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It’s always tough on me when our Bears take an L, as I truly despise it with a capital D. But, and this might sound odd, because of my interaction with the BYU fans and experience at Lavell Edwards Stadium I had a great time despite the loss. The fan engagement and game atmosphere were off the charts. Those who know and follow me understand that my first love is and will always be the Baylor Family and McLane. Baylor fans are unique and amazing. Then there is the jewel we all know and love as McLane Stadium with its unparalleled beauty coupled with our fantastic tail/sailgating. I have many fun and heart warming stories about my interaction with BYU fans, but I’ll sum it up with a few of my tweets.
BNT’s Thoughts About the @BYUfootball fans:
— BNT (@BearNTex) September 11, 2022
1. Never experienced anything like their hospitality
2. Truly good folks
3. #BaylorFamily is #1 in my ❤️but we could learn from them about fan engagement
4. Loudest stadium I’ve ever been in
5. Cougar tails, ice cream, milk #SicEm
And here is a typical BYU fan response to my tweets (which were in the hundreds)
I look forward to playing Baylor every year. My wife and I would love to go to a game in Waco. Baylor fans after the game said, "Great game! Come visit us in Waco!"
— Some.BYU.Dude (@ByuSome) September 11, 2022
Great friendship building here.
I literally was told “Welcome” and “Thank you for coming” several thousand times. Even a Provo cop walked over to me and asked “Where are you from?” Nervously I said, “Waco, Texas.” He smiled, shook my hand, and said “Welcome to Provo.” Here’s the most amazing part, these folks were genuinely happy to be our hosts and treat us like old friends. They were engaging, polite, and bent on making me feel at home. They also have a fun sense of humor. You know I’m going to poke a little fun at them in a respectful and playful way, but it was hard to do. Don’t get me wrong, they have great sense of humors and are quick to laugh. A few examples to how they react to my playful tweets:
What? What are you going to do? Dinner on me brother! Baylor fans are seriously class act. No sarcasm.
— Jared Rogers, Ed.D. (@FJ40Daddy) September 11, 2022
You’re welcome!
Thank you for coming
— Old Max Hall #12 (@oldmaxhall) September 11, 2022
The "thank you for coming" is usually accompanied with "great game", "good luck this year", and "your team played really well". Hopefully you weren't short changed and got all of it. And, again, thank you for coming. It was a great game! Good luck this year!
— Brandon Robb (@brobb34) September 11, 2022
We said, thank you for coming, and then you came and ate cake with us at the tailgate…
— Greg M (@gbm4byu) September 11, 2022
That one did happen lol.
Wait until you get the ice cream
— Crosspatch (@xx007) September 11, 2022
There were over 900 responses to that little tweet.
After their kicker missed the first game winning attempt
Sorry for the spicy language
— Watchman on the Tower (@Tower_Overwatch) September 11, 2022
— 2️⃣2️⃣ThiccBoi7 Fan Club President2️⃣2️⃣ (@thetyrusaurus) September 12, 2022
No flip and flippin freakin? Our swear words are definitely not the norm!
— Mark Pointer (@MarcusA73671058) September 12, 2022
Even when I tried to trash talk them, it kind of back fired lol
In fairness Joseph Smith was a 4.5 point favorite over Judge Baylor so yeah, not surprising. #GoCougs
— Alan Reese (@alan_reese) September 9, 2022
I can believe the milk, but I'm more partial to "Hallowed Be Thy Name" by Iron Maiden....but that's just me.
— Michael Jensen (@braddahmike) September 9, 2022
You should see what a Pixy Stick does to us. pic.twitter.com/p925U7apoM
— Isaac Halasima (@TIsaacHalasima) September 9, 2022
We get hard core lit on Dr Pepper.
— Karen (@baby_maumau) September 10, 2022
A local business, Vandy Creations, evidently makes beautiful dog tags with the opposing teams logo on them and give them to visiting fans.
The Vandy guys are the best!
— Salt City Swagger (@SaltCitySwagger) September 11, 2022
At the tailgate it was great seeing old friends and crashing, I mean being invited into some BYU tailgates while making new friends.
Enjoyed spending time with the guy who is the backbone of ODB, Mark Moore and his amazing wife Beth.
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Our own Ted Harrison (TedVid) surprised me when he walked up. Love this guy.
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I highly recommend crashing BYU tailgates next time you go to a game in Provo. Great food and better company. This is the group where I ate some of their yummy cakes (tweet shared somewhere above). Yes, I taught them all how to throw a Sic ‘em! lol
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And this group made sure I tried the BYU brownie, a staple at all BYU tailgates. Evidently it’s better with mint.
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The game itself didn’t have the outcome we desired, but I do think the team learned some things about themselves and the coaches will get a few things fixed.
Some quick thoughts:
- BYU is a legit team. They play hard and are disciplined. They will have an excellent season. We want them to win!
- Hall is everything they say he is. Skilled, smart, and doesn’t make mistakes. He was the difference maker.
- Penalties killed us. When we had clean drives (which only happened a few times) we scored. Have to clean it up moving forward.
- We MUST pass more. This is why we went with Shapen. I got tired of seeing 7-8 of their D in the box. Even at that, I thought the O Line did a good job...but, you have to stretch the D. This will get fixed.
- I thought the D played well. They were gassed and the altitude didn’t help, yet the still brought it.
On to the game itself in Gifs
When you were walking up to Lavell Edwards stadium, EVERY single BYU fan you passed said
followed by
When you heard the BYU band lead the Baylor fans in Baylor Fight before the game (very classy).
When their fans would get ear splitting loud (and it was insane) on Baylor’s 3rd down plays you would quietly ask them to
When we had another drive killing or extending penalty
When we thought we would go into the half with a 6-3 lead only to see BYU run the 2 minute drill to perfection and give them a 10-6 lead
When we took the opening drive of the 2nd Half and methodically drove it down the field to score and take back the lead, you and your fellow Bears relaxed a bit
BYU fans when they missed the game winning field goal in regulation taking us into overtime
Baylor fans on the same play
Watching Shapen scramble around only to throw it out of bounds on the last play leading to the loss
Post your gif reactions below.
xoxo,
BNT
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