FORT COLLINS, Colorado — Having grown up in nearby Littleton as a BYU fan, current Cougars offensive lineman Andrew Gentry witnessed for himself how much the Front Range schools — Colorado State, Air Force and Wyoming — despised BYU when those schools were in the Mountain West Conference together.
The hatred spawned mostly because BYU dominated the Rams, Falcons and Cowboys in football for many of those years, then ramped up even more when the Cougars left the Mountain West in 2011 to go independent in football and into the West Coast Conference in most of their other sports.
“Any time you go play somebody, there’s a little bit of animosity there. But I’m just excited to go back again and play in the hometown, play in front of an away crowd. I actually kind of enjoy the noise. I enjoy playing in front of an away crowd that you can kind of use as motivation. I think it’s fun.”
BYU offensive lineman Andrew Gentry
When BYU departed, Colorado State, Wyoming and Air Force were among the Mountain West schools most adamant about not wanting to play BYU again — in any sport. But time has apparently healed some of those wounds…