From coast to coast, Aggie fans traveled in droves to support football team at LA Bowl
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — On Saturday night, 29,896 fans at Sofi Stadium watched Utah State become the champions of the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl. Thousands of Aggie supporters poured into the NFL stadium to celebrate the team’s historic turnaround from a one-win 2020 season to a double-digit resurgence.
The stands behind the Aggie sideline of Sofi Stadium were crowded with fans in blue, white and pewter. Head coach Blake Anderson said his team got energy from the wall of supporters behind them.
“It was so much blue and silver, that it lifts your spirits. It really does energize your group. And they’ve done that all season long. We’ve never gone anywhere on the road, even some really difficult trips to make, we’ve never gone anywhere and felt like we were alone,” Coach Anderson said.
In an era with flat-screen TVs and mobile streaming, it’s never been easier for fans to watch the game anywhere but the stadium. However, Coach Anderson said that’s not what their fans do.
“(Large in-person attendance) is something that is rare, to be honest with you, because most people will just sit and watch on TV but our folks show up,” Coach Anderson said.
Noelle Cockett, president of Utah State University, was there to support the Aggies. She added on to Coach Anderson’s opinion that the Aggie faithful charge up the players.
“Having fans at these kind of games means so much to the players. They’re gonna be focused on it, but they’ll hear us,” Cockett said.
Cockett, who holds too graduate degrees from Oregon State, said before the game she was “really fired up.” Cockett also was impressed by the atmosphere at Sofi Stadium and around the LA Bowl.
“I’ve had the chance to go to probably four bowls, each one has a different look and feel to it… You come here (and) it feels like this is California,” Cockett said.
Many Aggie fans were impressed by Sofi Stadium.
“Sofi Stadium is an absolutely mind-blowing facility,” Brendan Andeson, an Aggie alumnus, said. “I felt like Sofi blew (Allegiant Stadium) out of the water. Aggie fans can’t ask for much more in terms of a desirable stage and opponent to play our bowl game.”
“It’s not often we’ll get to see us play in an NFL stadium,” Jeff Barry, a Utah State fan, said. “We’re not gonna play somewhere like this every year.”
Aggie fans took a wide variety of transportation options as they made their way to Southern California. The Aggie Marching Band endured more than 15 hours in buses to get to Sofi Stadium. Cockett was glad to see them at the game.
“Every year the band gets larger under our director Lane (Weaver). This is the largest number of the marching band we’ve ever had and we were able to bring essentially all of them,” Cockett said.
The band fired up the crowd throughout the game and helped Utah State celebrate scores and the victory with “Hail the Utah Aggies” and “The Scotsman.”
Twelve students rented a “huge van” and drove from Logan to Inglewood to support the Aggies.
“We were done with finals so we were like let’s just party hard,” one of the students said.
The group sat in the lower bowl, and were holding six different posters that spelled “Aggies.”
One fan, Johnny Neilson, flew from Washington, D.C. to watch the game. Other fans, including Brendan and Mikayla Anderson, braved an 11-hour drive from Utah. The decision to come to the bowl game was easy for them.
“Simple as this: we love our Aggies! The LA bowl is our new Vegas bowl. The goal should be to make this bowl each year,” Brendan Anderson said. “(When) I as a fan have a chance to see us in a top-tier bowl game, I have to take advantage and go support the team and watch us compete.”
Colby and Megan LeBaron were season ticket holders this season and went to every home game with their children. They came down to the LA Bowl to support the team and be a part of a historic Utah State season.
“We’re just excited to be Aggies and excited to be part of the fun,” Colby LeBaron said. “We brought our kids. It’s such a great atmosphere, such a fun place to bring your kids.”
Friendship and a shared love of football brought some Aggie faithful to Inglewood.
One Aggie alumnus reunited with a close mentor, his former engineering professor that he had not seen in person in over 40 years. Rick Riker was a student of Professor Anderson in the 1970s at Humboldt State University. Professor Anderson was hired by Utah State University and convinced Riker to follow him to Logan for graduate work. Riker now lives in Corvallis, Oregon, where Oregon State calls home.
“(Anderson) recruited me back to Utah to be a graduate student. I got my graduate degree and then in 1978 I moved to Corvallis,” Rick Riker said. “I’ve been there for 43 years.”
Riker reached out to Professor Anderson over the opportunity to reunite and watch Utah State play Oregon State.
“We texted each other, sorta jokingly, ‘how does warm weather, a little football and some golf sound?’ and here we are,” Riker said.
Aggies student Evan Pointer traveled to Inglewood because of his roommates, running back Cooper Jones and long snapper Jesse Vasquez.
“I have a couple of roommates on the team so I wanted to come down and support them and it’s a bowl game so it’d be fun too,” Pointer said.
With the 2021 football season coming to an end, we asked Cockett and Coach Anderson what fan support meant to the team and university. They were both impressed at the attendance and fan support not only at the bowl game but throughout the entire season.
“The students have just been right behind football. Now, I’ve been at the university a lot of years and I remember in like the early 2000s, oh my gosh, there’d be like 5,000 (fans) total. So to look over sometimes, some games at Maverik Stadium and see it just booming. And we always talk about Spectrum magic, but we have Maverik magic now,” Cockett said.
“It’s been huge all season,” Blake Anderson added. “That’s just the added fuel that most people honestly don’t get the luxury of having. A group that travels, a group that shows up for home games, a student section that’s just ridiculous, to be honest with you, best I’ve ever been around.”