The University of Utah football team will make the trip about 400 miles northeast this weekend to Laramie, Wyoming — the same trip that the Utes made for decades when the two programs were in the WAC and Mountain West conferences.
The big difference in the jaunt to Laramie now?
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The Utes are in the Big 12 Conference, which means War Memorial Stadium will play host to a power conference team this week — something that is not as rare as you’d think in the modern era.
BYU made the trip to War Memorial Stadium last season, winning 34-14, and in 2023, Texas Tech lost 35-33 in double overtime as Cowboys fans stormed the field. In the past two and a half decades, Wyoming has hosted teams from every power conference — ACC (Virginia, 2007), Big 12 (Texas, 2009; Kansas, 2003; Texas A&M, 2001), Big Ten (Nebraska, 2011), Pac-12 (Oregon in 2017 and Washington State in 2018) and SEC (Missouri, 2019; Ole Miss, 2004).
Wyoming has a 4-7 record in its 11 power conference home games in the last 24 seasons, defeating Texas Tech, Virginia, Missouri and Ole Miss.
Saturday’s game is the first time since 2011 that the Cowboys will welcome in a ranked opponent from a power conference school, as No. 20 Utah and Wyoming face off at War Memorial Stadium at 6 p.m. MDT.
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Interestingly enough, Saturday’s game in Laramie wasn’t supposed to be played during the 2025 season.
The original plan for a two-game series with Wyoming. Here’s why it changed
Back in 2017, with Utah preparing to enter their seventh season in the Pac-12 Conference, then-athletic director Chris Hill was finishing up the Utes’ 2020 nonconference slate. Nonconference football scheduling is a complex process, with the slate having to be finalized years before the game actually happens due to availability filling up fast.
Just look at Utah’s future nonconference schedule, which stretches all the way out to 2033 and includes games against Wisconsin, Miami and LSU.
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At the time that Hill booked the game in 2017, his scheduling philosophy was to have one game against a Power Five school (which included independent BYU), one game against a Group of Five school (such as the Mountain West) and one game against an FCS opponent.
Hill, who headed Utah’s athletic department for 31 years, believed that nonconference formula would give the Utes the best shot at making it to the College Football Playoff, which at the time consisted of just four teams.
“There was only four teams that could go (to the playoff). Realistically, you had to be 11-1 in the Pac 12 to go. That’s just the way it was,” Hill told the Deseret News on Monday.
“And so we tried and we had BYU, so we had one really tough game, which was like a power game. And then we thought we’d have a Group of Five, whatever it is now, and a one-way game with the object of trying to go 3-0 most years. That way, when you played in the Pac-12, you could afford to lose a Pac-12 game and still be in a chance to be in that (playoff).”
Athletics Director Chris Hill, left, talks with University of Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham following football practice in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. | Ravell Call, Deseret News
Utah’s original 2020 schedule included a home game against BYU, a home game against FCS Montana State and a road game at Wyoming. Playing a Group of Five on the road in the early Pac-12 era was common — Utah played at Utah State in 2012, at Fresno State in 2015, at San Jose State in 2016 and at Northern Illinois in 2018.
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Due to BYU’s independent status, the game against the Cougars was usually penciled in first and then the rest of the schedule was built around it.
“With BYU, we made sure that of the three games, because of their tough scheduling situation as an independent, essentially would say, ‘Hey, can you guys play on this date?’ And then we kind of had to build it around that,” Hill said.
In 2017, Utah agreed to a home-and-home series with Wyoming, with the Utes visiting Laramie in 2020 and the Cowboys returning to Salt Lake City in 2025. The date at Wyoming — Sept. 19, 2020 — lined up perfectly with an opening in Utah’s schedule and filled the need for a Group of Five opponent with the Utes planning to host BYU and FCS Montana State at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“It just so happened that Wyoming was open the time we were, so we just plugged them in just like we did San Diego State or Northern Illinois,” Hill said.
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Additionally, Utah didn’t have the leverage at the time to get Wyoming to agree to a one-and-done game at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“You just don’t have that leverage with people like that because they’ll go to Ohio State and get four times as much,” Hill said. “You kind of have to understand that we’re not going to pay, at least at that time, we weren’t going to pay $2 million for a one-way game.”
Three years later, of course, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Utah’s 12-game regular-season schedule in 2020 was whittled down to five games. The Utes didn’t play a game until Nov. 21, cancelling its entire nonconference schedule.
The game against Wyoming was postponed five years, but stayed on the schedule. Wyoming will now make its return trip to Salt Lake City in 2027.
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Hill and Whittingham’s memories of a historical series
Utah and Wyoming have played each other 83 times over the last century-plus; only Utah State (113) and BYU (102) have had more matchups against the Utes.
On Saturday, the Utah-Wyoming series will be renewed once again.
While quarterback Devon Dampier, wide receiver Ryan Davis, tight end Otto Tia and defensive end Paul Fitzgerald have all played at War Memorial Stadium, the experience will be new to the majority of Utah’s players.
It won’t be to Ute coach Kyle Whittingham, who made the trip to Laramie as a linebacker for BYU, four times as an assistant coach for Utah and three times as Utah’s head coach.
