‘Big Noon Kickoff’ is ‘spreading the gospel’ of college football in Provo

When Fox Sports’ “Big Noon Kickoff” wrapped up final rehearsal for Saturday’s show outside LaVell Edwards Stadium on Friday, only two things were missing: thousands of fans and analyst Urban Meyer.

The show’s analysts are expecting a giant party with Cougar fans for the two-hour show and pre-show tailgate before No. 14 BYU’s game against Arizona.

Analyst, former Heisman winner and NFL running back Mark Ingram II said he heard the gameday atmosphere in Provo is “turned up” and “lit,” and that’s what he expects from Saturday’s crowd.

“That’s why ‘Big Noon’ is here. That’s why I’m here, because we love where the energy is, and I heard y’all have big energy, so I can’t wait to see the energy tomorrow morning,” Ingram told the media Friday.

While the show doesn’t track attendance, it recently had its largest crowd ever two weeks ago while at UCF. Ingram hopes BYU can top it.

“I hope it’s a bigger party,” he said. “UCF, they came out and they showed out. Colorado last year — they came up, they showed up, so now we need BYU, we need Provo to pull up and show out for us.

“The “Big Noon” is the best college football party in the nation, in the world. We have fun. We celebrate the game of football. We got Cosmo (the Cougar) doing some acrobatic tricks tomorrow. We’re gonna be celebrating the game and the players that play it. We just gonna have a lot of fun, so we hope that all of Provo, all BYU nation comes out, has a great time with us tomorrow.”

And for BYU fans looking forward to welcoming Meyer back to the home of the “team down south,” he will be at Saturday’s show. The former Utah head coach resides in Florida, and his travel plans were delayed due to Hurricane Milton.

What can BYU fans expect at ‘Big Noon Kickoff’?

If Cougar fans feel like BYU doesn’t get enough respect by the national media, they’re in for a treat if they attend or tune in to “Big Noon Kickoff.” Host Rob Stone described Saturday’s show as a two-hour infomercial celebrating BYU and sharing the football program with the world.

“I want us to use our two-hour platform to build what BYU football is, to make people aware of how good this program is and has been. Listen, there’s a lot of young college football fans out there who don’t know who a Ty Detmer is, don’t know who a Jim McMahon is, right?,” he said.

“They need to be educated on this, and a lot of people are going to go, ‘I had no clue BYU played in the biggest stadium in the Big 12 and had a Heisman winner and had 12 All-Americans at one position alone,’ so part of that is on us as well to educate and also to elevate this program.”

Saturday marks the first time the show has come to the state of Utah and the second major sports network to come to the Beehive State in the last week.

On Tuesday, ESPN was in downtown Salt Lake City broadcasting from outside the Delta Center for Utah Hockey Club’s inaugural game.

“We enjoy spreading the gospel, if you will, of college football to different spots that maybe aren’t getting the attention that they deserve, and clearly, BYU is one of those programs this season,” Stone said.

BYU fans can expect an interview with head coach Kalani Sitake and lots of Cosmo appearances, thanks to Stone’s love of the mascot. After seeing Cosmo’s push up stunt, he told Fox before the season started that if they came to Provo, they had to incorporate Cosmo.

The producers listened and gave the beloved Cougar three segments.

“Cosmo is all over our show,” Stone said. “He’s starting our show and he’s closing our show, so prayers up for Cosmo. I hope he delivers.”

The pre-show tailgate starts at 6:30 a.m. MT Saturday in the parking lot west of LaVell Edwards Stadium. Breakfast will be served on a first-come, first-serve basis, according to BYU .

The show starts at 8 a.m. MT. Fans are encouraged to bring signs, and the fan with the most creative sign will win $500.

What did the ‘Big Noon Kickoff’ analysts say about BYU?

Ingram told reporters that BYU’s success this season and 5-0 record is a testament of what fans love about the sport of college football.

“I think that’s why we love college football, and especially in this new day and age, you never know who is going to pop up and show out. That’s what BYU has been doing. I mean, now they have a real chance to make a run for the Big 12 and get the automatic (College Football Playoff) berth, and that’s exciting,” Ingram said.

Stone doesn’t think the BYU hype is unwarranted. He can see the Cougars, who were originally expected to finish at the bottom of the conference , going all the way.

“Why not BYU? I know Steve Young basically kind of said the same thing this week, but why not BYU, right? You look at the Big 12, which is wide open. You can get yourself to that Big 12 championship game. You can get yourselves into a playoff position at that point,” he said.

“Why not BYU? You should all be believing that this has the potential. The 5-0 start is a great start, and they’ve put themselves in a position to be in the conversation now that people are starting to talk about them, and we’re coming here to give them a two-hour infomercial they need to deliver, and they know that.”