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These wishes for perfect seasons are mathematically impossible, because somebody must lose every in-state game. They're also emotionally unreasonable, because nobody can fully support their rivals.
Yet as the college football season begins Thursday, several stories should transcend partisan boundaries — to some degree, anyway. In random order, these are five Utah football figures you should cheering for this year:
Travis Seefeldt, Utah State • About 14 months after Seefeldt, three teammates and a former Aggie softball player sustained significant injuries when a semi-truck collided with the vehicle he was driving, the defensive lineman will return to Maverik Stadium when USU faces Weber State.
Seefeldt spoke this week of once "hoping I could take a step or brush my own teeth," and now he's playing football again as a preseason All-Mountain West pick. That might be a slightly sentimental choice, but Seefeldt has gradually regained his weight and strength and is vital to the Aggie defense.
Tim Patrick, Utah • One of college football's best stories will unfold Nov. 19 when Patrick and Oregon tight end Pharaoh Brown are reunited at Rice-Eccles Stadium. They were helped off the field and taken to University Hospital for surgery two years ago when the Utes and Ducks met, and have worked their way back from major injuries.
Patrick returned last year, only to be injured in the second game and miss the rest of the season. So he was thrilled to get through preseason practice, and is positioned for a big senior year in the Utes' revived offense. "Utah is known for being the worst passing team in the Pac-12," he said. "We're just ready to show everybody what we can do this year."
Taysom Hill, BYU • At some point this season, I'll look down and wonder who's No. 7, playing quarterback for BYU. Hill's switch from the No. 4 he made famous during parts of four seasons in Provo is a tribute to his brother, Dexter, who wore No. 7 in a quarterbacking career that concluded at Dixie State University in 2008.
A victim of addiction, Dexter Hill died in March. Anyone who attended his funeral in the Hills' hometown of Pocatello, Idaho, could sense the attachment that will will make this a very meaningful season for Taysom Hill in his latest comeback attempt from a series of injuries.
"I always wanted to be like him," Hill said that day of Dexter, who was seven grades ahead of him in school. "My love of football is because of my brother. … He taught me to compete and not take 'no' for an answer."
Sara Hill, Weber State • This is what I've learned in 50-plus seasons of having a father, brother and two nephews coach college football at 17 schools: Winning does not cure everything. Does it help, though? Absolutely.
Having to undergo chemotherapy treatment every other week for Hodgkin's lymphoma will be challenging for the wife of Wildcat coach Jay Hill. There's no softening what Sara Hill will have to deal with in recovering from those sessions. Yet if the treatment becomes even fractionally more tolerable for her because Weber State is winning games, that's sufficient reason to support the Wildcats.
Her form of cancer is "extremely curable," Jay Hill said, but he understands what's involved, and so do their four children of ages 5 to 16. This season will both test and bond the Hill family in multidimensional ways.
Demario Warren, Southern Utah • I would love for society to have advanced to the point where nobody notices that an African-American is making his head coaching debut Thursday at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The reality is that Warren's promotion to his SUU position is highly significant in Utah. And if he succeeds at SUU as the first black head coach of a Division I football program in Utah, he will enhance the perception of our state and its increasing diversity.
Larry Farmer didn't last long as Weber State's basketball coach in the mid-1980s and Tyrone Corbin was fired as the Jazz's coach in 2014.
Warren will be held to similarly high standards, but at age 31, he earned this opportunity and has a chance to go places in the profession. And it all will have started in Cedar City.