"But when you're at the bottom looking up for a few years, it's easy to get upset and gain that hatred, and I think it's carried over from then on. Maybe one of their players could explain it better than I can."

Jorgensen said BYU gives this undefeated Ute team respect. "They've earned it."

While both teams certainly feel the burden of this big-game atmosphere with a conference title and BSC considerations in the air, the Utes have got a lot of traction over two bitter last-second losses in 2006 and 2007, games that should have been theirs.

While I cringe over the term Holy War and hate the label, there's no ignoring that church and state fits in.

For many non-LDS Utah fans, it's easy to hate the perceived churchy BYU program. And LDS Ute fans get sick of BYU playing the church card.

And there is a hype disconnect. Utah feeds off it; BYU manages it.

BYU decided to "handle" distractions of increased media interviews by shutting down access after Monday. Utah has locked up practices, but will feed media requests most of the week.

In Provo, Bronco Mendenhall and some players say they have no problem with the football part of such a week of pressure, but it's the casual chatter that becomes a distraction.

"I'm not sure reason becomes part of this week in trying to deal with my own neighbors and ward members," Mendenhall said. "There are points where people just won't listen.

"I've really stopped talking and I just worry about our team. The best thing I can do is care for our program and our team. I'll go from the office to my house and there's not much else I'll do this week other than go behind closed doors and try to avoid them."

Jorgensen said his least favorite part of Utah week is talking to everybody about the game.

"It's talking to the media, talking to people I've never talked to who only want to talk to me because it's Utah week and talking to family members for that exact same reason," he said. "That's what I hate the most about Utah week.

Concludes Jorgensen: "The thing I enjoy the most is playing the game because when you go out in a rivalry game, with everything on the line, it is why you play sports. If you don't like that, you shouldn't be out there."

Five more days.

Time can't go fast enough.

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com