Provo • Players in the Utah-BYU football rivalry never lack motivation in the big game, but at least three regular starters Saturday — two Cougars and a Ute — will have some extra incentive to win at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
After all, that’s what good friends do.
Utah safety Chase Hansen, BYU safety Micah Hannemann and BYU receiver Talon Shumway have been “buddies for a long, long time,” Hannemann said, even before they teamed to win state championships in football and basketball at Lone Peak High.
Meet the BYU-Utah football rivalry’s version of BYU basketball’s Lone Peak Three. It was the Lone Peak Four in last year’s 20-19 Utah win at Rice-Eccles, but BYU cornerback Austin McChesney, also a former Knight, suffered a knee injury in training camp and is out for the season.
“It will definitely be fun,” Hannemann said about Saturday’s 8:15 p.m. showdown with Hansen and the Utes. “Playing against friends changes your mindset. I play more loose when I have guys that I know on the other side. You are having fun, talking to them across the field and they are talking to you. It’s good fun.”
Hannemann, a senior, won’t get in on the fun until the third quarter, however, because he was ejected for targeting in Saturday’s 27-0 loss to LSU and must miss the first half, per NCAA rules.
“It is just sad,” Hannemann said. “Right when that happened, that was the first thing that went through my mind, was, ’Dang, I have to sit the rest of this game, plus the first half of my most-looking-forward-to-game of the season. And it is my senior year. It just sucks for me, personally, but it is going to be fun going out there in the second half with some fresh legs.”
LONE PEAK THREE <br>Player • High school class • Year • Position • Current school <br>Chase Hansen • 2012 • Junior • Safety • Utah <br>Micah Hannemann • 2012 • Senior • Safety • BYU <br>Talon Shumway • 2013 • Sophomore • Receiver • BYU
Hansen and Hannemann were seniors and Shumway was a junior on Lone Peak’s 2011 Class 5A state championship football team. Hansen played quarterback and safety, while Hannemann and Shumway were two of his favorite targets. Hannemann also played in the defensive backfield.
With Hansen playing as an undersized 6-foot-3 center and more of a role player, Shumway teamed with two-thirds of the original Lone Peak Three — Nick Emery and TJ Haws — to win state basketball titles for Lone Peak in 2011 and 2012. Hannemann didn’t play basketball.
“I think it potentially motivates you more” to play against friends, Hansen said. “I mean, that’s person to person. I think we’re all competitors and we want to beat whoever is across the ball from us. It is like playing your little brother — not like they’re our little brother — but it is like playing your brother in something. You want to beat him just as bad, if not worse.”
Hansen and Hannemann are in the same group chat 51 weeks of the year, but neither is saying much this week. Hannemann even goes so far as to remove himself from the group so he doesn’t give the Utes any bulletin-board material.
“Right after the game, yeah, we will talk and hug,” Hannemann said. “We are close friends. We hang out throughout the season and the whole offseason, but the week that we play them, that is different.”
Hansen doesn’t think it helps, so he tries to stay quiet until game time as well.
“Families have been talking about this game since last season ended,” Hansen said. “But that’s kind of the fun thing about being from Utah County. You hear about BYU-Utah all day every day. It’s fun. Getting ready for it, it’s a fun experience.”
If the former Lone Peak teammates ever face off directly on the field Saturday, it will be when Hansen tries to cover Shumway on passing routes.
“We will probably see a lot of him, with him playing safety now,” Shumway said. “It is a good thing. I am glad that he is back and healthy and playing.”
Hanneman said Hansen “was a just a man amongst boys” at Lone Peak, and mostly responsible for the school’s only state football championship. Hansen remembers some great battles in practice with both guys who would go on to sign with BYU.
“Right now, it’s really no different,” Hansen said. “You’re going to go out and play some really great players. Me personally, I try not to look at it any differently than I’m going up against some really good players, some good athletes.”
Hannemann just figured that when it came time to pick colleges, Hansen would choose BYU because his father, Brian, lettered in football for BYU in 1978 and 1981-82.
“It surprised me a little bit in high school when I committed [to BYU] and a week later he committed to Utah. I figured he did it because he didn’t want to play with me,” Hannemann said, laughing. “But no, he’s doing his thing over there, and doing well.”
Hansen said it wasn’t easy to tell some of his friends and family members, all Cougars fans at the time, that he was heading north.
“All my buddies went to BYU, and I came here,” he said. “That’s kind of what happened. I was down in Utah County, so it was kind of a bummer for some family and friends, but I always felt really good about my decision.”
Upon returning from his mission, Hansen says people told him there were rumors that he planned to transfer to BYU to reunite with Hannemann and Shumway, who also served missions.
“That never even crossed my mind,” he said.