE, MS - OCTOBER 14: Tanner Mangum #12 of the Brigham Young Cougars hands the ball to Ula Tolutau #5 during the first half of a game against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Starkville, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images) /

College football is always better when rivalry games are active rather than dormant. Since the Holy War was revived in a 2015 Las Vegas Bowl showdown, the Utes have had BYU’s number all along the way. It has now been a decade since the Cougars last took down the Utes on the football field, and that streak is in danger of extending another year.

Working against BYU is the fact that Utah enters 2019 as a Pac-12 South frontrunner. The Utes bring back a pair of solid quarterbacks in Tyler Huntley and Jason Shelley, and Zack Moss also returns to the backfield. In total, only two other teams return more productivity on offense than Utah brings to the table this season. They also have a stout defense, though they have to replace several key players from last season’s unit.

This game is always close, with each of the past six contests ending in a single score. Things will almost certainly be close again, with the Cougars having home-field advantage for this year’s edition of the Holy War. An experienced Utah team is going to have ample opportunities to exploit a young BYU defense, and in the end they will manage to just outscore their rivals.

Prediction: Utah 34, BYU 28 (0-1)

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