For the record, I’m strictly talking about whether or not Ute Defenders are actually going to try and physically injure Samson Nacua when they face off this fall. Which is what I thought was the actual topic here. That, and ONLY that was the context of my response.

As far as what Urban Meyer did once arriving at Utah, love him or hate him- it’s obviously pretty easy to hate him and while my personal beliefs won’t allow me to hate a fellow human being over the game of football, let’s just say that he’s pretty far down my list on “likeable people”, I still can’t deny that the guy knows how to energize a fanbase and put butts in seats. He immediately saw the value of the BYU-Utah rivalry and tried to stoke the flames as much as he possibly could.

The BYU urinal cakes was something that he copped from the OSU-Michigan rivalry (just like the TDS thing) and while in poor taste, I see it as a jab at BYU in an attempt to stoke the rivalry and NOT a jab at the LDS religion. Like I said, love or hate the guy, he knew what was good and bad for business. When the team you coach is located in the state of Utah, a large percentage of the kids already on your team, and future recruits are LDS, not to mention alumni that were big time donors and over half your fanbase (the people you need to spend money on tickets), I have a really hard time believing Urban launched an anti-LDS crusade upon his arrival at Utah.

Some of the things you mentioned about Utah players mocking the LDS faith took place with Whitt as HC, and I have a hard time believing that type of attitude/behavior was/is accepted by the coaching staff and a large majority of Utah players. Those events were definitely hurtful to see, and I sincerely hope that those were just a few isolated incidents by some ignorant kids and Whittingham as well as the LDS players used those situations as teaching moments and as well as strongly acknowledging that future behavior would not be accepted.

Sorry for the long winded answer, but with all respect, I think you are painting with too broad of a brush. Simply put: I do not think Utah players are going to try and hurt Nacua when they face off and I’d be willing to bet Nacua agrees with me.