Utah Tailgating (Yeah, It Happens)

Utah and tailgating may sound like an oxymoron, but let me tell you it happens and it's a whole lot of fun.

The tailgating lot "officially" sits in the parking lot of Guardsman Way and South Campus Drive. Where hundreds of fans clad in red, along with the occasional opponent defector, eat tons of food, and reminisce about the past Ute games.

Truly, however, tailgating takes place all over campus in every parking lot. Where I like to plop down is either at the Huntsman Center lot or at the Student Center lot eat a couple of sausages, and prepare to watch a butt kicking instituted by our boys in red.

Utah tailgating may not be in the same league as say USC, UCLA, Texas, Florida, or any SEC team for that matter. But we are miles ahead of the Cougars, where you sit around drink punch.

Anyway you look at it, Utes know how to have a good time. Before and after games.

My Favorite Utah Team

Let's face it. Utah has been playing football for over 110 years, and maybe only 20 of those years stand out as great teams. Of course you have to include the 2008 Sugar Bowl team and the 2004 Fiesta Bowl team. But what others stand out in that 110 year span? There was 1994, the first time Utah gained national recognition. Finished ranked in the top 10. And 2003, the year Urban Meyer turned all expectations around and made Utah a perennial threat.

To me personally there is only one great Utah football team, 2008. It may seem that this is only because it was the most recent successful team to gain national recognition, but no it is because I feel that I have a very special connection with that year's team.

After years of hard work I finally graduated with my Bachelor's Degree from the University of Utah in 2008. Add to that that I had several classes with some of that teams stars and I have more memories added to that year. I had a communications class with Brian Johnson (who by the way is not that bright of a guy) and a Economics class with Jason Boone just to name a few.

Beside my personal connection there are many other reasons that I love this team more than any other. For one Utah's 2004 team had much of a "white-collar" appeal. They steam-rolled every single opponent they faced all thanks to the Spread Offense. At the time no one had seen the spread offense and had no idea how to stop it. By 2008 the spread had lost it's schtick and had become quite normal, so what did Utah do to combat this problem? They turned to another current fashion and heavily instituted the Wildcat.

Aside from the adjusted offense, Utah returned to their tradition of having one of the toughest Defenses in the country. Anchored by tough as nails linebackers and safetys that patrolled centerfield waiting to poach an interception they were nearly unstoppable.

Add in that 2008 featured the head coaching duties of Kyle Whittingham and it gets better. Although Whittingham played for the rival Cougars in college, he learned the error of his ways and joined up with the Utes as an assistant in 1994, 14 years later he finally got his shot as Head Coach and has made it worth while. With his own recruits in the driver's seat Whitty is what made Utah who they are.

Drama was the name of the game in 2008. Starting with a squeaked out win in the Big House against Michigan to open the year and two incredible come from behind wins against Oregon State and TCU. We knew this was going to be a special year.

I vividly remember the Oregon State game down by 8 with 2:30 minutes left in the game, the Utes kicked into gear. Scoring a TD, and converting a two-point conversion to tie it up with about 1:30 left in the game. The D holds stronger than ever converting a three-and-out giving Utah the ball back with more than enough time. Then the most magical thing I could ever imagine occurred. 45,000+ fans all on their feet started chanting in unison "Louie, Louie, Louie." Everyone knew that the game was in the hands of star kicker Louie Sakoda. Sakoda had become the darling of the Utah football team and everyone knew he was going to win the game for us. Booting a easy-as-pie 35-yarder Sakoda won the game without an ounce of stress, resulting in the first of three field rushes that year.

Against TCU another field rush, Utah who dressed in their black uniforms for the first time ever marched down the field in the final minute to score the winning touchdown. Utah made TCU look like the weakest team in the country, which we later found out was in no way the case.

Top it all off with a blowout win over BYU to cap off the regular season it couldn't be beat. Then finally against all doubters, with no one in their corner Utah had nothing to lose against Alabama. Alabama had been ranked No. 1 for a good portion of the year, but Utah wasn't flinching. Scoring 21 unanswered points in a span of seven minutes to open the Sugar Bowl, Utah went on to win with no problems at all.

These are the reasons my favorite Utah team ever is the 2008 Sugar Bowl champion Utes.

How I became a Ute.

Being born a Canning there was no other team I could ever root for. You might say that I was born with Crimson blood coursing through my veins. Both my parents were born and raised in the Salt Lake City area (Dad in South Salt Lake, Mom in Murray), and for as long as I can remember I've been attending football games.