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“It’s always a hostile crowd. My memory as a player and of coaching there is they’ll get after you pretty good, the crowd will, and so it’s an environment you got to be able to handle,” Whittingham said.
“The elevation for us shouldn’t be a big deal. It’s a couple thousand feet higher, but we’re used to elevation so I don’t expect that to be an issue. We just got to go up there and play our game, play well and take care of the football, run efficiently, get chunk yardage.”
One humorous moment from Whittingham’s time in Laramie came when his father, Fred, was a linebackers coach at Utah. During a November game against Wyoming in 2000, Utah had sideline heaters operating to help keep players and coaches warm during the 11-degree weather.
“My dad was coaching with us at the time and got too close to it and his pants started on fire, so we had to douse him with water and get the pants out and so that was a fairly light humorous moment there,” Whittingham said.
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Of course, who could forget the infamous 2007 contest between the two schools?
Wyoming coach Joe Glenn guaranteed a win against Utah at a luncheon prior to the game, and Utah used that as motivation.
“If you open your mouth, you’re accountable for your actions,” Whittingham said after the game. “You can’t just say things and expect to sweep them away. You are accountable.”
The Utes beat the Cowboys 50-0 at Rice-Eccles Stadium as chants of “guarantee, guarantee” rang down from the Utah fans.
Utah led Wyoming 40-0 at halftime and let up on the pummeling in the second half — except for one moment.
Up 43-0 in the middle of the third quarter after a Louie Sakoda field goal, Whittingham called an onside kick. The Utes didn’t recover, but Glenn took exception to it, firing an obscene gesture towards the Utah sideline, which was caught by TV cameras.
Wyoming head football coach Joe Glenn talks with the referee while playing the University of Utah in Salt Lake City Nov. 10, 2007. | Jeffrey D. Allred
Whittingham later apologized for the onside kick, while Glenn apologized for the gesture.
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“My emotions got the best of me, and after thinking about it, I wouldn’t have done it in hindsight,” Whittingham said. “But emotions were running high as you could tell — both from what we did and the reaction on the other team. That’s the nature of sports, I guess. At times your emotions get in the way of sound decision-making.”
It was one of the more memorable games in a series full of them.
The memory that sticks out for Hill when thinking back on those Utah-Wyoming games in Laramie is the 2004 edition.
Utah, 10-0 at the time, was two games away from being the first-ever team from a non-automatic qualifying conference to play in a BCS game.
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Wisconsin, No. 4 in the BCS rankings, had just lost, clearing the way to the Fiesta Bowl for the Utes. To get there, the Utes had to win two more games, but a power outage in Laramie delayed the game for nearly two hours.
“I’m going down the elevator saying, ‘We got to play this game. We got to play this game.’ Hill said.
And I’m thinking, ‘Oh, what’s Urban (Meyer) going to say? I took one step out of the elevator and he said, ‘We got to play this game. We got to play this game.’ So we went from there. But that had to be memorable because waiting around and feeding the kids and all that stuff, and then we went out and beat them.”
20150831 Power outages at the University of Wyoming’s stadium caused the game to be delayed for 1 hour and 45 minutes. University of Utah against Wyoming Nov. 13, 2004..MANDATORY CREDIT: August Miller/ Deseret Morning News DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPH (Submission date: 11/13/2004) August Miller Deseret Morning News MANDATORY CREDIT: August Miller/ Deseret Morning News DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPH | August Miller
After the lights eventually came on, Utah defeated Wyoming 45-28 to clinch the Mountain West championship. A week later, the Utes defeated BYU 52-21 to punch their ticket to the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. Utah beat Pittsburgh 35-7 in Tempe to finish off its first perfect season in school history.
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Fast forward to now — and an old rivalry renewed
Saturday’s game isn’t quite at the level that it was when the two schools were in the same conference.
“When we were in the same league, it had a certain cachet,” Hill said.
Utah (3-0), now in a power conference, has more talent than Wyoming (2-0) and is a 22.5-point favorite.
But as four power conference teams have learned, including the opponent of Utah’s Big 12 opener, underestimate the Cowboys and War Memorial Stadium at your own risk.
Saturday should be a wild and fun atmosphere in Laramie.
“When I played there two years ago, yeah, they were pretty rowdy and it’s honestly super fun,” Davis said. “They’re pretty on top of you. It’s packed. So yeah, it’s an atmosphere you want to play in.”
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Whittingham and Utah are not looking past this game to next Saturday’s game against Texas Tech at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“We got to understand that as a team and we thought we did a good job preparing last week, knowing that Cal Poly had essentially everything to gain and nothing to lose against us,” Whittingham said.
“And anytime you take anyone for granted or don’t understand the dynamics of the game, then bad things can happen. But our guys are smart guys. They understand exactly what you just said and we’ve got to prepare with the same intention and the same efficiency and the same work ethic that we have any other game.”
The first game between Utah and Wyoming was played in 1904, a 23-0 Ute win. In 2025, after a 15-year break, the series will return — but after that, it might be quite a while until the Utes play at War Memorial Stadium again.
Tom Smart, Deseret News
