This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The beautiful thing about sports is that it's OK to disagree about stuff.

The whole idea that everybody has to walk in lockstep, that everyone must agree when it comes to the way they think about teams and games and outcomes and issues and strategies and starting lineups is bogus. We're not talking about universal truths here. We're not debating the meaning of life. We're talking about who should win a game or who should make the playoffs or who should get the ball or who should line up under center.

Often, it's a matter of opinion, not a matter of fact.

Still, it's OK. You got to believe what you got to believe. You got to do what you got to do. And, sometimes, you can't just walk away. You got to make a stand.

That's what a couple of fellows did just shy of two weeks ago during a BYU football game. The details are sparse, but, apparently, one of the guys said Taysom Hill should be the Cougars' starting quarterback and one said Tanner Mangum should get the nod. And from there, it got violent.

Among BYU fans these days, this is where the line is drawn. The Cougars' Mason-Dixon Line. You're on one side or the other. It is the equivalent of the Hatfields and the McCoys. It's BYU's Great Divide.

Those in the Hill camp believe Taysom gives the Cougars their best chance of winning, despite the fact that they are now 1-3, having lost three straight games, a couple of which displayed the offensive efficiency and proficiency of your kid's Mitey-Mite squad. In those games, Hill didn't seem to be the same player he once was, a player who punished defenses both through the air and on the ground. The offensive line struggled and the receivers ran sloppy routes and caught the ball as though it were a bar of Irish Spring.

Those in the Mangum camp saw what Tanner did a year ago, without warning and without any chance to get re-acclimated to a game he hadn't actually played, on account of a gray-shirt year and a two-year church mission, for the better part of four years. And, still, he put on a show in many outings, performed admirably in others, and blew engine parts all over the road in a few. The people in this camp have seen the kind of quarterback Mangum can be, they've seen Ty Detmer's offense, and they are convinced it's a match made in Norm Chow's version of the game's celestial realm.

And, so, there the sides uneasily sit, neither really satisfied with what's going on, both wanting BYU to win, both hoping things in Kalani Sitake's first season as head coach turn around, each tired of the other's insistence that circumstances would get much better if their guy was established or re-established as the man.

There is no middle ground.

There's only the right choice, and the Tannerites are royally ticked that the Taysomites are having their way, the wrong way, while the Taysomites are seeing the Tannerites as a rebellious breakaway republic that are undermining their QB as he's in the throes of battle against tough competition.

But it's all in good fun, right? Everybody has his or her own idea of what should be and what shouldn't be. Ain't no good guy, ain't no bad guy, there's only you and me and we just disagree, right? Nobody would get in an actual fistfight over the dispute, right?

Wrong.

This little item recently appeared in BYU's student newspaper, The Daily Universe, as a part of a line-item police-beat report: "Sept. 17 — University Police responded to two males getting in a physical fight during the BYU vs. UCLA football game over who should be the starting quarterback."

As mentioned, the item is vague, and we probably wouldn't want to know the details if they weren't. But two men rather remarkably started punching each other over who BYU's quarterback should be.

It was LaVell Edwards, I believe, who said: "A football program divided against itself cannot stand."

And, yet, that's what they have at BYU: Opinion moved to action. A fifth-year senior who has battled back against all kinds of bad luck to good health and now custody of the starting position fate robbed from him last season pitted against a talented sophomore who, while minding his own business, had last season's starter's job thrust upon him, evidencing enough for a substantial number of Cougar fans to call for him to command the offense he is best-suited to lead.

You have Taysom over here and Tanner over there — T and T that's turning into a keg of TNT.

At the half of the BYU-UCLA game, coaches considered benching Hill and going with Mangum. Depending on which side of the divide you fall, they either thought better of it or chickened out. Then, last week, against West Virginia, they went with Hill in another loss in which the opposing quarterback made BYU's QB look inferior.

There's no telling how much longer the Tannerites can be held back. Their boiler is about to blow. The Taysomites aren't exactly celebrating. Defeat is taking too much of the joy out of Hill's comeback, causing nearly as much pain as Hill's past injuries. Maybe a game against Toledo will start the healing, again.

Heaven help the Taysomites if the Rockets roll the Cougars at home. If that were to happen, the Friday Night Fights would be on like Donkey Kong. (Side note: the first recorded use of that phrase in sports came when BYU defensive lineman Daren Yancey told reporters this about the team's upcoming game against Utah in 1998: "It's on. It's on like Donkey Kong.")

Even if BYU wins, the Tannerites think what they think and know what they know, and there's no changing them now. At season's start, many folks were worried about Hill getting hurt. Now, the concern is for the people in the stands, where those lines are fully formed and tempers are running hot.

One more close loss, one more floated pick-six, a record sagging to 1-4, and the keg might finally get lit.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on the Zone Sports Network, 97.5 FM and 1280 AM. Twitter: @GordonMonson.