My parents used to buy tickets through their companies, who during the '80s would buy a block of seats at the games and sell them to their employees at a cheaper rate. Throughout the decade we watched as Utah teams got thrown around by teams, just dreaming of the day when the Utes would be big time (little did we know it would take two more decades). At the time my Dad worked for a company, Northwest Pipeline, that occupied a building in Research Park-a part of the U's property. As such we had incredible seats in the South End Zone right below the old scoreboard featuring a block U logo with a Native American's silhouette. These were the years when Rice Stadium was half full on a good day. We later were moved to the old North End Zone when my Mom got the tickets from her company National Semiconductor. This was when the North End Zone was all General Admission, and you had to get their pretty early to get a decent seat.

I've been told I was taken to Utah football games as an infant in a little red snowsuit to stay warm. Years later I would go but lost interest in the games all too quickly and by the second quarter I was either playing with my smuggled in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to keep me busy or reading the game program to learn all of the referee's hand signs. To this day I still know a large majority of the signs.

It wasn't until about third grade that I came to watch the games the whole way through. I remember Mike McCoy with a d-lineman about to tackle him throwing a bullet into the end zone to a freshman Kevin Dyson to win the Freedom Bowl. I remember Steve Smith taunting Cougar fans by stating "Even our cheerleaders are kicking your ass" when a Ute male cheerleader beat the hell out of a fan that tried to tackle him and the U flag. I remember both 34-31 wins, the first of which Chris Yergeson booted a Sakoda-like 50-yard field goal to beat BYU for the first time in years. I remember when duck calls rung throughout the stadium calling for Utah's dramatic "Duck" play. I remember when the game ball was delivered by a parachuter and when a person dressed in traditional Ute Indian garb rode across the astroturf with a flaming spear so he could stab a bail of hay on the 50 yard line.

Years later I myself finally became a true Ute in that I graduated from the University of Utah in 2008, the same year that Utah went undefeated and went to a BCS game for the second time.

My life has been filled with 25 years of Utah football memories. And I look forward to many more in the coming years.

Part of NCAA Football 11 video game's release week festivities about your favorite team.

Utah Utes to the Pac-10

It's been a while since I've posted anything on my blog. And there have been some incredible things going on in the world. Oil leaks both locally and abroad, economic woes continue, and the World Cup whipping people into a frenzy.

The biggest news, however, came about two weeks ago when the Pac-10 athletic conference invited two teams to join their ranks. The University of Colorado (at Boulder) was invited first and accepted nearly immediately, the other the greatest university in the country...THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH.

As I posted on Facebook days before the invitation was extended "Just get together already. He wants her, she wants him. Pac-10 just invite the Utes. The Utes have already rented a tux and bought the flowers."

Utah accepted the invitation just hours after it was extended, and the Utes are now set to leave the ranks of the lower tier college sports and join the prestigious ranks of the "classiest" conference in the country. It is the dream of every Ute fan to join the Pac-10, one that was thought to be far-fetched. But as is the case Dreams do come true.

So to introduce ourselves to the ranks of the Pac-10 here are the basics about our beloved Utes so that you understand, we come to party...and we won't stop partying until where handed the roses.

Name: The University of Utah

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah. Approximately 5 miles east of downtown SLC.

Founded: 1850 as the University of Deseret by Brigham Young (the irony of the fact that the former-Mormon leader founded the school and our chief rival is named after him is not lost on us).

Chief Rival: BYU, and to a lesser extent Utah State University.

Mormon?: While the majority of the state of Utah are Mormon, Salt Lake City is only about 35-40% Mormon.

Alcohol?: Oh yeah we drink, and we drink with the best of 'em. Swing by our tailgate parties and you'll see that we mean business.

Nickname: Utes, after the Native American tribe that lived in the mountains around SLC. The state's name Utah is also derived from the tribe meaning "people of the mountains."

Sensitivity?: The University of Utah has an agreement with the Ute Tribe that states the school may use the name as long as they do not disgrace it.

Stadiums: Football: Rice-Eccles Stadium-seats 45,000; Basketball: Jon M. Huntsman Center-seats 15,000; Baseball: Spring Mobile Ballpark-seats 15,000.

Famous Alumi: NFL - Alex Smith, Scott Mitchell, Steve Smith, & Jamal Anderson. NBA - Andrew Bogut, Keith Van Horn, Andre Miller, Tom Chambers, Michael Doleac, & Hanno Mottola.