A farewell, at least for now.
Just a few musings and memories from Salt Lake City. Unfortunately a battery problem on my phone screwed up taking many pictures but here are a few. Hopefully others will have some to share. Since this was a school day/work day the party took a while to get started but once it did I think we held our own as far as the tailgating goes.
First and foremost, I just want to say that the Michigan fans we met at the tailgates and at the game were everything that is good about college sports. Full of history, knowledge and fun. We were lucky to have long-time mgoblog lurkers Scott & Chuck with us for the day and since we had an extra ticket we were able to enjoy Scott's company at the game.
The Loonies were great and another group of friends that tailgate just west of where they were set up had an incredible time. It was no doubt one of the best tailgates we've had in the years we've been doing this.
One of your fans did a fantastic thing for a waitress at a downtown bar:
http://fox13now.com/2015/09/04/michigan-fans-in-utah-for-game-day-leave-slc-server-3000-as-part-of-tips-for-jesus/
And we had a little fun when a local feature reporter stopped by a couple of the tailgates really early in the morning.
http://www.good4utah.com/news/local-news/the-party-started-before-sunrise-for-utes-fans
I say "for now" because my hope is that we can do this again. However, since I never want to be visiting fan that stays well past game time, so long and best wishes from all of us at the Shasta crew in Salt Lake City,
Michael Henrie & Cris Schrauf
Albert and Marianna Gamboa
Brian Royce & Kathy Lemay
Dave & Annette Wigham
as well as from the crew of Porky, The Ute Pig Bus who asked me to pass on their best as well,
Welby Evangelista
Pit Master Ryan Lufkin
Brian McCombie
Ed Cable
and many others.
September 5th, 2015 at 12:04 PM ^
Good luck on your season. You proved a worthy opponent!
September 5th, 2015 at 12:06 PM ^
I would love for this series to continue, hopefully someday soon. I really want Michigan to even up that overall record vs Utah!
September 5th, 2015 at 12:08 PM ^
Utah was more than a worthy adversary. I just wish your boys had played some vintage Michigan teams, but that's on us.
Good luck in the Pac 12, my friend.
September 5th, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^
Hopefully if we play again in Ann Arbor, our fans can return the favor. Glad to hear we behaved!
September 5th, 2015 at 2:23 PM ^
I can attest that my tailgate and our group of friends was extremely hospitable to the Utes. In addition, our tailgate as whole seeks to find the opposing fans to show them Michigan hospitality on the golf course.
September 5th, 2015 at 12:14 PM ^
Bryce, Zion, Canyonlands, and Arches are all fantastic.
September 5th, 2015 at 3:18 PM ^
Utah is a really beautiful state. I've been to Zion, but not the other 3 NP's.
September 5th, 2015 at 12:19 PM ^
Old people suck. There, I said it
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September 5th, 2015 at 12:24 PM ^
Until next time. Hopefully we're able to even the score, as it were.
September 5th, 2015 at 12:37 PM ^
Here's hoping that the Utes run the table and we look back on this as our only loss.
September 5th, 2015 at 6:14 PM ^
Then it will be gone. And Finally the crazy illusions will stop, I hope
September 5th, 2015 at 1:03 PM ^
That was classy. Good luck for the rest of the year.
September 5th, 2015 at 1:11 PM ^
Nice post. Congrats on the win. Utah has been building a really solid base for years now and look close to the breakthrough. The d is rock solid and the o is steady and looks capable of blowing up anyone on your schedule. Hopefully UM and the U of U meet on the field again soon.
September 5th, 2015 at 1:29 PM ^
I'm excited to play them sometime when we're not breaking in a new coach and system after a complete program meltdown!
September 5th, 2015 at 1:27 PM ^
very classy, great fans and a great team. good luck this year and beyond
September 5th, 2015 at 1:29 PM ^
Nice post! We had a great time in SLC. People offered us directions, restaurant suggestions, and good wishes for the game and season. A Utah fan at the coffee shop at Little America chatted with us, then secretly bought our breakfast! We sat in N21 surrounded by Utah fans, but they were very gracious (for the most part). We are also going to Penn State, let's see how Happy Valley compares! Best wishes for a great season, Utah!
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September 5th, 2015 at 1:45 PM ^
Thanks, Shasta, for the post and for all of your insightful contributions to the blog. Good luck with the rest of the season!
September 5th, 2015 at 1:53 PM ^
Is that you?
September 5th, 2015 at 1:58 PM ^
At least it's against a school with classy and interesting fans, unlike our 2 big rivals
September 5th, 2015 at 2:11 PM ^
Nice to have another team and fanbase we can respect and root for. What sports should be about.
