Is your enthusiasm dampened for future games this season?

[beefytee]

As much as it sucked watching the team self destruct, I still enjoyed going to the game with my 7 year old son and my 5 year old daughter. They both said they had a good time.

I will be at the rest of the home games and plan on enjoying them all no matter the final scores.

One interesting thing is that we are on the border of the visiting section. I think I will enjoy this most games but wonder how it will be for the Utah game. I really enjoyed the FSU fans I was around at this game (probably more than the BYU fans around me), but I imagine this might be a little more intense when Utah fans are there. It should be fun.

[SipiTau]

The answers in this thread are the correct answers. Thank you all for restoring my faith in humanity.

Sipi, we may have discussed this before, but where do you tailgate? We are always between Bovard Admin Building and Doheny Library, right by Tommy Trojan.

I am guessing WSU tickets will be easy to snap up this weekend.

You can find us behind the swim stadium on Menlo & MLK. I'm trying to rally the troops, but it's hit rock bottom in my neck of the woods. I haven't heard if anyone is joining Sipi Jr and I this weekend. I may have to hit up your tailgate this weekend.

I don't know about you, but to me, I've seen a dramatic increase of douchiness in SC fans. It seems like my section (18) is getting worse every year. I've had to break up more fights in the last two seasons, than I have in over twenty years of going to games. I almost miss the days of Hackett.....well not that much.

[FMCoug]

Yes and no. Yes that my enthusiasm is most certainly dampened. I can't put my finger on why but I'm having a tough time rebounding from this one. The team will have to prove to me it was an aberration before I get real enthusiastic again.

That said, I have season tickets and plans to go to San Diego for the UEA weekend and go to that game. Those plans won't change.

[TripletDaddy]

You can find us behind the swim stadium on Menlo & MLK. I'm trying to rally the troops, but it's hit rock bottom in my neck of the woods. I haven't heard if anyone is joining Sipi Jr and I this weekend. I may have to hit up your tailgate this weekend.

I don't know about you, but to me, I've seen a dramatic increase of douchiness in SC fans. It seems like my section (18) is getting worse every year. I've had to break up more fights in the last two seasons, than I have in over twenty years of going to games. I almost miss the days of Hackett.....well not that much.

I was able to start going to games regularly in 2000. I was in Utah during the 90s, so I missed all of that. Since that time I have noticed the increase in crowds and increase in bad behavior, which was stemmed greatly by the P10 alcohol ban (a very wise decision on the part of the P10, imo).

I never sit in the same seat twice. I buy my tickets at the stadium, so I have sat all over the place. Usually I have a great time. For my tastes, i have found that the crowd right above the tunnel is consistently rowdy. It is a fun place to be, but not sure I would want to sit there every game each season.

My favorite place to sit is on the campus side, sec 23 or so. You can look down at the song girls, you are close to the student section, and for whatever reason, the lines at concessions don't seem to take as long. The downside.....the escalators on that side never seem to work.

People right now are down. The office is a morgue. I think that as the weekend nears, more people will get the fever. The weather is going to be great. And SC didn't drop that far, actually. Still can salvage the season. We will know a lot after this next 2 weeks. If they go into the Kal game with some vengeance and pull out the win, then campus will be buzzing again. If they lose to the Bears, it will be like a funeral atmosphere not seen since the early days of Carson Palmer.

[MarkGrace]

95% of BYU fans would have said they would be happy being 2-1 after 3 games. We just went about it a bit unconventionally.

I am still excited for the rest of the season.

I was fully prepared for a 1-2 OOC record and I'm very pleased with 2-1. The way we got to 2-1 puts a bit of a damper on things, but I'm definitely part of that 95%.

[Mormon Red Death]

Hell no! I just bought tickets to the freaking Wyoming game AT Wyoming! I'm hardcore baby!

(By the way, if I walk around War Memorial Stadium with my mouth wide open, knowing that people are going to throw barley drinks at me, am I still breaking the WoW?)

It will have the same color as beer but it will be a different substance.

[DU Ute]

I'm hoping for a few more cougar losses so I can pick up some cheap tickets for the BYU/Utah game from people jumping off the bandwagon. Saturday helped a lot, but there are still some stragglers hanging on.

If anyone has some reasonably priced seats for the game they could sell me it would go a long way towards getting me to pull for the boys in blue between now and then. I know having me on your side is important to many cougar fans here, I trust you can make this happen.

[Teenage Dirtbag]

It will have the same color as beer but it will be a different substance.

True. Guess I better keep my mouth closed, just to be safe.

[il Padrino Ute]

Not at all. I go to games and have fun, but as soon as I leave the stadium or change the channel, the game's over and it's time for the next one. There have been a few exceptions - the '05 Fiesta Bowl and the '09 Sugar Bowl - but sports are really nothing more than entertainment.

