In reading the previous posts about BYU trolls, I thought of something to add.

At the game on Saturday, I distinctly remember bowing my head and saying a silent prayer that Darnell would be able to walk again, and be able to lead a normal life. I honestly could've cared less if he ever played a down again. I was absolutely petrified when I saw Darnell lying on the ground in the end-zone and not moving at all. It put the entire game in perspective, and I was instantly not nearly as concerned by the fact that we were down by 18 points as I was that a person could've sustained an injury that could've caused permanent damage.

Well, yesterday on sports radio, I heard some BYU fan call up and say that he's really sad that the Wyoming player knocked out Darnell and ended his season. . .Because he was hoping that Rob Morris would do it. When did the rivalry digress to this point?

Don't get me wrong. I hate BYU as much if not more than the next guy. But I certainly don't wish any personal harm upon any of them. I don't want their players (or fans for that matter) to get injured, wreck their car, have sick kids, get bad grades, have their stocks collapse, or have their homes burn down. All I want is for their teams to lose every game in every sport they play. And I don't expect anything less from them.

The guy who called in and said this is a Jackass of the highest degree, and is the epitomy of why BYU is the most hated team in college sports. What would they think in Provo if some guy responded to this guy's call by saying that they hope that LaVell has a heart attack. Rondo Fehlberg was quoted a number of times as stating that BYU sports was "the second missionary arm of the [LDS] Church" I'm guessing that voiced hopes of debilitating injuries isn't necessarily the best missionary tool available.

I also realize that this guy probably doesn't represent the majority of BYU fans, but I guarantee that there are more than one. I also realize that there are some Ute fans that hope that Rob Morris or Kevin Feterik get injured before the Utah game. My hope is that these people realize that there is a lot to life. In the long run, football doesn't mean that much.

GO UTES!!!!!!!!

It's interesting this should pop up on the board today. Earlier today I was eating lunch with a workmate and former Ute football player. When he was asked where his least favorite place to play was, he said without a doubt it was BYU. Why? Because their fans were the biggest jerks he encountered. During his career the Utes travelled to Nebraska, Florida, and Tennesee and they all treated the visitors nicer. Maybe the Zoobs who think they can't make the big time in the WAC or MWC out to reflect that maybe they won't make the big time until their fans grow up.

I attended this buddy's last game (although I didn't know him at the time)at BYU in 1981. I agree with him. The Zoobs around us were total jerks, inciting fights, and generally being obnoxious. They won big, but showed they couldn't win with any dignity.

BYU is the only place where I've ever had a fan run up and spit on me because Utah beat them in their place (triple overtime in 1982). Actually, he did it twice. When he spotted our car caught in the always hideous Marriott Center traffic, he ran up and spit at the car.
The four of us could have taken him, sure; but we'd go to jail. The little dweeb wasn't worth it. We had the win and the class.

Yup. You guys are really classy.

While attending the U from 1988-90, I had the opportunity to have one of the Offensive Linemen as one of my roommates. We lived off campus, and I greatly enjoyed some of the great talks we had about Utah Football.

One of the things he told me was the majority of the Utah football players (at least during this time period) greatly respected BYU's team. If there was one team that the Utah players really hated, it was Utah State. This was due in part to one year when USU won at Rice Stadium, at the end of the game some of the Aggie players stomped on the block letters UTAH in the north end zone. The Utah players didn't forget that.

I truly enjoyed my time at UVSC, BYU, and Utah, but for different reasons at each school. I have friends who went to USU. However, I wish sometimes that if I had it to do all over again, I would've gone to school in another state in the West, as I am now doing here in the Seattle area.

I remember some comments Bill Marcroft made some years ago that nowhere else in America is a rivalry so intense that where you go to school determines who your friends are, where you work, etc. quite like the Utah-BYU series. I can tell you from personal experience that in LDS Wards I have attended (including my present ward, as well as Florida, California, Utah, and DC/Northern Virginia) that if you went anywhere but BYU, you are generally ignored or ostracized by most BYU grads as being mediocre, inferior, or undesirable. I have bumped into "friends" who have moved here to Seattle whom I knew at BYU, and after mentioning I graduated from the University of Utah, their response is like hmmm....

Interesting take from both sides. From my own experience though I have met Ute fans that quit going to Utah football games because of the classless, drunken fans but I've never talked to any BYU fan that has quit going because of the fans. I lived in Colorado Springs for 8 years and attended football games there, Laramie and Fort Collins as a visiting fan when BYU played. I've watched how the BYU fans treat visiting fans this year at Cougar stadium to compare how I was treated elsewhere. I've not seen one occasion this year where anything but respect has been shown to opposing fans. I've heard BYU fans ask how their visit is and wish them luck, but not too much luck. It may be a different story during the game in the Northwest end of the stadium where the visiting fans sit though. I know there are jerks in every stadium wearing either of the teams colors. When I visited the above mentioned cities, with the exception of the Airforce Academy, the fans there were pretty well behaved, I was spit at, threatened with physical harm, and had vulgar obscenities yelled at me and my wife that made me wish I'd have stayed home. No, bad manners are not in the sole possession of BYU fans, and by my experience are found less there than any other stadium I have visited.

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