To kick off rivalry week I post excerpts of a conversation with a Utah fan a few weeks back over electronic mail. His response--a well educated LDS Utah fan--speaks volumes about Utah fans the world over...
I said, "For some reason, your comments about Bronco's defense as a gimmick and your parody of cougartown and BYU tradition stuck with me. The writing has been on the wall since Utah lost to Ben Olsen and UCLA, but I can't help but think that the gimmick in the MWC this year is Utah's offense. I say this all in good spirit and good fun as I endured the type of play exhibited by Utah for the last 4 years from my beloved TDS.
Sorry about wyoming. The bright spot is Weddle...What a cool guy."
He said, "if you will take a look at your current success, you will recognize that it came once bronco pulled his head out and realized that his gimmickdefense was worthless. maybe you haven't noticed, but your belovedcougs no longer run that daunting 3-3-5 that allowed the utes, and manyother teams to punish them over the past few years. nice to see thatthe cougar coaching staff is able to finally realize when a good thingis actually benefitting the rest of the league.
as far as your beloved cougs go. i am sure that life is rosey in cougartown.i got a chill the other saturday and i thought it was from the cold weather. then, i realized that i was feeling the spirit of cougartown and i shed a tearof joy. i can't wait for the next proclamation to the world from your inspiring mayor. maybe he will announce to us that ice cream from the cougareat will shipped to the whole world and we will all be able to enjoy the love that can occur when a 21 year old rm and an 18 year old chosen sister connect over a shared bite of luscious vanilla cream and kindle a relationship that will last into the eternities. i check the provo website every day waiting with bated breath that next proclamation.
as far as i know, i and i look deeply into these things, john beck is yet to cry this year in front of the cameras. i am sure that trend will not hold true though after their visit to rice-eccles stadium. good luck with the rest of your season and congratulations on confirming my earlier statement about your worthless defense. i'll take it as a compliment as opposed to the shot you intended."
My rebuttal, "Good to hear from you. It's nice to see you've been following the cougars. You seemed to have overlooked that two of your wins against teams that we beat came because we injured their star players. See Ballard and Wagner of TCU who are now dominating again. See UNLV's quarterback woes who came into rice eccles limping. The 3-3-5 was a problem. The coaches did the right thing in switching. However, it is the same guys. They didn't lose many from last year and the new scheme is looking pretty good. I'm suprised to hear your thoughts on strength of schedule as you have beaten utah state, a I-aa team and BYU inflicted injured teams.
What did the 21 yo/18 yo comment mean? Do I sense an anti- 'utah-mormon' sentiment in your words?
In the end you're right. Things will be back to normal if the salvation of your season comes from a win against BYU.
He ended with, "spoken like a true cougar fan!!! although i would have expected a reference to the 1984 championship year or the year when you went 12-0 with doman (i'm sorry, i meant 12-2). or maybe you could have made reference to the team as the armies of helaman as mendenhall did last year. i know that your team has been fighting fiercely and bravely for the freedom of and pride of cougartown. if you will read back through my email, you will see no reference to the strength of our schedule or about how well we are doing. i am actually quite disappointed to see that we are doing so poorly, but still remain a true and optomistic fan. congratulations on your feat of injuring the players of other teams. i guess that is one way to get a victory, but i never knew that it was something about which was worthy of bragging. and if you will also read through my email, you will seen no reference to your players, only a flawed defensive scheme.
i am sorry that you were offended by my "anti-mormon" sentiments. as you well know i was never smart enough or spiritual enough to get into the Lord's university. i just struggled through my classes up on the hill and was lucky that they let me go on a mission. i mean, after i got home from my mission, i joined a frat, picked up alcohol, and never went back to church. the only thing that i can think of to explain the discrepancy in the number of kids is that too many ute fans got drunk at the football games and then went out and got their girlfriends pregnant. as one who has lived in the dorms with all of the sinners, maybe you could offer up a better suggestion.
...being away from utah i had forgotten how arrogant and annoying byu fans are..."
