"twittersphere". I've been to many games at Rice Eccles, my brother is a long time booster of the U, has met with the coaches many times, 50 yard line season ticket holder. I have friends who played for the U. I've followed them closely for over 30 years.

The hate really was ratcheted up a notch by Urban Meyer, the urinal cakes, TDS, etc. (thats not just promoting "beating them on the field") It promoted a disdain and disrespect and hate that was not previously seen before at least to that level in the rivalry. Prior to that for many fans it was a game day rivalry, beat them on the field kind of thing, but became much more toxic and then Utah's success after the fact seemed to just throw fuel on the fire. There used to be many more fans of both teams that would actually root for the other when they were not playing each other, not sure there are much of those anymore. Urban wanted to develop that attitude within the culture of the program and it spilled over to the fans too. He hated seeing so many BYU fans at U games and the perception in the State of Utah that BYU was the majority favored team. IMO, it was his idea to try and change that with hate and disrespect vs just doing it on the field.

My wife worked at primary childrens hospital and the U hospital and you could see the disdain, look on U fans faces anytime anyone brought up BYU and this is true with just about every U fan I've encountered and they find out I am a BYU fan, booster etc. I've sat in almost every part of rice eccles over the years for games with my brother and always wear my BYU gear, as he wears his Ute gear to BYU games with me at LES.

Not all staff and admin at the U hate BYU but there are quite a few and if not out right hate/disdain it's disrespect. There was an interview with Whit and Urban on ESPN a couple years ago where Whit said BYU instead of TDS to a question about the rivalry from one of the other hosts and Urban immediately said "what did I tell you about that". That attitude seems to permeate the program now and maybe seen by many as needed competitive edge.

I will admit it has seemed to soften a bit since Kalani became the head coach, which Is refreshing. Would be nice to have the rivalry stay as competitive as it is but kept in perspective, settled on the field and then more of a playful banter but respect between the fan bases