Cougars reconnect with fans

PROVO — On days like today, when Brigham Young University plays a home game, Provo literally — by mayoral decree — becomes Cougartown.

And once again in Cougartown, there are more Cougar fans than football tickets.

LaVell Edwards Stadium is expected to sell out today for the fourth time in four home games this season, the first time that's happened in eight years.

The sellouts prove BYU football has reconnected with its fans, athletic director Tom Holmoe told the Provo/Orem Chamber of Commerce during a luncheon Friday.

The direction of the BYU football program was questioned by the fan base from 2002-04, when the team went 15-19 and a number of players were embroiled in police investigations and court cases.

Holmoe knew coach Bronco Mendenhall and the players he called a "Band of Brothers" had reconnected with fans who want BYU to win with a clean program when a man approached him during the on-field celebration after the Cougars beat Oregon in the Las Vegas Bowl last December.

"Thank you so much," the man said. "Thanks for helping us get this team back. I feel like it's our team now."

"That was the best compliment that was paid to our athletic department or the team last year," Holmoe said. "We want this community to feel like this is your team."

Holmoe wants BYU and its fans to have the same team-community connection he said the San Francisco 49ers had with their fans during the 1980s and '90s, when Holmoe won four Super Bowl rings as a player and coach. He said Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh created a unique NFL franchise.

"He taught us the strategic and competitive advantage of love," Holmoe said. "He told us, you can play for yourself, you can play for your family, you can play for fame, you can play for fortune, you can play for your dreams, but until you learn to play for your teammates, you won't have that special magic it will take to be a true champion."

Joe Montana was an example, Holmoe said, when he returned from what was supposed to be a season-ending injury because he felt he owed it to his teammates and the team's fans. Upon his return, a sellout crowd gave him standing ovations at the beginning and end of the game.

"The crowd had a role with our team," Holmoe said. "It was their team, and it was their team because they believed in what that team represented. We're trying to do that same thing at BYU."