So, to be honest, I probably didn't start things out on the best of foots. We got to our seats in the north end zone and the bleachers were wet from the snow storm that had hit over the last couple of days. Well that wasn't the best, but lucky for us some sponsors had put some little red ute flags wrapped up in plastic on the seats. Well me and my buddy Garrett unwrapped our flags and used them to wipe up our seats. Once our make-shift towels had done their jobs we balled them up and threw them on the ground. There were still a lot of fans that weren't there yet, but the ute fans a few rows back saw this and weren't impressed. They didn't get confrontational, but they told us sharply that if we didn't want our flags that they would take them. We kindly obliged :)
That was pretty much the worst of it, other than a guy a few rows down and a ways over tried to get everybody in the section to boo us for sitting by them. Only a few joined him, but I thought it was hilarious. After that the fans sitting close to us were pretty friendly and we were friendly back.
The ute fan sitting to my left was one of my favorite ute fans that I'll ever meet. He was an old (70-something) man wearing a red sweatshirt and a black leather jacket. As soon as he started to shuffle down the isle and saw that he'd be sitting by me, he laughed out loud and said "uh oh, we don't have trouble-makers sitting here with us, do we?" in sort of a warm, grandpa kinda way. I told him he had nothing to worry about and patted him on the shoulder when he sat down. The reason this guy was so awesome in my book was because of the comments he made a few times during the game. In the second quarter when Austin Holt went down and the guy who hit him got flagged for a personal foul, all the ute fans started booing. Even when Holt got up and was helped off the field the utah fans were booing like crazy. Well the guy next to me started saying "come on guys, show some class!". Later when the first half ended and the teams were headed back to the locker rooms I could see the fans in the south end zone throwing stuff at BYU's players and coaches on their way into locker room. I leaned to the old ute fan and said "wow can you see what they're doing?" and he said "ya, and quite frankly it's embarrassing." I laughed a bit, and he said "No, I'm serious. They shouldn't do that". I was in awe of his overall coolness.
That guy was awesome, but to be honest all the ute fans sitting around us were pretty friendly. I definitely didn't tame down my fan-nes during the game. I cheered like crazy when BYU scored and made big plays. But that didn't alienate anybody around us. We tried to be respectful to those around us and those around us were generally respectful back. Immediately after utah blocked Payne's kick a bunch of the fans around me were way gracious about the win. In fact the guy in front of us turned around and said "wow. sorry guys. BYU definitely deserved this one. I'm way glad we won, but this one was a gift. Good game, guys". I have heard that other people didn't have quite the experience I had and were met by some pretty dumb fans. There was 1 other BYU fan sitting close to us and he said just after half-time that he almost got in a fight in the bathroom because some idiot started bad-mouthing the Book of Mormon and making fun of BYU fans, and he stood up to him. Obviously there were some of the uglier sides of the rivalry present on Saturday, but I do want to acknowledge the decency of the fans that I sat by. They were pretty good folks.
After what I experienced on Saturday I will never miss another BYU-utah game in person again as long as I can afford to go. Especially in SLC. It was way too much fun. Here's 2 reasons why:
Reason 1: It was awesome wearing blue in a sea of red. It is a pretty hard-core feeling. In my section there were 2 of us in blue. Me and my friend Garrett. The BYU fan sitting close to us was wearing grey. As nice as people were, we did catch a few dirty looks from people as we were walking in and taking our seats. I liked it, though.
Reason 2: It is awesome cheering for BYU while being absolutely SURROUNDED by utah fans. When Jake Heaps threw his TD pass to McKay Jacobsen, when Jameson Frazier intercepted Cain, when Shane Hunter also intercepted Cain and every other big play we were going nuts. It was a bit jarring at first because I noticed that nobody was cheering around us. I thought the play had been whistled dead or something so I kinda hesitated, but then I remembered "oh ya!HA! Everybody else is ute fans!" It was an awesome feeling.
Anyways, it was a great experience. It sucked watching BYU lose, but everybody around me kinda left with a look of relief rather than joy. They barely squeaked that one out. For me, I was upset about the loss, but I feel like I got to see a small portion of how great things can be next year. Jake Heaps showed that he's got what it takes when the game is on the line. He got the team in position to win it, in one of the most chaotic environments he could have possibly have been placed in. He is going to have an incredible career at BYU. I definitely think BYU will beat utah the next 2 or 3 times if not more. utah has some problems to work out. No doubt. Their qb situation is pretty sorry. Wynn is not a good qb at all.
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