How would you characterize Utah-Arizona?

[CincyUte]

We’ve been playing these guys for a long, long time.  We played thirteen times as WAC rivals.  And we’ve played five times as Pac-12 rivals.  Overall, we’ve played them forty-one times.  Highlights include 1972 (when we came back from a 27-point fourth quarter deficit) and 1994 (last-minute win in the Freedom Bowl).  Lowlights include 2002 (when the refs took away Josh Lyman’s winning touchdown) and each of the last four seasons.

So in your opinion, how strong is the Utah-Arizona rivalry on a scale from 0-5 (zero being Utah-San Jose-esque; five being Holy War circa 2008-esque)?

Also, how would you characterize the Utah-Arizona rivalry/series/relationship overall?  Do you hate them?  Respect them?  Fear them?  Love ’em?  More of a basketball rivalry?  Explain.

And finally–what is your favorite Utah-Arizona memory? And why?

[Anonymous]

I hate them in basketball mostly because of this irrational belief they get all of the calls. Favorite memory is beating them I always want them to lose. 

[rbmw263]

and this guy

Whats with Arizona and the mega douche coaches (could probably lump ASU in the mega douche coach category)<br><br><br>

[Anonymous]

Zona schools have cornered the market on uber douches as coaches. If Todd Graham, Rich Rod and Sean Miller walked into a room the world might explode. 

[CincyUte]

Here are my answers:

I’d rate the Utah-Arizona rivalry as a four.  I want to beat those guys badly.   Mostly because I’m p**sed we’ve lost to them four times in a row. But also because each time they’ve beat us, it’s come at a really bad time.  Also, I like having an all-time winning record against them; but that will no longer be the case if we lose on Saturday. 

My favorite Utah-Arizona game was 2005.  It was the first game since the Fiesta Bowl, Kyle’s first game as HC and Brian Johnson’s first start.  If I remember correctly, we controlled the game, but they came back and made it close in the end.  Pretty exciting way to end a long off-season.

[89ute]

When we became Pac-12 members I thought of Arizona as a team we would regularly beat.  It certainly started out that way but as we all know it’s not the case.  Arizona frustrates me because I still think it’s a team we should handle but they kick our asses.  Look at last year, Fanika knocks out Solomon and the backup can’t complete a single pass for half the game, except for the last one, and we still lost.  We should have beaten that team soundly but couldn’t.

Now for Rich-Rod.  I would never want him as a coach but I love the guy. I find him extremely entertaining.  He blows up  at his players, throws tantrums, always screams at his QB … he cracks me up without fail.  NEVER want to see him in Ute gear for the reasons just listed but I hope he hangs around the conference for a long time.

I don’t view Arizona as any kind of rival, just another conference member that we play incredibly intense games against.

[Puget Ute]

Zona schools have cornered the market on uber douches as coaches. If Todd Graham, Rich Rod and Sean Miller walked into a room the world might explode. 

Especially if Bobby Hurley shows up…

[Tony (admin)]

I pretty much hate their football team because of the heartbreaking losses the last few years.

[bopahull]

My favorite memory was that 1972 game. I was home on leave heading for the submarine fleet out of Hawaii. That was a great comeback.

[Utahute72]

That 72 game was one of my favorites of all time.