Excellence should never owe an apology

This was one of many signs at the game that showed off the
collective creativity of USU students

If you haven't seen it yet, an apology was issued for the behavior of the USU students at the Nov. 11 home game against BYU. The reasons for which were this apology was issued was because of the chants that USU students came up with and the signs they brought to the game.

My take on this is that it sucks. I understand it from a PR perspective, but that doesn't make me dislike this move any less. First it was BYU issuing an apology for that little scoreboard message they had last year. Now it's USU apologizing for the fans getting into a rivalry game in a big way. Neither of which I thought should have deserved an apology, because this is college athletics. More importantly, this is major in-state rivalries. People are going to smack on rival schools, things are going to get heated, but at the end of the day if everyone makes it home safely, no real harm is done.

And don't think I'm not going to give details. I'll give the hell out of some details and extra points worth making.


1) Nowhere else in America would this be "over the line."

News flash: Brandon Davies is going to get it from everybody, wherever BYU goes this season. His own school painted a target on his chest for doing something that is not punishable at any other university. That's the bed they made for themselves, so they get to deal with it. The signs weren't profane, nor were the vast majority of the chants. Really I don't remember any of them outside of "pull out" that could even be considered "over the line."

In the bigger picture of college basketball around the country, USU fans at, what administration is claiming to be their worst, is at worst, mild in comparison.


2) Their smack vs. our smack

When big games come about, so does the smack talk. When USU travels on the road, we see signs and hear chants all the time about our cow college, and the tractors we drive, getting called "faggies", the  "tUrd" sign I'm sure whoever makes it at each game thinks they're the most brilliant smack talker ever.

Then there's the heckling our own players get when they play on the road. They get heckled for their age, or going on missions, or being married, or their appearance, or whatever else you can think of. Stew Morrill has said before how he always gets yelled at for being fat while on the road, and he's said that he takes comfort in the fact of knowing that when that team's players come to Logan, they're going to get it a hell of a lot worse than our guys got it in their house.

We see it all the time, and it's pretty easy to laugh off. In other words, their smack talk sucks, and since ours seems to get under the skin of BYU fans so badly, we must be doing pretty good at it. Don't go and paint some disgraceful picture of our students just because our smack talk doesn't suck. When we win the smack-off against other schools, that is our advantage that we get by having such a dedicated student body who cares enough to want to try and have a major impact on the games. And if you don't think they do have an impact, 195-13 would beg to differ.


3) BYU being BYU

BYU fans bitch about everything. Regardless of if they win or lose, the opposing team's fans were "classless." They throw that c-word around over and over and never realize how badly they sound like a broken record, or how little other people care to meet their infinitely unmeetable standard of "class."

So just because we smacked them around in our house and took shots at their player whose chest they painted a target on, that doesn't make USU fans over the line. And just because BYU fans bitched a little harder about this loss than they normally do, that doesn't mean we should issue some apology to try and quiet their bitching. They whine because they want to treat Utah State like an inferior institution and it kills them that the Aggies are playing about on the same level as they are in both of the two major college sports.

See, between all their belittling of our school, our fans and our teams, and with all their superiority complexes they have, and really just their overall persona and demeanor, USU fans tend to lose the ability to really care that we hurt their little feelings with a few signs and chants. We dish it out, and when we go on the road, we take it too. BYU fans love to dish it out, but when they go on the road and have to take it, the opposing fans were "just so classless."


4) Did things ever get too hostile?


Did Aggie fans keep the hostility going after the game? Because I've been on the front row of a hell of a lot of heated games at The Spectrum, plenty of which involved some heated heckling back and forth between fans under the basket and opposing fans behind the visitors' bench. But regardless, once the game was over, it was left at that. Most often, one of the loudest and most passionate of all USU fans (Jake Frisby) was the first to go over and shake hands with opposing fans, usually engaging on joking and pleasant conversation with them.

That doesn't happen at BYU. Nor does it even come close. Last year, while standing outside the Marriott Center waiting for the buses that the Hurd brought to the game, our crowd of students stood there receiving constant heckling and shit talk from BYU fans on their way to their cars. At times, we didn't exactly feel 100 percent safe out there. When it reaches that level, then things are bordering on getting "over the line."

But we didn't ask for any apologies. We got one for that scoreboard thing, but most of us didn't care for one. We know why we don't like BYU and their fans, and that whole experience just reaffirmed it all.


5) Coby Karl

Speaking of coming close to the line, does anybody else remember when Boise State came to The Spectrum in 2007? They had the son of an NBA coach on their roster in Coby Karl, who was an all-WAC player as well. Coby's father, who is head coach of the Denver Nuggets was at the game as well. Because he came from an NBA family and was a star player, Karl was targeted in a big way by the USU fans.

Signs about not living up to dad's expectations, or calling him a daddy's boy and even talking about his appearance were abundant. Chants of "Who's your daddy", "Daddy's boy" and "Ugly Duckling" were thrown his way too. Safe to say, he got it pretty bad.

That game ended with USU coming back from being down nine points with just more than a minute to go to win the game by one point in a comeback for the ages. Fans stormed the floor and a massive celebration ensued.

After the game, Koby was standing in a circle with his dad, mom and Rick Majerus out on the court when much of the crowd had left. Knowing how good of a player Coby was and knowing that he had recently beaten cancer to keep his career going, I went over just to shake his hand and give props on what was still a pretty solid performance.

I said, "Hey Coby, great game out there man. We give you a rough time during the game, but really we've got nothing but respect."

Coby's response... "Thanks man, you guys were fantastic tonight. I just wish we had you guys for our fans."

Before I could say anything, Mrs. Karl, whose son had just had all that stuff chanted at him, chimed in and said, "You guys really are great. We just love coming to the games here."

So you see... The players have thick skin. They can take it. Some of their parents can even take it, because they understand that's how things are in college sports, and if you can shake hands and get along after the game, that's what matters most.


6) Don't sell out your die-hards

Regardless of everything else, the most die-hard of die-hard fans were the ones who got sold out by Stan and Scott in this whole thing. Now, I've made my stance on Barnes before, and I stand by it. But this is one move of his I don't agree with. The die-hards are the fans you should stick up for the most, because when it comes to fan support, the die-hards are the ones who would still be out in the cold this Saturday for USU's football against Nevada even if they weren't on the verge of bowl eligibility. They're the ones who will still be waiting for hours for games at The Spectrum even if a down season ever happens. And when they go on to degrees, the die-hards are going to be the yes-men (and women) when USU athletics is in need of private donations to balance the budget or finance new projects.

Yes, we're also the ones who will toe the line when it comes to chants and signs, but when you've got thousands of students camping out and waiting countless hours in lines for games, you should have their backs first before calling them out publicly in an apology to a school like BYU. No matter what happens, BYU fans will always say USU fans are "classless." They did before this apology, and if you pop on over to their message board, they're still saying it. To them, the apology went in one ear and out the other. To the die-hard students, I imagine it only makes them worry that you're going to try and do something drastic to bring down the hammer on them. When you've got something that is considered the best of its kind in the country like you have with the basketball student section, the last thing you want to do is meddle with it and risk changing things.

Let the kids be kids, especially in situations where no lines were crossed. USU students generally know what is too far and with all the heated games over the years against Utah, BYU, Nevada and New Mexico State, things haven't gone too far.

If nothing else, don't let the whining of BYU fans ever convince you that Aggie fans aren't the best in the country. To me, and I think a hell of a lot more people as well, the BYU game on Nov. 11 on reaffirmed that we're the best there is.

Keep it up Utah State.