Halftime of Wednesday night’s men’s basketball tilt between Utah and Utah State will be all about the fans. More specifically, it will be all about the support the Utah faithful showed the U football team this season, as fans will be honored in what head football coach Urban Meyer is calling “Muss Appreciation Night.”
The entire football team will accompany Meyer and his coaching staff to center court between halves tonight, and they will present the Mountain West Conference championship trophy and the “Beehive Boot” to the student body.
Originally, Meyer and the Utes were to be honored at halftime for their success this year. Instead, Meyer turned the tables and decided to focus on the fans.
“They were going to honor us, and my response to that was to turn it into an appreciation night for The Muss,” Meyer said. “It’s our way of saying thanks to the student body and to say we appreciate them. We’re going to walk it over to them and let them hold it and take a picture with it. We know that one of the reasons we had such a special season was the support of the student body.”
Meyer will talk for a few minutes to the fans in attendance and will give the team captains the same opportunity.
For Meyer, getting the support of Ute fans has been one of his most important goals since being named head coach almost a year ago. Considering the turnout at most Ute home games this season, Meyer has plenty of people to appreciate.
The Utes shattered the school’s all-time single-season attendance mark with a total of 248,868, or 41,478 fans per game.
In a nationally televised contest with California on Sept. 11, the Utes attracted the largest crowd in the history of Rice-Eccles Stadium, 44,768 strong.
“[As a coach], that means everything. One of our goals this season was to create enthusiasm and energy within our student body, and we did that,” Meyer said. “I’ll be honest, I don’t think we could have had the season we had without them. To go and play in that stadium with all those students behind you-there’s nothing that can match that.”
Aside from packing the seats at Rice-Eccles, particularly in The Muss, a good number of Ute fans could also be seen filling opponents’ bleachers as well.
“Our students followed us to UNLV and they followed us to Colorado, and hopefully they’ll follow us to Memphis [for the Liberty Bowl],” Meyer said.
