BYU football: Cougar statue outside LaVell Edwards Stadium vandalized

The Cougar statue outside of BYU football’s stadium was vandalized on Friday night, according to multiple reports. The Cougars and Utes play tonight.

BYU football’s stadium has some red on it this morning, thanks to some alleged Utah Utes fans who spray painted the Cougar statue late Friday night.

A number of fans have posted pictures of the vandalized statue on Twitter. It looks like “Go Utes” is written, along with a couple of block U’s.

Here’s one picture:

Vandalism is nothing new with the BYU football-Utah rivalry. In 2004, Utah baseball players painted the Y on Y Mountain red.

Both Utah and BYU were subject to acts of vandalism from 1970-2000, but things as of late had cooled off.

Typically, BYU covers all statues on campus with plastic wrap during rivalry week. At this point, I’m not sure if that practice continued or not. There’s a chance the main campus statues were wrapped.

Next: Why BYU Can Beat Utah

KSL’s Sean Walker reported that the school already has a cleaning crew on the scene to remove the spray paint from the Cougar.

So much for the whole “BYU football isn’t Utah’s rival, Utah’s rival is Colorado” thing. I haven’t seen anything like this pop up in Boulder, that’s for sure.

This is just another reason that the Cougars should show up tonight feeling entirely disrespected. With any luck, that breeds some inspired play from BYU.

For those interested, spraying graffiti is a Class B misdemeanor in the state of Utah. Perpetrators can be punished with fines up to $1,000 and jail time up to six months.

We’ll update this story as more news becomes available. For more on the Holy War rivalry game, click here.