One of the things Utah's football rise has provided is a way for disaffected Utahns to push-back on perceived social and religious arrogance of BYU, it's fanbase, the LDS church, etc.

In many communities in Utah, the BYU faithful were bluebloods, business owners, community leaders, priesthood leaders, etc. Utah fans included the underclass, blue-collar workers, the guys who as kids good Mormon moms wouldn't want their children to play with, let alone their daughters to date.

Into this dysfunctional dynamic enter the ALUFs, who *really* resent BYU fans painting all Utes as monster truck driving drunkards, who resent being labeled as turncoats, or not as "select", or 2nd class passengers within the LDS movement.

I've been going to Utah football games since 1973. It's been a fascinating ride. We used to be terrible, we were the team that had the imported heathen players from the hood, we built up a LOT of anger and resentment.

When we started to get better, all kinds of new people joined, including roughnecks, and a LOT of good LDS people.

This whole topic could be a book.