Editor:

This football season started with extreme ups and downs, and then our team put together one of the best seven-game stretches in school history that included road wins at Louisville and TCU, and surprise home field blowouts against New Mexico and Wyoming. Unfortunately, our regular season did not end the way we all wanted it to. I still want to personally thank the team and the coaches for an awesome season and I look forward to the bowl game Dec. 20. An 8-4 season is not too shabby at all.

As for the game Saturday, it obviously was the single most upsetting day of the year for me. Most of that feeling derives from the defeat, but I was pushed over the top by something that happened right after the game. I watched students from the school down south rush onto the field and run up to our players to point, taunt and even push them. I saw a couple of students go out of their way to specifically approach Marquis Wilson as he calmly tried to head to the locker room after probably one of the most disheartening losses of his life.

If you cannot win with class, then you do not deserve to win at all. Trash-talk and taunting will forever be a part of sports, but everybody knows that it should only occur before and during the game. Coaches, players and fans should all meet after the game, shake hands and tell each other “good game.” I hope that in the future, we will strive to be as rowdy, loud, and crazy as possible before and during the games, but that after the final whistle blows we will show the opposing team respect for playing hard and giving our team a chance to play a competitive game.

We have the potential to be the greatest student section in the nation. Let’s make sure that we act like it in all aspects of the game. Go Utes!

Graham J. Anderson Student Alumni Association President