COLUMN: Section F for April 26
Unless this year was just a fluke, the 2009-2010 school year might forever go down as the one that Utah State fans took the proverbial next step into the company of the nation’s elite. Simply put, this year was a whole new animal from beginning to end.
The first two teams to reap the benefits of this were football and volleyball. Football saw impressive student turnouts for just about every home this season, including the largest student turnout on record at Utah State for the Boise State game on ESPN2. The result saw three wins at home this season, another near-victory against an excellent Nevada team and some straight-up insanity in the student section when Robert Turbin ran 24 yards for a touchdown to tie the game with Boise State late in the second quarter of that game when hope of pulling off a miracle was still alive.
Volleyball saw its own spike in crowd involvement with some actual bunching of students coordinating chants and standing for entire matches. A win in the home-opener against BYU was the stamp of approval on volleyball’s season, but was definitely not the finishing touches on Utah State’s abuse of the Cougars this past year. The hockey team chipped in a handful of wins against BYU as well, all in front of crowds that brought the Eccles Ice Center to noise levels that left your ears ringing.
At the end of the year though, the real highlight of Utah State fans, once again, was the basketball crowds at the Spectrum. I could pick any one of six home games this year that would have been the most rowdy and noisy game of the year in any other season. The crowds were louder and more involved this year than any other season I’ve seen at Utah State, and they were loud and rowdy from start to finish.
When BYU basketball finally made its way back to Logan after a four-year absence, Utah State fans quickly reminded why they cowered away from this place to begin with. Louisiana Tech was given no mercy as the Aggies avenged their final regular season loss in dramatic fashion on national television. When Nevada rolled into town, the Luke Babbitt hating began from atop the Spectrum before students were even let into the building.
As incredible as the noise levels, coordination and dedication have been this year, the real thing that makes Utah State fans special is that everybody is a part of things. Any school could have a group of a dozen people or so jumping up and down at the start of a game chanting, “I believe that we will win,” but when 5,000 people are doing that at once and capping off a win by a perfectly executed winning team, losing team chant, that is the step from good to great. It’s not just one person or one group of people, but rather everybody who gets decked out in blue and comes to games.
Aside from all the national recognition that has come the direction of Utah State for the level of excellence established by the fans, the games themselves are just more fun for everyone when things get crazy. The Suzanne Shelton’s of the world will always be around to hate on the good thing we have going, but Aggie fans will continue to be smart enough to know where the line of bad behavior is and to continue to be nowhere near crossing that line.
The standard of excellence has been set. The traditions are in place. The victories continue to pile up for every sport at Utah State. The world knows what to expect from USU students now. I don’t anticipate anyone will be let down in 2010-2011.