Forty things bound to happen in today's BYU-Utah football game ...

1 » Max Hall will throw at least one interception, probably two.

2 » Hall will throw at least two touchdown passes, probably three.

3 » Some form of heinous fan behavior will erupt in the stands.

4 » A Utah player will have decaffeinated Coke dumped on him.

5 » A BYU player will have contraband Jack Daniel's dumped on him.

6 » A godless Ute fan will get hit in the head with a book of scripture.

7 » An 80-year-old Ute -- or Cougar -- fan (depending on who's telling the story), a grandma of 10, a great-grandma of four, will get shoved down the steps at LaVell Edwards

A lone BYU fan is surrounded by Utah fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium last year. He should have more company this year in Provo. (Tribune file photo)
Stadium by a drunken Ute -- or self-righteous Cougar -- booster.

9 » BYU's corners will make like Snuggles the Bear and play Downy soft.

10 » Wynn will hit David Reed and Jereme Brooks on three deep routes, probably four.

11 » Dennis Pitta will catch at least five balls.

12 » Hall will not throw 55 passes, like last year, and will not chuck five -- or was it 55? -- picks.

13 » Eddie Wide will run for 100 yards, but only if Wynn gets his 200 through the air.

14 » Although BYU will blitz, it will struggle to get pressure on Wynn.

15 » BYU and Utah will not both wear their red and blue home jerseys, but it would be cool if they did.

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16 » The P.A. announcer who regularly yells, "That's another Cougar ... [waiting for BYU fans to complete the sentence] ... FIRST DOWN" will not actually choke on his mic on that call, but nearly everyone in the building will wish he would.

17 » Bowl reps from the Vegas and the Poinsettia will be on hand to grab the winner and the loser.

18 » The winner will act thrilled to go to Vegas and the loser thrilled to head for San Diego, though neither is any kind of real reward. On the other hand, what kind of great reward should the second- and third-place conference finishers get?

19 » Bronco Mendenhall will try to look like he's having fun, because, as he says it, football is supposed to be fun.

20 » BYU, as a team, will show more emotion than usual, sometimes forcing it to the point of overkill, jumping around on routine tackles, hugging after routine gains, congratulating one another at every turn.

21 » Kyle Whittingham will publicly show great respect to BYU and its players and privately tell his guys that the Cougars called their mothers donkeys and their sisters labradoodles.

22 » Utah's defense will attempt to key on Pitta, and try to force Hall to look outside for his passing yards.

23 » Harvey Unga will not be 100 percent, but, like Eight-Yard Eddie, he will get 100 yards.

24 » Robert Anae will have to fight the inclination to get too cute in his play-calling.

25 » Whittingham, defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake, offensive co-coordinator Aaron Roderick will all at some point take a gander around LaVell's Place and have quick, quiet flashbacks to their days as players at BYU.

26 » Utah will fumble the ball at least once, probably twice.

27 » As it has done all season, BYU's defense will yield a lot of offensive yards -- this time nearly 400 -- to the spread.

28 » Unga, a junior and the all-time Cougar rushing leader, will play his last game at LES.

29 » McKay Jacobsen will burn the Utes on a fly route.

30 » Utah will sack Hall three times, probably four.

31 » Whittingham will wear coaching gear at least two sizes too small, probably three.

 

32 » In the postgame, Mendenhall will utter the phrase "higher level of execution" at least nine times, probably 10, shattering his school single-season record of that particular phrase mention, set last year at a mind-numbing 283 usages.

33 » More than a few Utes and Cougars will be relieved that a long, taxing regular season is done, giving their beat-down bodies and minds time to finally heal enough to feel like human beings again.

34 » O'Neill Chambers will finish off a sophomore season that disappointed more than just him.

35 » Michael Young and Cecil Samuelson will briefly wonder how they got their wires crossed, the Cougar now the president of Utah and the Ute the president of BYU.

36 » At the end, only one loss will separate the records of the Cougars and Utes, but it will make all the difference in the way their seasons are judged.

37 » Jan Jorgensen will get one last sack at LES, probably two.

38 » Koa Misi will get at least six tackles, probably seven.

39 » Robert Johnson will get at least one pick, probably two.

40 » Twenty of these predictions will be wrong, probably 21.

GORDON MONSON hosts the "Monson and Graham Show" weekdays form 2-6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com .