I have only been to RES once--LaVell's last game--and I sat in a suite, so it was a blast and I was around cultured/educated people.

I don't know how much of the craziness that is reported is real or perceived or embellished. I am sure the truth lies in the middle somewhere.

What I know for certain is that there is alcohol and a certain crowd plans their game experience around drinking before the game. How many of these fans find their way inside RES I do not know. But mix alcohol, rivalry, football...I am sure there is craziness. How could there not be. Connect the dots.

But again, how crazy? I am not sure.

Funny story:

One of our company's leaders moved here from SEC country a few years ago and goes to a lot of Utah games just for the football. After his first game, he came into my office and said, "what is the deal with the hard liquor up there? It is crazy. There are 50 year old guys doing vodka shots off of skiis. (apparently someone up there has fastened shot glasses onto a ski and then a group of drinkers stands in a line and lifts the ski up to their mouths for the shot). That is fratboy stuff in the South. I'm too old for that."

I had to explain to him that there is a segment of non-Mormons who feel compelled to overcompensate. He laughed and said he is just a wine drinker now, and then walked out of my office shaking his head.

My RES stories come from work associates. There is only one other BYU fan in our office--almost all are Utah fans, most of them wonderful people. I can count bishops and a stake president in this group. One of these bishops constantly grumbles about the language he hears up there. Swearing is always the caveat he attaches to any otherwise fun time he has at RES. Which is annoying to me, but not a deal breaker (unless my kids were there).

A different work associate just told me that he is taking his 9-year-old girl to the game Saturday and hopes that the people around him don't sell their tickets because when they do, a rougher crowd shows up (i.e. language once again).