Good Riddance

[YOhio]

I agree, except that I could do without the religious element.

No getting around it.

[LA Ute]

Yeah, LA Ute's comparison of BYU to Utah State was hilarious. Even funnier if it turns out he was serious.

Look, you are an engineer and should be good at paying attention to detail. I was clearly not comparing BYU to USU. You'll notice that I also mentioned Weber State. No comparison there either. I was simply talking about the reasons why various football programs choose to play each other and under what circumstances.

Sheesh.

[Jarid in Cedar]

Interesting that no one felt the need to ask about bigoted Cougars?

You are trying too hard. Plus YO saved you from an unprecendented quintuple post. That is Hallelujah territory.....bad place to be.

[beefytee]

I never thought it was particularly ugly until after last year's rivalry game. Then there was so much talk about how bad things were with plenty of alleged incidents of bad behavior.

Those stories are so overblown.

I have yet to have a bad experience with the rivalry and I sat on the back row of BYU fans. The row above us was Ute fans.

Everyone got along fine.

Am I the only one who doesn't see the big hate and ugliness in the rivalry? Sure there are going to be limited incidents. Who cares.


Of course LA Ute is the exception. His hate know no bounds.

[Donuthole]

You are trying too hard. Plus YO saved you from an unprecendented quintuple post. That is Hallelujah territory.....bad place to be.

Sextuple, actually!

[LA Ute]

Those stories are so overblown.

I have yet to have a bad experience with the rivalry and I sat on the back row of BYU fans. The row above us was Ute fans.

Everyone got along fine.

Am I the only one who doesn't see the big hate and ugliness in the rivalry? Sure there are going to be limited incidents. Who cares.


Of course LA Ute is the exception. His hate know no bounds.

Will no one give me that hug I need so desperately?

[Jarid in Cedar]

Sextuple, actually!

I stand corrected. A sextuple post.....even worse.

[U-Ute]

Sextuple, actually!

Sounds dangerously close to Honor Code territory.

[beefytee]

Will no one give me that hug I need so desperately?

Maybe this could help:

http://www.freehugscampaign.org/index.php?categoryid=8

[LA Ute]

Maybe this could help:

http://www.freehugscampaign.org/index.php?categoryid=8

Maybe we can order thousands of those in Cougar blue and Ute crimson and wear them to the next rivalry game. That would probably start a riot.

[KillerDog]

I'm interested in what the opinions are on this. Has a nasty contingent of fans hijacked the rivalry, or is the nastiness a manifestation of existing sentiment in the Utah community?

Maybe I should make this the subject of my first poll ever?

I think the intensity of the rivalry as a proxy for religion is a reflection of existing sentiment in the SLC area regarding religion. When the Church is doing something and people don't like it, the rivalry religion smack increases. Otherwise, it is just a football and college rivalry. The last two years have been pretty mellow compared to some years.

[Top Ute]

I think the intensity of the rivalry as a proxy for religion is a reflection of existing sentiment in the SLC area regarding religion. When the Church is doing something and people don't like it, the rivalry religion smack increases. Otherwise, it is just a football and college rivalry. The last two years have been pretty mellow compared to some years.

I don't think you could be more wrong. Of course, I've got the advantage of technology to document the intensity and ugliness (admittedly, much of it second-hand from fans and players) that the rivalry has devolved toward over that time. You don't.

I expect bitter feelings from the losing team in this rivalry. It comes with the territory -- in all sports. But Max Hall is as ungracious of a winner as I've ever seen (especially since BYU really was the better team that day, and didn't need an act from the Football Gods to win), and I would be disgusted if a Utah player brought out the same broad brush after a victory against BYU.

Past winners reveled in the feat and left it at that. Max Hall decided that wasn't good enough. That alone represented a huge increase in the venom within the rivalry.

[PolyCougar]

I think the intensity of the rivalry as a proxy for religion is a reflection of existing sentiment in the SLC area regarding religion. When the Church is doing something and people don't like it, the rivalry religion smack increases. Otherwise, it is just a football and college rivalry. The last two years have been pretty mellow compared to some years.

I think the religious aspect of the rivalry makes me laugh most the time, considering a good chunk of the coaching staff at Utah is very active LDS. Not to mention one of the strongest Mormons I know played at the "U" and is as die-hard Crimson as any I've ever seen (Morgan Scalley). They even baptized a star recently (Eric Weddle), and have put probably as many returned missionaries in the NFL as BYU (total guess... just knowing Kruger was an RM). They've also helped re-activate plenty of my Poly brothers that have some spotty pasts. I think a lot of praise should go to Coach Whittingham in that regard, a true class act, as I've known him.

But in the end it makes for some great material when its game-time. If a BYU player doesn't live up to code he's a hypocrite, if he's professing his beliefs and how its affected his game he's self-righteous.. I get a kick out of it, I've dealt with the heckling and arguing at plenty of games, it's only turned to fist fights, for me, with Wyoming fans (and a few Oregon fans at the Vegas bowl... but I hung out with a huge crowd of them after).

I think its all blown out of proportion, and aside from an occasional Mad Max moment, really is pretty harmless and good fun. The media is the one that wants it to be "The Holy War", and clings to anything angry.

But I say again, with the day's of Utah becoming more of a BCS hotbed of recruiting approaching, I think the rivalry game, and the attention it gets, will help kids feel a loyalty to their in-state schools and hopefully stick around, rather than saying a couple games at home during their career is enough to go somewhere else.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I think the religious aspect of the rivalry makes me laugh most the time, considering a good chunk of the coaching staff at Utah is very active LDS. Not to mention one of the strongest Mormons I know played at the "U" and is as die-hard Crimson as any I've ever seen (Morgan Scalley). They even baptized a star recently (Eric Weddle), and have put probably as many returned missionaries in the NFL as BYU (total guess... just knowing Kruger was an RM). They've also helped re-activate plenty of my Poly brothers that have some spotty pasts. I think a lot of praise should go to Coach Whittingham in that regard, a true class act, as I've known him.

But in the end it makes for some great material when its game-time. If a BYU player doesn't live up to code he's a hypocrite, if he's professing his beliefs and how its affected his game he's self-righteous.. I get a kick out of it, I've dealt with the heckling and arguing at plenty of games, it's only turned to fist fights, for me, with Wyoming fans (and a few Oregon fans at the Vegas bowl... but I hung out with a huge crowd of them after).

I think its all blown out of proportion, and aside from an occasional Mad Max moment, really is pretty harmless and good fun. The media is the one that wants it to be "The Holy War", and clings to anything angry.

But I say again, with the day's of Utah becoming more of a BCS hotbed of recruiting approaching, I think the rivalry game, and the attention it gets, will help kids feel a loyalty to their in-state schools and hopefully stick around, rather than saying a couple games at home during their career is enough to go somewhere else.

Nice post, and I agree with the perspective.

[wuapinmon]

Calling someone else self-righteous is a pretty self-righteous thing to do.

yoHIO said, self-righteously.