I don't doubt that Ute fans stormed Bourbon Street and dropped truck-loads of cash on booze and strippers. The part about Whitt...I choose to believe otherwise.
And this new project manager is quite mistaken about the "similar demographics" between BYU and Utah. Sure, there are a lot of Mormon Ute fans, but I'd wager the "demographic" that traveled to New Orleans was largely unlike the type of crowd that would roll out for a BYU bowl game.
Just because both schools are from the same state does not make them "similar demographics". Utah is to BYU as Riverside CC is to Stanford.