Thousands of photos and hours of video clips captured the celebration as they shared the thrill of their success with the Cougar fans in attendance.

Eventually the athletes and coaches made their way to the locker room, where they continued to express their jubilation with music, dancing and cheering.

Even that eventually drew to a close as BYU exited the facility, visited with family members and friends, then boarded the busses for the 47-mile ride back to Provo.

But the party wasn’t done yet.

Even though it was the middle of the night, the Cougars found a huge welcoming committee waiting when they pulled into the parking lot at BYU.

“That was awesome,” Cougar head coach Kalani Sitake said during Monday’s press teleconference. “There were literally thousands and thousands of students and fans, with the majority of them being our students on campus. I appreciate all the others that came that late at night. All these young people were there with a lot of energy, and it was hard to not give that energy back to them.”

BYU sophomore linebacker Harrison Taggart called the moment “insane.”

“We got back at three in the morning and we couldn’t even get off the bus because there were so many fans” Taggart said. “There’s no fan base like this one. It amazes me every single week.”

This wasn’t the first time in 2024 that the Cougars have had fans waiting for them to return after a road win but — not surprisingly, given the opponent and nature of the win — this was the biggest turnout so far.

“I thought it was cool when we had hundreds of fans [waiting] getting off the plane at the airport, but then you get off the bus and there’s thousands of fans,” Taggart said. “You’re scrolling on social media on your way there, and you can see fans rushing the streets. I was scared for the fans. You see cars honking, and they’re just running out there mindlessly. But it speaks to this fan base that we have, and a shout out to them. They’re amazing.”

Cougar senior wide receiver Darius Lassiter said it was something he’d never had happen in his college football career.

“It’s crazy because being at my last school, you didn’t really get those kinds of experiences, especially after big wins like that,” Lassiter said. “To see everyone still up, still cheering, and still happy that we got the job done, it was great.”

As the players and coaches joined the celebration, one of the highlights was seeing the hero of the night — BYU junior kicker Will Ferrin — and Cosmo start crowd-surfing.

“That was juicing me up,” Vander Haar said. “He deserves all the credit in the world. Will’s obviously a phenomenal talent, and it’s been cool to just kind of be by his side through it all, and to watch him develop even as the season progresses. I know he would have been uncomfortable doing it, which also made it even more funny for me to see.”

Sitake said that while that was cool, he knew he wouldn’t be participating in the crowd-surfing.

“My body type should never do that,” Sitake said with a grin. “It was cool, and I was really happy for the players. I want to thank all of those fans that were here. We felt that energy. I am really happy for the players and even more happy for the fans and how they enjoyed that win.”

Taggart said that seeing that excitement and energy adds an extra layer of determination and focus to the guys on the team.

“It gives you another reason to play,” Taggart said. “It’s amazing when you have your family behind you, but it’s even more amazing when you have your family and then you have thousands and thousands of fans cheering for you. We see how it is with teams down on that south side of the end zone when they’re trying to run the ball or pass the ball in the ROC. The center can’t hear. They have trouble with communication. So it’s awesome. I love it.”

But as fun as all the celebrating was, the Cougars have moved on and are now focused on hosting a resurgent Kansas team at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday (8:15 p.m. MT, ESPN).

While concerns about a hangover after the big rivalry win still have to be dispelled on the field, Lassiter is confident BYU won’t be distracted.

“I feel like it’s the same thing when we played Oklahoma State, how we came back and won right at the end,” Lassiter said. “We celebrated the win, but we had to kind of flush it, because next week, things could be different, and we can’t really dwell on the things that we did in the past when we can hope to look for the things that we can accomplish in the future. I feel like everybody knows that what we did last week is not good enough to get the job done for this week. So everybody’s ready to look forward to the next game.”