Best advice yet. You will get many different opinions on the sights to see and where to eat but on game day deck yourself out in Utah State gear and walk through the tailgates/Vol Navy. The more you identify with Utah State the better you will be treated. We always end up with opposing fans at our tailgates and it makes it much better. As the above poster said, avoid the drunks and let their idiot remarks go and you will be fine. There will be way more people willing to invite you to their tailgate and learn more about Utah etc... Most people will be very impressed you came so far and treat you like long lost friends.
Thank you. And yes, definitely deck yourself out Utah St. gear, unlike many places, we tend to treat visitors as royalty and the farther away the more curious and apt to go all out we are.
One thing I forgot to mention that might be relevant given y'all are from Utah, we might ask questions about Mormonism that could be viewed as offensive to those out west and it wouldn't surprise me if you/they got some Mormon questions that could be read as intentionally offensive but trust me, just like our curiosity about Utah those are born of pure curiosity in these parts. We don't have many Mormons here (90% are Baptist, Methodist with a few Presbyterians, Episcopals mixed in. Knoxville has more diversity - Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Jews and even a few Muslims are all here but few exist outside of Knoxville).
So Mormons and everyone else for that matter are exceptionally rare in the broader area, so folks might ask things that seem out there, dumb, or mean to those out West but no harm is meant 99 percent of the time - we just don't know much about Mormonism and people are curious and of course people assume everyone in Utah is Mormon (just like everyone assumes we're dumb inbred rednecks.
If you hear strange or even things that might be offensive out West keep in mind things def. aren't anti-Mormon here as we don't know enough to even know what constitutes that because the population is small. So please, understand nothing is meant by it even though it could be viewed as a subtle or even not so subtle jab out west. Just answer the question and you'll see what I mean - people will be like "oh cool, I had no idea" etc. Trust me though, people around here will tell you if they don't like you. We're incredibly honest. A lot of folks don't understand that because we're so welcoming, polite and curious. Some think all that is just a show but it's really not. We love embracing everyone and anyone as one big extended family.
Just felt that was also worth pointing out and adding to what's been said. We're a curious bunch and people can and do ask things that can be strange to others - part of that is we treat you like we've known you forever and so it's natural to ask things like this.
Keep this in mind just in case it comes up and you're left wondering (it may not). People here tend always mean well by others, especially guests.