The day I let a loss affect me to the point that my enthusiasm is dampened is the day it will be time to quit watching sports.

[TripletDaddy]

Not at all. I go to games and have fun, but as soon as I leave the stadium or change the channel, the game's over and it's time for the next one. There have been a few exceptions - the '05 Fiesta Bowl and the '09 Sugar Bowl - but sports are really nothing more than entertainment.

The day I let a loss affect me to the point that my enthusiasm is dampened is the day it will be time to quit watching sports.

I appreciate the healthy sentiment.

Our of curiosity, does your intensity change when you look back at your days calling games for the Redd Foxxes? I have to think that when you are actually playing, you are way more into the games. How did you bounce back after weekends like this past one?

Another thing I wonder.....how often do you see finger pointing or fighting in the locker rooms after this kind of stuff? I have to imagine that it was tense in the SC, Utah, and BYU locker rooms. Do players fight to clear the air and then get back to business? For example, what was the Utah locker room like after Kaneshanko? What were the BYU players saying last year after the Utah game? It would be interesting to experience that as an insider.

[OrangeUte]

not at all. i love the utes and i love college football. i am excited to see this utah football team continue to improve over the course of a season. like (i think it was) shaka, here's to 11-1! GO UTES!!!!!

[Donuthole]

I'm looking forward to the rest of the season, save the UNLV game. After all the crap BYU fans have given Utah for the 28-0 debacle, and after our defensive showing this past week, and adding in the fact that I'll be present at the game, I can't help but fear Karma may have her way. It's not the loss itself which I dread, so much as it's the UNLV "fans" who will come out of the woodwork if the Cougs lose that game.

[OrangeUte]

and, ddd, i have tickets to cal/usc... that's going to be one helluva game, and it falls on a saturday that utah has a bye... couldn't have worked out better for me!

[il Padrino Ute]

I appreciate the healthy sentiment.

Our of curiosity, does your intensity change when you look back at your days calling games for the Redd Foxxes? I have to think that when you are actually playing, you are way more into the games. How did you bounce back after weekends like this past one?

Another thing I wonder.....how often do you see finger pointing or fighting in the locker rooms after this kind of stuff? I have to imagine that it was tense in the SC, Utah, and BYU locker rooms. Do players fight to clear the air and then get back to business? For example, what was the Utah locker room like after Kaneshanko? What were the BYU players saying last year after the Utah game? It would be interesting to experience that as an insider.

A loss was much more personal when I was in school because I was a part of the team. What I did during a game actually could have an effect on the outcome of the game. As a fan, there is no such effect.

As far as bouncing back, I really had no choice, because there were more games to be played. Of course, one loss in baseball is far different than one loss in football because there are so many more games to play, but I still had to put on the gear and be ready to play the next day because I loved competing. All you can really do as a player is give the other team props because they were the better team that day.

There was some infighting after emotional losses, but most players realize that teams lose and win as a team, not as individuals. I think I told you about one particular game in which I allowed a ball to get past me that resulted in the other team winning the game and Marist lost the conference title because of the loss. The pitcher blew up in the dugout and blamed me for the passed ball that cost us the game, but I then reminded him that if he had thrown the pitch I had called on the previous batter, he would not have hanged that curveball that ended up being a triple drove in the tying run and put a baserunner in position to score on a passed ball. He came after me but the coaches quickly separated us and reminded that there was enough blame to go around. (I still blame myself for letting the ball get past me though.)

Anyway, if there is any kind of bad blood in the locker rooms for either Utah or BYU, it will create problems for the rest of the season. It's too early for players to point fingers at each other.

And the Utes are going to kill Louisville and it will be fun to watch!

[PaloAltoCougar]

The loss was certainly disappointing, but it will have little effect on my enthusiasm. The football experience (for any school, but particularly with BYU) for me is so much more than W's. The atmosphere was great, the pre-game gastronomy and company were unsurpassed, and the game was actually entertaining. As long a team doesn't quit (think of the Crowtonites against CSU, among others), I'm a loyal fan.

Part of my enjoyment Saturday was a bit perverse. I paid scalper's money to sit in, apparently, The Ignoramus Section. I laughed heartily at many of the thoughtful insights and exhortations from old guys in those foam/mesh hats, along with some of the womenfolk who seemed to be competing in a Barbara Smith lookalike contest for "Best Whipped Hair." Yelling at Anae for daring to run the ball ("WE'RE LOSING!!!! THROW THE BALL!!!!!), or blaming the game on the refs, were among the many amusements, beside the fellow next to me who kept asking me if I had taken his "caffeine-free Coke", his program, his sunglasses and, implicitly, his sanity.

A really fun day, despite the game. I'll be back.