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Clever BYU students troll Utah with hard hats, 'safety first' signs

jeff eisenberg
Senior writer

Twenty-four hours after Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak halted his team's century-old rivalry with BYU out of purported safety concerns for his players, the Cougars student section found clever ways to express their disgust with that decision.

Many BYU students came to Thursday night's game against Santa Clara wearing construction hats, bicycle helmets, football helmets and other forms of safety gear.

Others toted funny homemade signs poking fun at Utah.

And whenever there was a hard foul that drew a whistle from the referees, the BYU students also chanted, "That's not safe! That's not safe!"

The mockery from the BYU student section was aimed at Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak's decision to back out of next season's previously scheduled game at the Marriott Center and offer no guarantee when he will agree to resume the rivalry. BYU and Utah have played at least once every year since 1909 with the exception of 1944 when the season was cut short due to World War II.

Krystkowiak cited incidents in two of the last three meetings between the two teams as his rationale for halting the series. BYU guard Nick Emery was ejected and later suspended one game after punching Utah's Brandon Taylor late in the Utes' 83-75 victory at the Huntsman Center earlier this season. Two years ago, BYU center Eric Mika was ejected after a flagrant foul against Utes center Dallin Bachynski.

"The events that have occurred in our recent games with BYU led me to ask [athletic director Chris] Hill several weeks ago if we could take a cooling off period and put the rivalry on hold," Krystkowiak said in a statement. "The level of emotions has escalated to the point where there is the potential for serious injury. Chris said he would support me in canceling next year's scheduled game against BYU."

I wrote at length on Wednesday why halting the series is a massive overreaction and bad for college hoops, but the BYU student section immediately proved one of my central points. A hiatus isn't going to cool off the rivalry; It's only going to create more tension.

The easy response from Utah fans to BYU's mockery on Thursday night is to point to the scoreboard in the team's most recent meetings. The Utes have won the last five football games between the two rivals and the last three basketball games.

Utah will have a chance to extend its football win streak next season. Hopefully Krystkowiak reconsiders and the Utes basketball team gets that same opportunity soon.

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!