#22 BYU

Provo, UT

LaVell Edwards Stadium September 9, 2017 Utah 19 – BYU 13 (ESPN Recap)

Ran into Chris Cooley on the flight to SLC who was on his way to be inducted into the Utah St Hall of Fame. Set the mood for a Captain Chaos weekend in Mormon country.

Catching the Holy War with mister BYU himself, Mike N. Magnificent backdrop of the stadium in the mountains of Utah. The drive down from Deer Valley was easy, though include a huge amount of elevation changes. Stopped at what seemed like the only liquor store in the state. A super weird layout with tons of space, artificial walls trying to make the shopping area smaller, low quantities on the shelves and I am pretty sure some rented desks (WeWork style) behind some of the walls.

The tailgate for BYU was…well. it wasn’t really a tailgate. Provo is a dry city and zero people were drinking. We were allowed to sneak some drinks at Mike’s tailgate. The three most memorable parts of the game all occurred before kickoff:

1) The student body stands in a very long line waiting to get into the stadium. They stand there for hours without food or drinks and that’s their thing. They chat. They look happy. This is student body tailgating at BYU and it was not for me.

2) Upon walking into the stadium, they open all the gates very wide. They have no security and a couple old women scanning tickets. It would have been very easy to walk into the game without a ticket. Mormons don’t do things like that though.

3) There was an intense and long prayer over the PA system after the national anthem.

The game was pretty ugly, though Utah did cover the -4.5 for me. Huge issues at QB for BYU with Tanner Mangum having to run plays other than hail mary’s. 39 pass attempts for 170 yards and 3 interceptions is about as bad a stat line as possible for a QB throwing the ball 39 times. I liked the new young dual-threat QB Huntley for Utah. He also has the Oregon transfer WR Darren Carrington to throw to which helps.

Sitting in the BYU section was funny for this one as the Cougar fans quickly turned against Mangum. Midway through Q1 there was a murmuring that grew into a begging for having Taysom Hill back under center. This was amusing for Mike and I considering he had spent a portion of the "tailgate" recounting last season's fan indecision on who was the better QB for the program: Taysom Hill - Freak athlete, all-everything leader and winner.

Tanner Mangum - bad footwork, sinking ball, and a couple of lucky hail mary's for wins. Mike had the inside scoop since his sister married Taysom.

As Mangum's passing ineptitude continued, the fan base realized their error and started yelling really witty one-liners for a sober fan base.

I took tweet records of the funniest things we heard said and it made my day that the screenshot of those tweets will probably be seen by Taysom when Mike shows him this blog entry.

I’ll have to go to the Holy Way at U of U sometime to compare experiences and check that stadium off the list.