Your reactions?
20 comments:
paul.
whoever this cat is, i agree with you about utah mormons and by that i mean UofU mormons. of my salt lake friends that went to provo, we are the ones who got married later (or haven't yet married). all of my buddies who went to the U got married within a year of their missions. utes think that a utah county phenom, but in actually its more a UofU thing cause those commuters need an excuse to move out of their parents homes. (altho for some of those i knew, even marriage didn't get them out of their parents home)
(my apologies to any that might be offended)
it's funny the mischaracterizations.
a caveat is that one of my best friends in medical school is a die-hard u fan.
he avoids stereotypes. we get along.
Wow. He must be really upset at how bad his team is doing to extend his insults outside the realm of college football (where the discussion was initially and should be focused). You know when someone is floundering for something to say when they go for all of the mormon stereotyping cheap-shots they can think of. He even went ahead and defensively threw out the U of U stereotypes in what I interpret to be an entreaty for pity disguised as belligerence. It may be time to cut ties with this one, Paul.
I suppose that he is just preparing himself for the inevitable this weekend. Poor Ute... Go BYU!
That's the funny thing about this rivalry. Of course it is football talk. And like other rivalries, there are often cheap personal shots. But add to this rivalry religious stereotypes and differences within a religion, and it can get down right mean (and "unchcristian-like"). The response of Paul's "friend" is an example... and just a good warning for all of us to keep our focus on the football.
Thank goodness we have a great team this year. I think it is about time. We've lost a lot to the Utes, and it is simply time for them to loose big time. That is it. It is our turn. I hope it is a complete blowout.
And I hope nobody gets hurt!
um.......
yes brother?
you're a busy man, but your lack or verbage leaves something to be desired...
matt: i agree. the depth of the emotion that spilled out his response and the number of demeaning stereotypes that he embellished were suprising to me. it will feel good to beat them this week.
michael listened to the post-game last week with me and the next day, out of the blue he says, "viva las vegas, beat utah".
he's a BYU fan. he's making his own choices. what can i say?
Everyone knows that this rivalry really hits home with Stevie. He's just speechless.
And as to Michael making his own choices... I must say that he hasn't really had a lot to choose FROM in this house. But you always hope the best for your kids.
Some Cougar-born fans do become disoriented, however. Jonny, you'll be interested to know that AJ admitted he would cheer for the Ducks instead of the Cougars in an Oregon v BYU matchup. Shameful, but I love the kid!
BYU students: are the statues wrapped yet??
I can't wait for the game. All the Utes have left is trickery and surprise left over from the Urban Meyer years, but only one real athelete. I would refer to that as a gimmick.
That was just mean. In reality, Utah isn't that bad of a team. I they are going to a bowl, I think, and I hope that they do. They win bowls. They have won the last 5 and hence have brought more respect to the conference, and boy do we need it. The Las Vegas bowl? What? Our conference CHAMPION against a PAC-10 loser? Maybe if we can keep destroying our bowl opponenets, the champ can get a respectable bowl.... you know, something to actually get excited about, viz. cotton bowl, holiday bowl... like the good old days.
i'll destroy you petey
petey will soon dissapear
petey = sceered
this blog has rules...including no violence.
um.....
Paul, I couldn't find any official rule prohibiting violence, much less the mere threatening of violence. Your rules may need some re-vamping.
Petey, I hope you make it.
all the coaches in the conference have given us very high praise. they do it because we're beating them so bad and they have to save face...
it's going to be a great game on saturday...see you on the field?
Paul... you aren't thinking of rushing the field are you??
And I agree with Matt... it is important for each team in our conference to do well, and raise the standards/expectations for the whole. I was so disappointed to see TCU not do as well this season. And it is sad Utah has fallen so far since Urban left.
I want each team to do well, that is, until they play BYU. Then I hope we crush them, of course.
... ps...Grandma Frandsen got Michael his own set of shoulder pads at a garage sale. Wow, is he thrilled!
i'm thrilled. thanks grandma.
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