That wasn’t an attempt at deflecting blame. That was an attempt at recognizing that BYU is not perfect. Definitely not blameless - BYU has made mistakes.
But I’m not going to assume that something similar has happened with Lohner without some evidence of it happening. Just like I’m not going to assume that Kuzma’s agent is passing out checks to all of Utah’s players.
[quote=“EddieR, post:66, topic:6516”]Just like I’m not going to assume that Kuzma’s agent is passing out checks to all of Utah’s players.
This…isn’t the analogy you think it is.
Kuzma was paid to LEAVE Utah…not to encourage him to stay.
A BYU fan told me that he has inside information: Lohner switched to BYU because he didn’t like LK’s yelling. I don’t find that explanation persuasive.
I think I would have just said, “Well, life’s cruel.”
So - in light of the conversation above and similar discussions regarding contacting missionaries, etc. - what do you make of the Harbaugh photograph with the missionary who initially signed with Virginia but decided to switch to Michigan with Bronco’s “retirement”?
Who the f*cck cares. Go spank it on cougarbored
If you don’t think people here care about coaches reaching out to missionaries while they are still on their mission - well…I just don’t think you haven’t been paying attention.
Quite frankly - there might only be one other fanbase who care about that more (USU) simply based on he perception that BYU coaches may be recruiting missionaries.
(I use that language because I honestly have no idea if BYU coaches are or aren’t. Just noting that regardless of what BYU coaches are doing - apparently there are other coaches out there recruiting missionaries.)
I don’t believe I connected this to Pope at all.
I suppose the conversation was about Pope further up the thread. I just didn’t feel like starting a new thread and knew that this one contained talk of tampering by coaches.
What I mean is - I’m not mentioning Harbaugh because I think it makes Pope any holier or more slimy than you already think he is. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing I could say that would change your views of that. I was interested in talk of other coaches, like Harbaugh, not just contacting but actually meeting with players in the mission field.
Onto the deeper topic -
I promise I’m not trying to be a troll - though I certainly understand how that could be seen. I am honestly not just here to mess with or annoy you. At times there’s been comments I’ve wanted to make that I’ve just kept to myself. If you think some of the stuff BYU fans say is crazy, unreasonable, illogical, etc. - let’s just say that in my view - BYU fans and I don’t have a corner on that stuff.
This is a much longer conversation - but I’ll try to sum it up here.
I don’t think hating each other is healthy. I don’t think it’s healthy to just see the worst in Utah fans and attribute every bad behavior to all of you as a group. Or to believe that one bad behavior forever defines someone. I think it’s much more healthy to recognize that there are things we see differently - but there are many things we see the same. And, as I’ve oft repeated, all fanbases (including both Utah and BYU) are made up of a broad variety of individuals. Most are decent people - but the worst among us should not be viewed as the stereotype representing the rest. And even the decent people will occasionally say something over the top - that doesn’t make them bad people, it just means they said something dumb.
I find that the more we know of each other and interact, the easier it is to dismiss the worst stereotypes and recognize the good things we have in common. I also don’t think we have to agree about everything - but I don’t think disagreeing means we have to see the other as bad or wrong - just having a different perspective/opinion. Particularly when we are talking about complex things like people that typically don’t have black/white or right/wrong answers.
Just as an example - most of you think Scalley is a good dude. As a BYU fan - knowing that he called us “pricks” and used the “n” word to describe a Black player he was recruiting - it wouldn’t be hard to make the argument that Scalley is not a “nice” guy. I mean - what would you think of a BYU player doing those things? But the reality is - it’s more complex than that. Scalley is more than those two incidents.
I read an article a while back talking about conflict in the middle east. They found that as they brought Israeli and Palestinian youth together to get to know each other, their experiences, their beliefs, etc., it was harder to hate each other. They began with the concept of their being two valid realities based on different points of view - and accepting each other’s reality.
Anyway - I am genuinely interested in being a part of the community and having some conversations. I recognize it is YOUR community - which means trying to be a good guest. But I don’t feel like it’s out of line to share an occasional different perspective or opinion to what others here have.
EddieR so far seems like a reasonable BYU fan. We used to have some solid BYU contributors on this forum years ago (Goatnapper, Palo Alto, etc). Hopefully we can have some positive interactions like that again. I think it will be good to hear some insight about BYU’s entrance into the Big XII. (Is that happening in 2022, or is it down the line a bit?)
I used to be in favor of dumping the rivalry football game between the two schools, but I think BYU joining the Big XII puts a different emphasis on it and adds more intrigue to the game. The Holy war probably doesn’t need to happen every year, but most years works for me. I’d like Utah and BYU to still schedule Utah State on occasion as well. I’m puzzled why we’re not doing that?
A lot of people might agree. I look forward to playing BYU like a root canal. So much unnecessary agita. Why do we need to play them every year? It’s not written in law. Oh , that’s right, I guess it is… We’re attached to BYU like conjoined twins.