SALT LAKE CITY — For nearly four hours, it was all little blue specks in an overwhelming mass of crimson. But about 15 minutes after Will Ferrin split the uprights from 40 yards out to continue this surreal undefeated season, those specks of royal blue united in one long line stretching around the front row in enemy territory.

It was a great way to punctuate a great win in a great rivalry that always seems to produce results.

So BYU fans, who will live on for another week in a state of pure reverie, raised their hands and were greeted by players who took the joyful, deserved lap around Rice-Eccles Stadium and thanked them for their presence. As players made the rounds, others posed for photos at midfield. Cosmo the Cougar, BYU’s acrobatic mascot, found Ferrin and took a selfie with him. BYU shout leaders raised a huge blue flag that waved through the crisp November evening.

I’ve heard a lot of BYU fight songs after the game, after wins and losses. This one was one of the most special. #CougarBlueRoadTrip pic.twitter.com/msF1xO4lRa

— Jared Lloyd (@JaredrLloyd) November 10, 2024

BYU coach Kalani Sitake seemed to be the only calm one in the mix. He implored his team, at least for a fleeting second, to head to the visiting locker room to continue the festivities. Everyone in blue opted to stay outside in the cold, where they were warmed by the thrill of an epic 22-21 win over Utah on the road in Salt Lake City.

BYU KEEPS ITS UNDEFEATED SEASON ALIVE 🔥 pic.twitter.com/g6LxnaRgqE

— ESPN (@espn) November 10, 2024

No. 9 BYU improved to 9-0, is one of only four remaining undefeated teams in college football this season and is still firmly in control of first place in the Big 12 Conference with three weeks to go. No. 4 Miami became the latest undefeated to falter, losing on the road at Georgia Tech earlier on Saturday.

The only unblemished teams left this year: No. 1 Oregon, No. 8 Indiana, No. 9 BYU and No. 25 Army. You can bet that with No. 3 Georgia losing to No. 16 Ole Miss this weekend, Indiana and BYU will get a boost in next week’s College Football Playoff rankings.

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That’s what awaits the Cougars. What was present in the early hours of Sunday morning was this latest installment of a rivalry game that has a tendency to get so weird, so strange and so hyped up that tempers flare, players cry, coaches berate the referees, athletic directors cry foul, and well , the list goes on.

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But if these Cougars wanted to stay perfect and beat their desperate, now four-game losing rivals, rivals that so many pundits thought would be where the Cougars found themselves in early November, they were going to have to get lucky.

Actually, they just had to stay within striking distance. Which sometimes seemed like it wouldn’t be possible. Utah’s defense kept BYU’s efficient offense under wraps throughout. It often threw quarterback Jake Retzlaff off balance. He threw high or wide or caught passes at the line of scrimmage. But the thing about perfect seasons is that teams need to experience lulls in high-stakes situations. BYU had too many to count against Utah.

“These are the Big Twelve,” Retzlaff said. “Anything can happen.”

Basically.

The Cougars survived with Retzlaff looking worse than he had in months.

The Cougars survived two fumbles and fumbles by Retzlaff himself – one deep in Utah territory and the other back in BYU territory – that would otherwise have been disastrous.

The Cougars needed a controversial fourth-and-10 holding call at their 9-yard line with 1:35 left in the fourth quarter to stay alive.

The Cougars needed Utah freshman cornerback Cameron Calhoun to drop an interception that would have sealed the Utes on the next play.

The Cougars needed team captain wide receiver Chase Roberts to catch a 30-yard pass so gracefully that he kept the nose of the football just millimeters off the grass on the play afterward.

HUNT CATCH ROBERTS!!!!#CollegeFootball #BYUFootball pic.twitter.com/WWtf6Kbq1G

— Choose 6-pack (@Pick6PackFB) November 10, 2024

Games like these, where you underperform a road rival for most of the night and find a way to pull out a win, are why people in Provo wonder if this is a team of destiny . Sitake was asked about that highly exalted, yet highly subjective potential ultimate reality. He’s doing what he knows how to do: sidestepping the kind of expectations his program now has. At least publicly.

“Just keep believing in each other,” he said. “We have doubled down on our culture of trusting and loving each other. I think it went well.”

At 9-0, with three regular season games remaining, standing alone at the top of the Big 12 Conference and having just snatched a necessary win from the rival’s tight grip: how could anyone argue otherwise?

(Photo by Jake Retzlaff: Chris Gardner/Getty Images)