55He goes to most games (even the road ones) and has been raised in a blue-bleeding family.

The Provo house is so steeped in BYU, the 22-year-old college student gets a break from mowing the rest of his parents' lawn if he does one chore: Decorate part of it in the school's athletic logo.

"I'm pretty loyal to it," said Carter, who attends Utah Valley University. "Some of my friends think I'm kind of crazy, but they still think it's funny. They say, 'you would do something like that.' My dad gets excited for it, too. He says, 'I'll mow the rest of the lawn, you just get the Y done.' "

It's a passion that takes time (about an hour) and money (about $6 for a couple of cans of white paint). He mapped out the original drawing with string and has stayed loyal to keeping it maintained to look sharp on Saturdays.

Neighbors get a kick out of the project and some passersby will gawk, too.

Hey, in Cougar Country, there's a lot of people worth staring down.

Fanatics run deep.

There are the jersey wearers, the face painters, the "fully invested" (if mostly buttoned down besides their bank accounts) Cougar Club members and those young families figuring out what newborn they'll name Bronco.

As it should be, it's BYU students that get the most raucous. Running back Harvey Unga was a judge last year in a competition -- sponsored by the school newspaper, The Daily Universe -- in which "Fear Factor" took place.

Who would go the most crazy to see the Cougs?

Macho men and dainty coeds were one and the like, trying to win front-row tickets to the BYU-Utah game.

Among the 10 students, one made and ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich using only her feet. Another ate a handful of night-crawlers, and a pepper-immune fella downed a bottle of Tabasco. And to think, those kids didn't get the goods.

The winner, Ben Spalding, shaved off a perfectly good haircut, doused himself in feathers and honey and went around the Wilkinson Student Center stage acting like a chicken.

He admits Mr. Hot Sauce probably should have been sitting in Row 1.

"That guy should have gotten a lot more than he did," Spalding said, "which was nothing."

The toughest thing these days about being a college-aged Cougar fans is they might remember another great season that was this close to being even more more memorable. Carter, for example, started really paying attention to BYU in 1996 -- the last one-loss season.

It's those kinds of fans that make it to not just the home games, but find ways to see the Cougars all over the country.

An optimistically estimated 30,000 fans are expected to be at Hughes Stadium today for Colorado State-BYU.

Figure a good chunk of those attendees will be wearing blue, not green-and-gold, because the Rams have drawn an average of 23,000 for home games this year. Of course, BYU more than doubles that every gameday and isn't afraid to go out and fill a few rivals stadiums' ticket booths. It doesn't hurt for the upcoming Colorado trips (counting Air Force on Nov. 15) that BYU has about 8,200 alumni in the state (sixth highest total in the U.S.).

The Cougars will play at CSU ranked No. 17, carrying a 7-1 record. The defeat came at TCU on Oct. 16, the only game this year Carter has missed.

He's been to the last three Las Vegas Bowls and also went with a group of 11 to the nail-biter September win at Washington.

"People have reminded me how every 12 years, BYU has a really awesome season," Carter said.

True. But it's every year, every week, BYU has some really-in-to-it fans like Carter.