Will BYU defeat Utah on Saturday?

Well, in a word, "no."

But anything is possible in college football, and that certainly applies to a rivalry game come Saturday, a key contest for both schools.

Generally speaking, BYU has an almost insurmountable task. The Cougars must do what they do best and avoid doing what they've done all season long — have strings of mistakes.

Chances of that happening are remote but not out of the question.

Face it, Utah's offense is one of the most efficient in college football — given the adjunct failure of 10 opponents to stop it.

But a huge key the past month for the Utes is the play-making ability of senior free safety Morgan Scalley. This guy's wearing a cape, leaping over buildings and deflecting bullets while out racing trains. Six interceptions, a blocked field goal, a fumble recovery returned 82 yards for a touchdown? Scalley is a one-man jump start for the Utes in wins over Wyoming, UNLV, CSU and SDSU and may be the most dangerous player in the league, apologies to his QB.

Then comes Alex Smith, the man of the perfect reads and execution.

Nobody's got to his CPU, nobody's found a bug in his program.

To defeat the Utes, BYU will need two things to go their way besides avoiding the Morgan Scalley back-breaking act in the first quarter (turnovers) and getting Smith's uniform somewhat dirty on rubberized FieldTurf.

First, BYU's offensive line will need to play its best game of the season, freeing running back Curtis Brown to adequately attack the Ute defense. Say a 130 yards or so might do. Teams that have had any success against Kyle Whittingham's defense have run the football successfully and avoided getting into a bomb-launching contest that usually proves futile with sacks and interceptions.

Second: If the first happens, and there is ample evidence that it won't after seeing the Cougars against New Mexico, the Utes will have to deal with the long ball from John Beck to Todd Watkins and Austin Collie. This is perhaps the biggest challenge the Ute defense may be vulnerable to — if an opponent is on, motivated and executing. Ask Air Force and San Diego State.

Now, these chores are two pretty big orders for anybody, let alone the Cougars, who are 21-point underdogs in a rivalry game that's averaged about a six-point difference the past half dozen years.

The oddsmakers usually have things pretty tagged.

But this is no ordinary rivalry.

By the same argument, this is no ordinary Ute squad.