USC and UCLA had their heated moments on the field, but still were careful to say all the right things immediately after the game in spite of their emotions. No, if you were in search of some genuine expression of clean, old-fashioned locker room hate among rivals Saturday, you had to get out of the glare of L.A. and turn to a good, clean-cut Mormon boy, BYU quarterback Max Hall, who punctuated the Cougars' 26-23 overtime win over Utah with some very unholy animosity toward his opponents in the Holy War:

"I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, their fans. I hate everything," Hall said. "It felt really good to send those guys home."
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"I think the whole university and their fans and the organization is classless," Hall said. "They threw beer on my family and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of nasty things. I don't respect them and they deserved to lose."

Oh, my, we must shield the women at the country club, lest they be stricken with vapors! The outgoing senior was quickly chided by the Salt Lake paper for veering outside the approved sound bite manual, forced to issue a token apology through the school, found himself the subject of some reactionary social media and will probably face an official reprimand from the Mountain West this week. These are tough times for a hater -- especially one off the worst statistical game of the season, in his home finale.

But privately, the tiny little black spot in his heart that Hall isn't supposed to show anyone must throb with illicit joy when he reads an article titled "Utes take loss to rival hard," in which Utah linebacker Stevenson Sylvester describes the winning OT touchdown from Hall to Andrew George: "Max Hall put it on the money. I don't want to re-live it much." Even if the world doesn't approve of your thoughts, Max, at least you were able to express them by the most satisfying means at your disposal.

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Hat tip: Mountain West Connection and Rory.