Whatever the final score, as our new coach said, "That was a football game!"
September 5th, 2015 at 2:09 PM ^
That takes just a bit of the sting out of the loss. I hope you guys win the PAC-12. And then lose to us in the playoffs.
September 5th, 2015 at 2:30 PM ^
Classy post from a classy fan. Really hope we can schedule another series soon.
Hopefully the results will be in our favor next time, but I hope you guys do well this year.
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September 5th, 2015 at 2:32 PM ^
Tip of the hat to you sir
September 5th, 2015 at 2:43 PM ^
It was too much fun to just stop like that. Tell you what, let's go ahead and meet up again in the Rose Bowl.
September 5th, 2015 at 2:52 PM ^
Thanks for your comments the past 2 years in the diaires re: Utah (and BYU this year). I believe we are 0-3 in the last 3 meetings with Utah so you certainly have had our # similar to hwo we seem to own Northwestern. You have IMO one of the most underrated coaches in CFB who takes a bunch of 3 stars and creates units that play better as a group then they might be individiaully and despite what your AD was doing this year, it's a positive you retained him and he will continue to steward you guys in the right direction. We had taken for granted what an upper echelon coach can do around here.
September 5th, 2015 at 2:51 PM ^
The Utah fans around us were very gracious and aside from some odd resentment and factually inaccurate issues from Alex Smith in SF, were awesome.
Many made a point to Welcome us to Rice-Eccles and we saw the SHASTA tailgate from Foothills driving by earlier in the day.
Will be back to shred PC or Snowbird in a few months.
September 5th, 2015 at 3:16 PM ^
Before and on the way to the game, the Ute fans were great fun. A bit of minor trash talk but the Blue return comments always made them smile and they knew Blue was Cool!
I have not seen that much red since a Sam Peckinpah movie!
We were walking back to the SLC University Marriott after the game and a female Ute fan came from behind and stated they beat Harbaugh and ESPN so take that since the Utes got no respect. My comment was the media built up the game and ESPN also mentioned repeatedly about Utah being a quality team. I then stated how Utah beat Stanford, USA, and UCLA last year because they were a good team. Then this UTE B sarcastically stated: Well who did you beat last year?
Ok time to rumble: Hey Toots: How many Football championships has Utah won? Who has won more football games? Obviously, I could go on and on and finally Miss Ute mouth hurried off into the crowd. Her BF did turn around said Bo is not coming back. I stated I hope not; but there is no worry since Bo's apprentice, Jim Harbaugh, has arrived!
September 5th, 2015 at 4:05 PM ^
So actually you're the arrogant asshole for taking it there. They've had two undefeated seasons in the last decade and major bowl wins.
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September 5th, 2015 at 4:32 PM ^
Hey Ghost your ridiculous judgmental comment was not appreciated! Who in the hell do you think u r Roger Goodell!
I was only relating what happened. Did U read the first part of my comment?
Wherever we go whether it was Dallas and Alabama or Connecticut we had a great time with their fans. In addition, I had to stand up for visiting fans who were being bothered by drunken and obnoxious Michigan fans. Put a plug in it and keep your opinions to yourself.
September 5th, 2015 at 5:33 PM ^
I was in Dallas for Alabama in Tempe for BWW Bowl vs K State and in Utah this week
The Utah fans were ridiculously nice. And any sort of 'take that!' angle from a Utah student is because of ESPN. The couple remarks like that we heard we just laughed off. Some woman said "came a long way to see a loss" and I said, "no, we live in Denver it's a short flight."
K State fans were nice enough but lame and Alabama fans were fun because they knew they were going to win with ease and did. Still, far more smack talk from Bama fans in TX than anything this week.
September 5th, 2015 at 4:07 PM ^
Everyone we dealt with could not have been more welcoming and good to talk to. Even more so than Lincoln a couple years ago. The Ute fans are proud of their football experience and they were excited to share it. I for one was super impressed with the quality of the stadium, the ridiculous setting and the game day experience as a whole.
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September 5th, 2015 at 3:19 PM ^
Take care, Shasta. Don't be a stranger.
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September 5th, 2015 at 3:25 PM ^
have a great season
September 5th, 2015 at 3:34 PM ^
I especially loved the tip story. Without getting religious, it was just beyond wonderful that the Michigan fan gave Bre the $3,000 tip. Just wow!
September 5th, 2015 at 3:58 PM ^
Sincere thank you for the info and updates provided. Best of luck this season, and Go Blue!
September 5th, 2015 at 4:41 PM ^
Enjoyed reading your posts and viewing the pics. Good luck to your Utes and hopefully we get to even up that win/loss record (as previously mentioned) in the near future.