{"id":882894,"date":"2026-10-15T07:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T07:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/882894\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T07:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T07:04:13","slug":"byu-notre-dame-game-brings-espns-holly-rowe-full-circle-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/882894\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU-Notre Dame game brings ESPN\u2019s Holly Rowe full circle \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

All eyes will be on LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday night for the clash between No. 8 BYU and No. 2 Notre Dame<\/a>, but it\u2019s more than another primetime matchup for Holly Rowe<\/a>, ESPN\u2019s sideline reporter for the game. It\u2019s a full-circle moment.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Rowe will return to the sidelines of LaVell Edwards Stadium, where her career and love of football began, for the first time since 2003. The assignment has left Rowe \u201cfeeling really nostalgic,\u201d she told the Deseret News this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy lifelong love affair with college football really started in this stadium,\u201d she said. \u201cNow I get to go back, and it\u2019s named after LaVell Edwards, who is someone who meant a lot to me and was just instrumental in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holly Rowe\u2019s football journey began as a BYU fan\"\"ESPN reporter Holly Rowe and Brigham Young University football head coach Kalani Sitake, then a fullback at BYU, pose for a photo after an interview at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Hawaii. | Courtesy of Holly Rowe <\/p>\n

Rowe\u2019s journalism career began at BYU, where she studied for two years and was a news anchor for KBYU-TV before transferring to the University of Utah. After graduating, she was the BYU football sideline reporter for the Blue and White Sports Network from 1993-97. <\/p>\n

She first caught ESPN\u2019s attention in 1995 when she noticed ABC didn\u2019t have a sideline reporter for the BYU-Utah game. She called the producer and volunteered for the job.<\/p>\n

After that game, she asked where the next broadcast would be. When she found out it was in San Jose, California, she lied and said she coincidentally already had plans to be in the area. The producer offered her the gig, and Rowe figured out a way to San Jose from Salt Lake City. <\/p>\n

ESPN hired her full time the following season. But before Rowe\u2019s career took off, she was a little girl falling in love with BYU football.<\/p>\n

Rowe remembers sitting in the stands at Cougar Stadium when she was just 5 years old to watch BYU face Hawaii. She can still picture Hawaii\u2019s rainbow helmets and uniforms. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was just so intrigued,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were so exotic to this little kid, and they were huge. And BYU and Hawaii went on to have a really good rivalry through the years, and so I just got obsessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowe loved BYU football so much that she collected local newspaper clippings about the program, including from the 1980 Holiday Bowl victory. She rediscovered them while cleaning out her garage during the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

Growing up, former BYU running back Vai Sikahema<\/a> became one of Rowe\u2019s \u201cvery, very favorite all-time BYU players,\u201d but she also gained a great appreciation for BYU\u2019s quarterback legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been blessed to watch some of the best offense and quarterbacks for my whole life,\u201d she said. \u201cMy first quarterback I was obsessed with was Gary Scheide. \u2026 We had Gifford Nielsen and Marc Wilson and Jim McMahon, Steve Young. That\u2019s just such an incredible list.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf LaVell and Ron McBride had not have been so generous and kind and welcoming to me, I wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Holly Rowe<\/p>\n

In 1990, as a fan, Rowe rushed the field with her sisters when unranked BYU upset defending national champion and No. 1 Miami. Rowe and her sisters will be on that same field again together on Saturday as her sisters hold her monitor during the game. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have grown up as football-loving little girls in our household, and we\u2019re still football fans,\u201d Rowe said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time her sisters have been on the sideline with her since 2014 when the Marcus Mariota-led Oregon Ducks came to town to play Utah.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time since we got to do this together, so we\u2019re so excited,\u201d she said. \u201cThe whole family\u2019s just so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaVell Edwards\u2019 impact\"\"ESPN reporter Holly Rowe poses with legendary former BYU football head coach LaVell Edwards. | Courtesy of Holly Rowe <\/p>\n

In her time covering BYU football, Rowe had the opportunity to get to know BYU\u2019s legendary head coach LaVell Edwards<\/a>, first as a coach, then as a person.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom afar, you would be scared of LaVell,\u201d Rowe said. \u201cHe had, you know, resting coach face, and there was a certain persona he had on the sideline. But when you got to know him, he was absolutely delightful.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Rowe\u2019s favorite memories was when she did a profile of Edwards for KBYU-TV \u2014 in his garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat people didn\u2019t know about LaVell is he was an avid gardener,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s how he relieved all of his stress, and he had this elaborate, incredible garden and flowers and everything at his house. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we sat in his garden and did an interview, and we got to laughing so hard we couldn\u2019t do the interview. The camera guy was yelling at us because he and I were laughing our guts out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Utah football coach Ron McBride, left, and BYU football coach LaVell Edwards greet each other before the game at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah on Friday, Nov. 24, 2000. | Johanna Kirk, Deseret News <\/p>\n

