Devon Dampier played last season's loss to BYU on a heavily taped ankle. On Saturday morning he faces the Cougars again, fully healthy and leading a No. 3 Utah team that is 8-0 overall and 5-0 in the Big 12, as the Utes host No. 9 BYU.
The result will shape the conference race and the College Football Playoff picture. Beating BYU would leave Utah as the favorite to reach the Big 12 title game in Arlington and would help protect its lofty playoff ranking. A loss would cost the Utes that cushion.
BYU arrives with less room for error. The Cougars were ranked No. 2 until a road loss at UCF two weeks ago. A win keeps their Arlington and playoff hopes alive, while a defeat would leave their season goals mostly out of their own hands. BYU has also won the past three meetings in the rivalry.
A quarterback's second chance
Dampier threw for 244 yards, two touchdowns and an interception in the 2025 loss to BYU while playing through two sports hernias and a lingering right-ankle injury. The senior said before this season that he wanted to perform better in Utah's biggest games.
This fall, he has thrown for 1,876 yards with 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions, and he has run 83 times for 393 yards and five scores. He also has a chance to become the first Utah quarterback to lead the program into the College Football Playoff.
Dampier said he is approaching the rivalry like any other week, crediting coach Morgan Scalley for instilling a mindset that treats every game as a championship.
Former Utah quarterback Brian Johnson, now coaching with the Los Angeles Rams, has a simple message for Dampier: keep being himself. Johnson praised him as a playmaker who wins from the pocket, outside the structure of a play and as a runner.
When you have really good quarterback play, you have a chance to win every game you play,
Brian Johnson, former Utah quarterback
Johnson faced a similar test in 2008, when the 11-0, No. 7 Utes hosted 10-1, No. 14 BYU at Rice-Eccles Stadium. A year earlier he had thrown two interceptions and managed just 129 passing yards in a 17-10 loss in Provo. Utah won the 2008 rematch 48-24 and went on to finish 12-0 with a Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama.
Johnson said his team prepared that week exactly as it always did, arguing that players who change their routine for a big game should ask why they are not working that way every week.
Where the game may turn
BYU will be without star LJ Martin but has quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who is hard to rattle and skilled at extending plays. The Cougars' offensive line could test a Utah defense that struggles in the backfield: BYU ranks first nationally in fewest tackles for loss allowed and fourth in sacks allowed, while Utah's defense ranks 98th in tackles for loss and 63rd in sacks.
Utah's offense presents its own problems. The Utes break tackles, pile up yards after contact and convert third downs at a rate topped by only two teams nationwide, with Wayshawn Parker among their most dangerous runners. BYU's defense has missed tackles and been exposed on the edge since the UCF loss, and Dampier fits the profile of the fast, elusive quarterback that gave the Cougars trouble in that game.
