2 rivals, 2 phone calls and a prayer that changed history

It was a Friday in February 1986 when Springville High’s big-shot quarterback received the first of two life-changing phone calls. Exhausted by the recruiting process, Scott Mitchell was bound and determined to take his 6-foot-5 frame and left-handed rocket launcher of an arm to Stanford.
He knew his decision ran counter to all the hopes and dreams from his childhood that had him suiting up to play for LaVell Edwards at nearby BYU. Mitchell grew up idolizing Gifford Nielsen, Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Steve Young and Robbie Bosco, and he never missed a home game the season Bosco’s Cougars went 13-0 and won the 1984 national championship.
“I always thought I was going to go to BYU. It wasn’t even a question,” Mitchell told the “Y’s Guys” podcast this week. “I went to Stanford on a (recruiting) visit and fell in love with the place.”
Mitchell desired to play both football and baseball and the weather during his January visit to Stanford was decorated by green grass and warm sunshine — a far cry from Utah’s cold winter inversions. He was sold.
Then the phone rang.
It was the Friday before signing day. Stanford assistant coach Sonny Lubick called to inform Mitchell the Cardinal was going to offer someone else.
“I thought I was going to BYU and then Stanford came along and now they are gone,” said Mitchell. “What am I going to do?”
The days that followed were full of frustration, confusion, anxiety, soul searching — and a second phone call.
“I went in my room on Monday night and started to pray,” Mitchell said. “I’m praying and the phone rings. My mom yells down to my room — ‘Coach Fassel is on the phone!’”
Mitchell didn’t move.
“I don’t want to talk to him,” he thought. “I’m trying to get an answer to my prayer.”
Jim Fassel was the head coach at the University of Utah. The Utes were fresh off a 2-9 season that included a 35-21 loss at home to BYU. Fassel didn’t think he had a prayer of landing Mitchell, but with signing day approaching, he made his pitch — kind of like throwing a last-second Hail Mary.
The Mitchells had one phone, but the cord was long enough to reach throughout the house. Begrudgingly, the teenager took the call while standing halfway between the basement and upstairs. Even 38 years later, the details of the exchange remain vivid in his mind.
“So, I answer the phone,” Mitchell said. “I’m not listening to a word he says. I couldn’t tell you what the conversation was, but halfway through the call I had this unbelievable peace come over me. It was so powerful that I was like, ‘This is where I needed to go to school,’ and I knew my prayer had been answered.”
The next day, Mitchell met Fassel at a hamburger joint in Springville and with the Utah coach sitting right below a picture of Edwards, he committed to play for the Utes. Fassel sat stunned.
“I went to the University of Utah and my experience was more personal. It wasn’t really about football,” he said. “We weren’t very good. The only reason I threw for a million yards was because I had to. But for me personally, I found my foundation, what really mattered to me in my life, and it still is that way today. So, I’m grateful for it.”
In addition to finding his faith, Mitchell threw for a school-record 8,981 passing yards and 69 touchdowns before throwing for over 15,000 yards as a 12-year veteran in the NFL. The amazing journey began with two phone calls and an answer to a prayer, but the benefits were not exclusive to Mitchell and the Utes.
“Ty (Detmer) told me, ‘Had you gone to BYU, I wouldn’t have. You were my missionary,’” Mitchell said. “So, it’s all good.”
Mitchell joined the Utes during a downtrodden time in the BYU-Utah rivalry. The Cougars had won 15 of the previous 16 meetings, including nine in a row.
“The thing that was so annoying to me was that BYU was like, ‘Utah is not our rival. We always beat them,’” Mitchell said. “It really burns and chaps you.”
Then 1988 happened.
“We started in the spring. We started talking about how we were going to beat BYU because BYU was really good,” he said. “A lot of times when you are a really good team, you get really predictable.”
As expected, BYU rolled into Rice-Eccles Stadium that November already bowl-bound with an 8-2 record. Utah was 5-5, but ready to pounce.
“This is how it was — on first down, they (BYU) were in cover-three. On second down they were in cover two and on third down, they were in quarters coverage, and it never changed,” remembered Mitchell. “I said, ‘OK, we are going to run this play on first down. If we get to second down, we are going to run this play and when we get to third down, we are going to run this play.”
No matter what down it was, or which play was called, Utah’s offense fired like it hadn’t fired in years. Mitchell blistered BYU for 384 yards passing and three touchdowns. The Utes built a 36-14 lead in the third quarter and raced to a 57-28 victory. To this day, the 57 points remain the most a Utah team has scored against the Cougars.
“I knew before I put my shoes on what (that) game was going to be like,” Mitchell said. “They were much better than us. Across the board, they were the better team. But we had so much confidence and we were tired of getting picked on and beaten up and we just said, ‘We’ve had enough!’”
Mitchell, inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, is in his eighth season as the analyst for the Utes football broadcasts with play-by-play announcer Bill Riley on ESPN 700 and 92.1 FM. He believes head coach Kyle Whittingham will command his last BYU-Utah game on Saturday (8:15 p.m., ESPN).
“Yeah, I do,” he said. “It just feels like to me that this is the end.”
Whittingham, 64, is 166-83 in 20 seasons as Utah’s head coach. Saturday will be his 250th game and the 16th time he has faced his alma mater, where he is 11-4.
In July, the University of Utah named defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley as Whittingham’s successor whenever the coach decides to call it a career. Mitchell would like to see the Utes honor Whittingham and the rivalry by playing with passion on Saturday.
“We just haven’t seen that yet,” he said. “One thing that stands out to me about BYU is they look like they are having fun. They show up every week and they play hard and that’s 90% of the battle in football or life — you have to act like you want to be there.”
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.