The Count of Monte Cristo has Fernand Mondego. “Star Wars” has Darth Vader. Utah fans have Austin Collie.
Most fans will remember when Collie caught an important 49-yard pass late in Utah’s 17-10 loss in last year’s rivalry game. Some will also remember when Collie made the now-infamous statement regarding that play to KFAN’s Patrick Kinahan in a personal interview after the game.
“I wouldn’t say it was lucky. We executed the play well. We should have had another (TD). Obviously, if you do what’s right on and off the field, I think the Lord steps in and plays a part in it. Magic happens.”
On Tuesday, Dick Harmon from the Deseret News wrote a column titled “Utah fans fuel the fire behind heated rivalry” and hypothesized on why Utah seems to hate BYU more than BYU hates Utah. He summarized a quote from BYU defensive end Jan Jorgensen which said, “Jorgensen speculates it has to do with BYU’s winning run in the Lavell Edwards era.”
First off, I have nothing against Dick Harmon. I personally believe I’m more objective about Utah athletics than Harmon is about BYU anything, but for the vast majority of Utah fans, he’s just plain wrong.
Frankly, I don’t remember Edwards’ heyday, and most of the people I go to school with are the same way. Utah fans don’t dislike BYU because the team is successful. Utah fans don’t like BYU because they view the Cougs’ fans and players as pompous. The Team Down South’s views about how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true path to happiness and eternal bliss carries over to their football team, their basketball team, even their Dreyer’s ice cream (which by the way is exactly the same as our Ute Blitz). That’s not even including the thousands of Utah fans—who are also LDS—who simply don’t like the TDS.
But Harmon is right. Utah fans do bring more angst to this rivalry game. Ute fans absolutely try to antagonize Cougar fans and bring them down to “their level.” Utah fans love when guys like Collie think they are taking the moral high road, but in the end come off sounding more pretentious than a taping of the Oprah Winfrey Show.
After last year, Ute fans have been hanging on every Collie sound-bite. There’s even a Facebook group called “The Austin Collie D-Bag Quote of the Week Club” that was created by U sophomore Taylor Duncan and is 828 members strong.
Someone even found Austin Collie and his wife Brooke’s open blog that is hosted on blogspot.com (which has now been made private) that included Halloween photos of Collie as some sort of lumberjack stuffed into a costume that looks a lot like John Stockton’s old shorts and would probably make his bishop blush. To Collie’s left is BYU tight end Dennis Pitta, who is decked out in U attire. It’s hard to tell whether he’s valiantly trying to look like a nerd, or if the cool clothes are covering up his personality.
I, for one, absolutely love Collie. He leads the country in receiving yards per game with 119.55 and he’s one of BYU’s best players. For whatever reason, he’s also decided to open up his big mouth—for better or worse—and nearly everything that comes out is gold. He whines as if he can’t say anything right, and frankly, when it comes to Utah and the rivalry, he can’t. He is a microcosm of Utah’s genuine disdain for BYU in general and he’s playing the part of the villain perfectly. He’s a guy who Utah fans can forever love to hate.
t.pizza@chronicle.utah.edu
The Daily Utah Chronicle > Sports
Collie encapsulates U's hatred of BYU
Published: Friday, November 21, 2008
Updated: Friday, November 21, 2008
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Thanks for stopping by though, pendejo.