Oh, brother.

Darn near everyone loves an in-state rivalry. They think they do — until they don’t. Everyone loves the familiar familial fable about a little brother who gets picked on when he’s younger and smaller by his older, bigger sibling and then, just like the Les Misérables song says it, “Never kick a dog because he’s just a pup … you’d better run for cover when the pup grows up.”

Well. Sometimes the pup never grows up.

And sometimes when the pup does grow up, he transfers as a brother of another mother to the other side of the family.

That’s what Utah receiver Braden Pegan did when he bailed on Utah State after last season, along with yet another brother, Utah offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven, who also left Logan to join up with the full-grown Utes.

That combination stirred no brotherly love on Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium when and where Utah went ahead and crushed Utah State by the lopsided count of 33-zip. And if the Utes hadn’t eased off the throttle as the game went on, it would have been worse.

Under McGiven’s direction, Pegan caught eight passes for 122 yards and two touchdowns, and the Aggies had no chance in this so-called “Battle of the Brothers.” This was more like the “Beatdown of the Brothers.” If these two football programs really are siblings, the best family comparison would be the fictional, genetically engineered kinship of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in the movie, “Twins.”

Utah left no doubt who was who.

All told, the Utes gained 480 yards to the Aggies’ 188; the Utes picked up 23 first downs to the Aggies’ 10; the Utes led 26-0 at the half, and the Aggies had no chance through the second, even as Utah backed off. It’s not as though USU has no athletes and has no experienced coaches; it has both. It just doesn’t have enough of the former, and, as for the latter, those guys don’t win games, not a smack-you-in-the-teeth game against an outfit like Utah.

A single thing the Aggies mastered: they punted well.

One of two primary conclusions to draw from this football fratricide is one many people normally would be hesitant to come to, present company included. But this game offered no intrigue, no question, no joy and also no astute alternative.

The Utah-Utah State rivalry should be ended. It should be stopped, put to bed, put out to pasture, 86’ed.

It’s too brutal, too one-sided. The Aggies had no shot in this game, and if one team finds itself in that predicament against another, even in a rivalry football game that’s been around — much more sporadically in recent times — since 1892, it’s no longer real competition. It’s a punch to the face, a shovel to the side of the head.

Who wants to see that?

Is a handful of wins every half-century or so worth it for State?

The all-time record in this series is 81-29-4, in the Utes’ favor. And it’s not one of those marks that’s simply bloated from games played 100 years ago. Since 1980, Utah has won 30 of these games, USU just five, the Aggies’ last victory coming in 2012. The last decades in which the rivalry game actually fell in USU’s favor were the 1960s and 1970s, when the Ags took 12 of 20 games from Utah.

Since then, this series has been in severe decline.

It’s time to show some mercy. Put the kibosh on this thing, wrap it up, send it away, once and for all. This isn’t a competition; it’s a concession.

That’s the one conclusion.

The other is more important in the here and now: These Utah Utes are really, really good. They sure seem to be.

They didn’t play perfectly on this occasion, in part because there was no call for it. But the defense pitched a shutout and, going the other way, Devon Dampier was steady, throwing for 253 yards, two TDs and running for 34.

As mentioned, Pegan was a major target for his QB. The receiver’s story is compelling in that the kid from Southern California originally signed with UCLA, where, over a span of three years, he caught one pass. He transferred to Utah State, where he accelerated last season, catching 60 balls for nearly 1,000 yards. And then … yeah, he came with McGiven to U-Know-Where.

He’s not the only reason the Utah attack thrived and is thriving, but he’s certainly a nice factor. Other Utes on both sides of the ball contributed against Utah State, and the final score told the tale. And that doesn’t take into consideration that a blistering 94-yard touchdown run by Wayshawn Parker was wiped out by a Utah penalty.

We get it. It’s early yet, just three games in — against opponents that included an FCS team, the worst team in the SEC and now winless USU, all home games.

But all of that completely understood, so far at least, anybody who had come to a premature third conclusion — that the departure of a certain coach now working in Michigan, as well as some gifted Utah players suddenly donning the maize and blue, and the immediate elevation to the top spot here of a man who’d never before been a head coach would lead to an immediate Ute demise — had best seriously rearrange that thinking.