Kirsten Harper, a senior majoring in elementary education, walks in the library to spend the next hour before her next class. She sits at a computer and plays a recently watched video on byucougars.com.
The BYU band, fans and cheerleaders fill the screen as a student takes the lead and begins to teach fans the BYU Football Fan Playbook in a five-minute video.
Harper reads the description of the video: “It’s time to Rise Up as fans. Here is a video guide of what to do on Gameday to show your support for your Cougars.”
She hesitantly presses play and watches the first three plays in the playbook.
Play No. 1: wear blue. No. 2: tailgate two and a half hours before kick off. No. 3: follow the band into the stadium.
Pause. Exit. Facebook.
Harper had no interest in finishing the movie with three and a half minutes to go and continued to go onto another website more worthy of her time.
“It was just things they tell people at freshman orientation,” Harper said. “I didn’t care to hear the rest of the list.”
Other plays included in the video are fans and students standing and singing “Don’t Stop Believing” for about 50 seconds and also teaching viewers how and when to cheer during the games.
Along with Harper, other students who watched the video had similar reactions, but they were able to make it through a couple more minutes.
“I just waited that long because I thought they were going to show clips of football and hitting,” said sophomore Seki Kofe, from Portland. “The song was the most interesting thing and that’s not saying much.”
Students said videos, like the BYU Football Fan Playbook, are the reasons why BYU gets made fun of. Words like “cheesy”, “typical BYU” and “embarrassing” were used to describe the video.
“I couldn’t tell if they were serious or making a joke out of it,” said Brooke Bertoldo, a student majoring in exercise and wellness. “I’ve definitely seen better.”
Some students believe this video is like another unnecessary homework assignment.
“All they’re doing is adding on to the homework I already have to do,” Kofe said.
Regardless of the content in the video, students recognized the effort and intentions of the playbook and tried to give the makers of the video the benefit of the doubt.
“I guess because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean other people won’t,” Harper said.
With or without positive feedback, the BYU Football Fan Playbook is still online for students and fans wanting to learn the different ways to show support for their Cougars.