Rowe said she is grateful for the kindness<\/a> Edwards and former Utah head coach Ron McBride showed her. At the mention of the two men, Rowe became emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was one of the first women doing this job, and there weren\u2019t a lot of women that were beat reporters or coming around football,\u201d she said. \u201cIf LaVell and Ron McBride had not been so generous and kind and welcoming to me, I wouldn\u2019t be here. So I\u2019m just grateful to those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowe said working as a woman in sports media isn\u2019t the same as those days covering Edwards and McBride. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s getting hard lately,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why, but I just want the younger women to have it easier than we did. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think back to my time here in Utah, and I had really good coaches and mentors and people who were kind to me, and so I think that\u2019s important to continue to point that out.\u201d<\/p>\n

If she could talk to that version of herself just starting her career, Rowe would advise her to be herself more.<\/p>\n

\u2018Trying to fit in\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I spent a lot of my career just trying to fit in,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re the outlier in this kind of really famous boys club, and so I just wanted to fit in and be one of the guys. And so I wasn\u2019t always my true feminine version of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Holly Rowe, ESPN and ABC sports commentator, signs a football before being inducted into the 2025 Utah Sports Hall of Fame at a banquet at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News <\/p>\n

She also wants young girls who are falling in love with football, like she did when she was 5 years old, to know that they\u2019re welcome in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want little girls to realize they belong here,\u201d she said. \u201cCollege football is a place for you. We have a stat. We have this seminar every year at ESPN. They kind of break it down like, who are the fans of college football? Who are we trying to reach? <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd right now in our country, there are more women college football fans than men, and so it\u2019s just really important for us to make sure we\u2019re including them and speaking to them and making sure that they feel comfortable here because college football is for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her \u2018full circle\u2019 BYU-Notre Dame connection<\/p>\n

Rowe has worked multiple BYU-Notre Dame games throughout her career. <\/p>\n

One of those games, she was working on graphics in ESPN\u2019s TV truck. She exited the truck and saw people running and screaming. Rowe looked over at the source of commotion.<\/p>\n

\"\"ESPN reporter Holly Rowe and Brigham Young University football head coach Kalani Sitake recreate a photo they took in the 90s when Rowe interviewed Sitake, then a fullback for BYU. | Courtesy of Holly Rowe <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Lou Holtz coming out of the Notre Dame locker room, and when I tell you it was like a crowd around a holy figure. … There were so many Notre Dame fans who came to that game,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that was the last time Notre Dame played out here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s BYU-Notre Dame game also marks a first for Rowe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is the first game of my career that I covered both head coaches when they were players,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rowe still has her notes from covering Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman as a linebacker at Ohio State and \u201csilly behind-the-scenes photos\u201d with BYU head coach Kalani Sitake. <\/p>\n

She interviewed Sitake, then a fullback at BYU, for a feature at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Hawaii, ahead of a BYU road game against the Rainbow Warriors. They later recreated the photos after Sitake became the head coach at BYU.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to be at these games, a part of this series, and to be a part of this game with these two head coaches that I know so well and with both of these teams ranked and undefeated, it is just the coolest full circle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead at the next chapter in the BYU-Notre Dame series, Rowe thinks it will come down to the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n

She praised Notre Dame\u2019s quarterback CJ Carr and offensive line, who \u201care just road grading people right now,\u201d she said. But she noted the size of BYU\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cBYU is really big on defense,\u201d she said. \u201cTheir linebackers are big. Their secondary is big. So I think this is going to be a really interesting line of scrimmage game because I think Notre Dame\u2019s offensive line, how BYU can get to their quarterback, try to make it hard there, stop the running game, I think that\u2019s going to be really an interesting part of this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Tennessee’s head coach Karen Weekly gives an interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe before an NCAA softball Women’s College World Series game against Texas, Thursday, May 28, 2026, in Oklahoma City. | Vera Nieuwenhuis, Associated Press <\/p>\n

Rowe is also looking forward to seeing how BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier has grown since she last saw him while she was on the sideline for BYU\u2019s November loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to see how Bear has kind of grown up,\u201d she said. \u201cI think he\u2019s playing very well right now. But against a really, really good Notre Dame defense, I\u2019m really curious to see what\u2019s different about him, how he\u2019s reading the field, how he\u2019s operating under duress, and so I can\u2019t wait to see how that version of Bear has grown a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

BYU kicks off against Notre Dame on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. MDT on ABC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All eyes will be on LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday night for the clash between No. 8 BYU…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,8793,99],"class_list":["post-882894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-news-feed-national","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}