SALT LAKE CITY — BYU and Utah: Two Top 10 teams, just 40 minutes apart, will go head-to-head at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday morning, and businesses and fans are holding their breath to see which team comes out on top.
For some fans, it isn't a big ask to travel hundreds of miles to see Saturday's game.
"I flew in from the Bay Area, and I'm pumped; Utah's going to get it done," said Chris Cook, who lives in California.
It isn't even a big ask to travel thousands of miles for others.
"We are all the way from Chicago, so very far, it was like a three-and-a-half-hour flight, so yeah, pretty far and we're super excited for the game," said Isabelle Karl-Garcia, an incoming student at the University of Utah.
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Karl-Garcia is transferring to the University of Utah in the spring, and the rivalry game is the first time she and her mom have visited campus.
"It's a big game, and I definitely wanted to experience the football scenery, and yeah, we just knew it was a big game and the biggest rivalry and so we were super excited and that's why we came down," Karl-Garcia said.
Excitement isn't the only feeling in the air.
"I'm very nervous. I woke up at 6 a.m.; I was supposed to wake up at 8:30, and I just couldn't sleep," said University of Utah junior Nathan Cook. "I woke up, and I could not go back to bed, so I just started my day, and I'd be lying if I didn't say I was nervous. I feel like it always turns into a rock fight."
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It's a rock fight that so many came to see, booking out the nearest hotel weeks in advance.
"With both teams being a top ten ranked school, it creates that demand for the alumni who no longer live in Utah to want to come out or for the locals who want to have a good time with the Utah tailgate scene," Chris Balun said.
But for those who don't want to tailgate in a parking lot to watch the game, some bars downtown are starting early, right when the game starts, at 10 a.m.
"I mean if it were in the evening, we'd be packed and holding doors. But maybe that's what happens tomorrow too, I don't know,” said Duncan Burrell, a co-owner of Beer Bar. “I'm curious; I'm just as curious as anybody else how it's going to go. But we're ready regardless.”