Michigan Know Your Foe: Utah

Michigan opens its season, and a new era, by hosting the University of Utah, a powerhouse team in the Mountain West. This is the second time the two schools will meet. Michigan won the first meeting 10-7 in Ann Arbor. How will Michigan fare in the first game of its new era? Well, the first thing you have to do is KNOW YOUR FOE.

History: The U of Utah was founded in 1850 by none other than the man who founded Salt Lake City: the famous Bringham Young. This is pretty ironic, consi founded. He had a st the school in Provo that's named after him. Well, this is the one heake in BYU but didn't found it. In fact, BYU was originally a part of the U of Utah system. He initially called it the "University of Deseret," which to an untrained eye sounds like some idiot misspelling "Desert." But in fact it actuallydering you'd think he founded is a term that refers to "honeybee" in the Book of Mormon (if you didn't know, Bringham Young was the second real Mormon leader). The school was a failure and had to move underground, but was reopened as the University of Utah in 1894 and located to its current location in Salt Lake in 1900.

Location: Salt Lake City. The capital of Utah and home to some damn good skiing (go to Solitude. I'm sending you RIGHT NOW). It's actually a very diverse city and is very friendly to GLBT people, which is also ironic, considering Utah is the most conservative state in the country (well, there IS the rest of Utah). The city is, of course, located next to the Salt Lake, but I've seen it from a plane and it honestly looks almost as bad as, say, the Mississippi River. There are lots of fun things to do as well, such as Sundance in nearby Park City.

Nickname: The Utes. They were named after the Ute Tribe of the Rocky Mountains (which is also the source of the name "Utah." This is ironic considering a lot of the Native American mascot controversies around the country, most infamously the Illinois Fighting Illini. They also call their teams the "Running Utes." I like this nickname because of its local and unique flavor. They also have permission from the Ute Tribal Council to use the nickname.


Mascot: It's sort of hard to portray a Ute and not get controversial, so they use a bird named Swoop. When I first saw this, I thought "Yawn, another Eagle." But Swoop is a red tailed hawk, which is a bird native to the state of Utah.


Colors: Crimson and white. This will be the first of five schools Michigan will be playing this year that uses some form of red as their school color. In I-A football, five other schools use some form of this color combination, although they call their white by different names. Indiana and Oklahoma call it crimson and cream. Washington State calls their white "gray," although I see no gray on Wazzou's logo. Only Alabama and New Mexico State call their white "white." Harvard also uses this color combination.


Logo: The logo is a block U inside a circle with a Native American style headdress coming out the back. I don't know if the Utes actually dressed like that, because that's an old stereotype about eastern tribes, and the Utes are a southwestern tribe. Sometimes they just use the block U without the headdress. Since 1975, the football helmets incorporated the logo incorporated this logo onto the helmet.


















Fight Song: The fight song is called "Utah Man:"

I am a Utah man, sir, and I live across the green.
Our gang, it is the jolliest that you have ever seen.
Our coeds are the fairest and each one's a shining star.
Our yell, you hear it ringing through the mountains near and far.

Who am I, sir? A Utah man am I A Utah man, sir, and will be till I die; Ki!Yi!
We're up to snuff; we never bluff,
We're game for any fuss,
No other gang of college men
dare meet us in the muss.
So fill your lungs and sing it out and
shout it to the sky,
We'll fight for dear old Crimson,
for a Utah man am I.

And when we prom the avenue, all lined up in a row,
And arm in arm and step in time as down the street we go.
No matter if a freshman green, or in a senior's gown,
The people all admit we are the warmest gang in town.

Who am I, sir? A Utah man am I A Utah man, sir, and will be till I die; Ki!Yi!
We're up to snuff; we never bluff,
We're game for any fuss,
No other gang of college men
dare meet us in the muss.
So fill your lungs and sing it out and
shout it to the sky,
We'll fight for dear old Crimson,
for a Utah man am I.

We may not live forever on this jolly good old sphere,
But while we do we'll live a life of merriment and cheer,
And when our college days are o'er and night is drawing nigh,
With parting breath we'll sing that song:
"A Utah Man Am I".

Who am I, sir? A Utah man am I A Utah man, sir, and will be till I die; Ki!Yi!
We're up to snuff; we never bluff,
We're game for any fuss,
No other gang of college men
dare meet us in the muss.
So fill your lungs and sing it out and
shout it to the sky,
We'll fight for dear old Crimson,
for a Utah man am I.

Academics: U.S. News ranks Utah at 127th in the country. Utah is one of the leading pioneers in genetics. Many attribute this to the fact that the LDS Church always placed this at a high priority. Utah also has a good political science program, although despite Utah's being the most conservative state, neither Utah nor BYU produce an army of politicians. The Utah medical school is also very well known.


Athletics: Urban Meyer got his head coaching start at Utah and brought the football team onto the national stage in recent years. Utah consistently performs very well both in and out of conference. In fact, the Utes have the second longest active bowl winning streak after Boston College. This includes a win over Pittsburgh in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. The quarterback at the time, Alex Smith, would go first in the '05 NFL draft. The Utes play at Rice-Eccles Stadium on campus, which has been used since 1927.


The Runnin' Utes men's basketball team is a source of pride. The school played in 28 NCAA tournaments, which is seventh most all time. They won the national championship in 1944 and played in three other final fours, including as late as 1998. And in 2005, Andrew Bogut won the Naismith Trophy.

Utah also has a stellar women's gymnastics team and because of its location, has a ski team. Utah has been talking about getting a lacrosse team, and I will push and push and push them to do it.


Rival: Bringham Young University. BYU-Utah is one of the great in-state rivalries in college sports. Almost everyone in Utah attends one of these schools, and the rivalry can often divide families. The rivalry is called the "Holy War," which is another irony, considering only one of the schools is religious. The schools began play in football in 1922, and are only about an hour away from each other. The rivalry can get brutal at times, like when several baseball players from Utah vandalized BYU's "Y Mountain." This shows that the rivalry is intense in all sports. Few rivalries can be intense in both football and basketball. This is one of the few.
Famous Alums: A lot of Mormon clergy went to Utah, probably out of convenience to the center of LDS life in Salt Lake. But not everyone who comes out of this university is pure. Karl Rove went here, although he never graduated. A lot of CEOs went here, including the founders of Marriott and one of my favorite programs of all time, WordPerfect (screw you, Steve Balmer).
The Game: This will be a very important game for Michigan to win. If they win, it will be a HUGE victory over one of the most underrated teams in college football. Utah is no light task, and can easily beat Michigan if inexperience shows its light. R2 will have his team ready, but it won't be enough. Utah 27, Michigan 24.