Utah Utes vs BYU Cougars Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 10/18/25

While the SEC will take center stage on Saturday, one of the biggest games of the weekend comes in the Big 12, where the BYU Cougars are set to take on the Utah Utes in the annual “Holy War” game. This should be a battle between a couple of heated rivals, and I’m confident in the Utes to exact a bit of revenge from last year’s heartbreaking defeat at home, in which Utah was one late flag call away from knocking off a better version of this BYU team, while also starting its fourth string quarterback in that game. It goes without saying that Kyle Whittingham’s team is in a much better situation from an injury perspective this time around, and we’ve seen the Utes bounce back in a big way in recent weeks after looking a bit overmatched against Texas Tech last month. As it turned out, some of the Utes’ key pieces were banged up on both sides in that game — including quarterback Devon Dampier. The dynamic Dampier has looked like his old self of late, including rushing for 120 yards and 3 touchdowns against a very solid Arizona State defensive front a week ago. Even while playing a pretty solid schedule thus far, the Utah offense is 8th in success rate and 1st in 3rd and 4th down success rate for a reason, and Jason Beck’s unit should see success against a BYU defense that is certainly due for some major turnover regression going forward.

As for the hosts, BYU has certainly been one of the more fortunate teams in the Power 4 to this point, with the Cougars benefiting massively from turnover luck on both sides of the ball against the likes of East Carolina and Colorado, while also squeaking out a comeback victory over Arizona a week ago, a game in which they recovered multiple of their own fumbles, including one with under a minute left as they were embarking on a game-tying drive. Freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier has certainly been impressive and poised to this point, but the Utah defense is a completely different animal for a young player. Morgan Scalley’s unit is 13th in success rate allowed, 11th in Early Downs EPA and 11th in quality drive rate allowed (CFB-Graphs), so it’s hard to see BYU having much success in a game where the Cougars won’t have the edge on the line of scrimmage. The Cougars have already struggled with finishing drives, and that isn’t likely to improve on Saturday. I’ll lay the points with the Utes.

Utah vs BYU prediction: Utah Utes -3 available at time of publishing. Playable at that number. 

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Regardless of which team comes out on top in Provo on Saturday, my inclination with this rivalry is to take the under, especially now that the number is nearing 50. As previously mentioned, we can expect Whittingham’s team to focus on controlling the line of scrimmage, and that means a concentrated effort to get Dampier and company going on the ground against this solid BYU defensive front. Conversely, I’m projecting that things will be quite difficult for Bachmeier against a Utes pass defense that is 17th in EPA per dropback and 19th in passing success rate allowed, especially compared to what he faced against Colorado and Arizona. Ultimately, the Cougars can be expected to struggle a bit on offense when stepping up in class, and I could certainly see a feeling-out process in this game as both sides get used to the opponent. Let’s bank on this one being played in the mid-20s on Saturday.

Under 49.5 available at time of publishing. Playable to 49.