Utah Utes football: Team expects Cowboys to be intense

It remains to be seen if Wyoming is still seething over last year's 50-0 loss to Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The Cowboys were especially upset by an onside kick the Utes completed with a 43-point lead. It prompted a one-finger response from Wyoming coach Joe Glenn, who raised Utah's ire earlier in the week by guaranteeing a victory.

At the Mountain West Conference meetings in July, Glenn said the "hatchet has been buried" and that he and Utah coach Kyle Whittingham were good friends.

Earlier this week, Whittingham re-emphasized that the rift is over.

"That's dead and buried," he said. "I've seen Coach Glenn two or three times since then, and that's in the past."

While the 13th-ranked Utes (6-0) appear to have moved on, defensive end Paul Kruger isn't so sure the Cowboys (2-4) are doing the same. Last year's game was quite emotional on both sides.

"I'm sure they're using that as fuel to heat the fire. I'm assuming they're going to have some hatred and intense stuff going on," Kruger said. "I think it's going to be a fight, and I think it's going to be an intense game."

Teams are going to do whatever they can to get fired up, he added, and get everyone on the same page.

"They're going to give us their best shot. There's no doubt in anybody's mind," said Kruger, who vowed the Utes would do the same.

"I can't guess how it's going to end. But I think it's going to be a fight until the end of the game. I don't think they plan on folding and neither do we."

Especially in Laramie, where homecoming is being celebrated.

"I'm sure they'll be fired up. They whacked us up there two years ago," Whittingham said while making reference to Wyoming's 31-15 win over Utah in 2006. "They put one on us."

War Memorial Stadium, he added, has always been a tough place to play.

"It's a hostile environment," said middle linebacker Mike Wright, who noted that Wyoming's fans get into it and make it a tough place to play."

Utah holds a slim 19-18 lead in games played at Wyoming.