Thousands gather to show BYU pride

PROVO — It started early Saturday morning: A trickle of blue crept through the streets of Provo, gathering force until all roads leading to the LaVell Edwards Stadium transformed into a writhing torrent of Brigham Young University pride.

The Cougars hit the field for the first football game of the season this weekend and thousands turned up to celebrate.

"This is what you do on Saturdays," said Jeris Hobbs, 24, who spent the pre-game hours barbecuing in the parking lot across from the stadium. "You have the rest of the week for work and stuff, but on Saturdays during football season, you wake up and you give your time to LaVell Edwards."

Getting pumped for the game is half the fun, said Hobbs, pausing to holler a cheer across the parking lot at a passing BYU fan. He and his friends, mostly BYU students, blasted R&B music from their car while they munched on "special recipe" hamburgers and a football-shaped cake frosted with a "Y."

Smoke from similar gatherings filled the parking lot and the smell of charred meat carried for several blocks.

Stephen Weber, a bishop for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spent the afternoon flipping burgers in the back of his truck for about 70 hungry ward members. Many, citing a cash-strapped student lifestyle, weren't even planning to attend the game.

"If tickets fall out of the air, I am so there," said Brad Turner, 23. "I'm just here to socialize, though. It's pretty charged out here."

Not everyone celebrated the first game of the season with food, however.

John Warr, 23, and his friends, who were all wrapped in "custom made" blue capes, scribbled inspiring messages on a water-filled milk jug before launching it into the air and smashing it to pieces. Warr's scribbled note this season was "revenge," he said.

In honor of the first game of the season, Rodney Pebley's wife spent almost an hour painting him from bald head to bare belly button. Although the paint job varies from game to game — Saturday Pebley was blue with the words "Fully Invested" scrawled across his back — the Utah Valley State College student has used his naked chest to broadcast his Cougar spirit for two solid years of home games, he said.

"This will be a tradition till we're old and wrinkled," said Pebley's wife, Vanessa, 21. "This is what it means to be a BYU fan: We paint ourselves, wear blue, come early, stay late, have fun, stand the whole game and get into it."