Bronco doesn't need to chatise the crowd for booing the punter. If he is not ready to play football for a major college program in front of thousands of rabid fans, he is in the wrong place. Fans will cheer the good and boo the bad (and his first few punts were bad!) That's the game. He needs to be mentally tough and use this to motivate him. I thought Bronco believed in accountability.

The whole special teams unit was very disappointing. We don't stand a chance at UCLA unless huge strides are made in that department.

I think Bronco is right on in getting on the crowd. I was a season ticket holder before I moved out of Utah. The crowd has very poor sportsmanship. A BYU crowd should be like the coach Upbeat and cheerful, but intense

Please don't boo Mitch Payne. :) He already has two strikes against him. 1 - He is feeling the mental pressure of being the younger brother of a BYU icon. 2 - He played for Weber High, a perennial cellar dwellar. He hasn't played in front of 650 fans, let alone 65,000. I am not sure he is ready.

Byucougars.com makes a big deal about his tackle on his first kickoff. Hopefully he will start kicking the ball into the end zone so he doesn't have to make tackles. He is so fragile he is going to get hurt, which might not be bad for the Cougs. His tackle was on the 37 yard line. Hopefully, the kickoff team doesn't let many returns past the 30 yard line.

Booing athletes giving their best effort doesn't make sense. Booing is only acceptable when some one is being stupid or lazy. Santiago, I'm sure, is neither.

I think the point that Bronco is making is that it's easier for players, especially new players, if they know the fans are behind them no matter what.

To: footballmom

I'm glad you're not my mom. Personally I think people should have control of their emotions and be quick to cheer, slow to boo.

Ron, How do you know that I am not your mom?

Football mom- I work with many moms that share your same ideas and expectations(I do family therapy with them and their 'troubled' children).

I grew up attending BYU games, and have only relegated my season tickets because I moved to Texas. Living in Texas has made me see the light with regards to how college football fans should act. Fans here know what being an invested fan means. Texas A&M fans hold Friday night cheer practice in the stadium with their yell leaders before every home game, despite the fact that their team hasn't lived up to 'expectations' for years! I have never seen a Texas A&M, Univeristy of Houston, or Texas Tech team booed by their own fans. I only saw Texas get booed once, when they were losing in an AWFUL game against their rivals, A&M (And they deserved to get booed for that one).

I love BYU football, but I think BYU football has some of the most impatient and negative fans I've seen in college football (even Utah fans, who win the college football apathetic fans award, don't boo a freshman punter on the first punts of his COLLEGE CAREER. They know how heartless that would be).

So, Ron...If footballmom really is your mother, I have appointment openings next Wednesday afternon, or next Friday morning.

I agree. BYU fans should almost never boo their own players, especially in a game we are winning. What are those fans thinking?

But, you are wrong about Santiago. He is not a freshman in his first college game. He is a Junior who played two years at Orange CC. You bet he will not be crushed. He will use this for motivation. It will probably be a motivator for years. I still use a negative event that happened in a game I played in 1988 to give me focus and fire when I need it.

I'm not going to get into the booing discussion, other than to say that I buy 6 season tickets and give money to Cougar Club, and if the product is bad I'll boo. BYU either wants to be a big time program (with the heat that entails), or we can play division 1AA programs like Appalatian State (Um, never mind that...)better make it Weber State.

What I would like to discuss is getting the Cougar coaches to change the punt formation. it is clear that the punter is not comfortable with the "swinging gate" formation. Neither am I, and I'm not standing behind them. It looks like the punts have to be kicked way too high to avoid hitting your own man in the back of the head when kicking from that formation. I say let's close the gate and go back to a standard punt formation.

Who was that one coach that tried to tell the fans how to act and think? And is he still coaching somewhere? I don't think so! Here's the deal Bronco, we won't tell you how to coach, and you don't tell us how to cheer. I wasn't at the game and would not have booed a bad kick or two, but I defend fans right to do so. Put your headphones on and focus on what's happening on the field. We really do love what's happening there! Oh yeah, I think it was Frank something.