BYU Football: 3 keys to victory in 2019 Holy War showdown vs. Utah

3. Once it seizes momentum, BYU cannot let go

Last season, BYU entered halftime in Salt Lake City with a 20-0 lead on the Utes. Midway through the third quarter, they were still up by three scores with a 27-7 advantage. Then Utah scored right before the end of the third quarter, and the floodgates opened up. Once the Cougars let the momentum slip away, there was no getting it back.

College football is a game of momentum, as we have seen throughout the sport’s first 150 years of existence. When you have a bunch of young adults playing a game fraught with emotion and liberally mixed with brute force, it is inevitable that there are going to be shifts of focus.

For BYU to win against the favored Utes, though, shifts of focus cannot be a concept that enters their vocabulary on Thursday. Taking down Utah is going to require that the Cougars build a lead and then never let it go.

For three quarters last year, the Cougars managed to do just that. Now they need to replicate that level of focus for a full 60 minutes. If they can pull that feat off — again, a tough feat for young adults still in their teenage years or early 20s — BYU has a real chance of emerging victorious for the first time since the Holy War was an annual Mountain West showdown.