BYU football: Max Hall reprimanded by Mountain West Conference

As expected, the Mountain West Conference issued a public reprimand of BYU quarterback Max Hall for making disparaging comments towards the University of Utah last Saturday after the Cougars' 26-23 overtime victory over the Utes.

"I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them," Hall told reporters in the interview room an hour after the game ended. "I hate their program. I hate their fans. I hate everything. So, it feels good to send those guys home. They didn't deserve it. It was our time, and it was our time to win. We deserved it. We played as hard as we could tonight, and it felt really good to send them home and to get them out of here, so it is a game I'll always remember."

Hall also said, "I think the whole university and their fans and organization is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of nasty things. I don't respect them, and they deserve to lose."

This marks the second straight week those associated with BYU's football program have been reprimanded. Last week, assistant coach Barry Lamb and defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen received reprimands after being critical of Air Force's blocking techniques.

On Sunday, Hall released a statement through BYU sports media relations department to explain and apologize for some of his inflammatory comments.

"I want to take the opportunity to clarify and apologize for a few of my remarks after the game yesterday. Last year at RES my family was spit on, had beer dumped on them, and were physically assaulted on several occasions," Hall said in the statement. "They had to endure extremely vile comments personally attacking my wife, my mother, other family members, and our religion. They had to be escorted to their car by local police. As a result of what happened to my family last year this rivalry became personal, and in the heat of the moment yesterday I made comments toward the entire university that were really directed specifically at those fans in RES. It was not intended to be directed at the entire organization and all of their fans and I apologize that it came out that way. I have the upmost respect for Kyle Whittingham, his coaching staff, and the Utah football players. I apologize to them and other members of the university for my comments. I'm also sorry if my comments took anything away from my teammates and coaches and our victory Saturday. The BYU-Utah game is a great rivalry, but no one should be treated the way my family was last year. I'm hoping that BYU and Utah fans can take steps to prevent future incidents at the game."

e-mail: rhall@desnews.com