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Fox Sports college football analysts (from left to right) Rob Stone, Brady Quinn, Mark Ingram II, Matt Leinart and Urban Meyer talk on the set of the Big Noon Kickoff show in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024.

Courtesy Fox Sports

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LaVell Edwards Stadium fills up as the sun sets before the Big 12 game against Kansas State at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU fans spell out a message as part of a promotion during the Big 12 game against Kansas State at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

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Fox Sports college football analysts Brady Quinn, Mark Ingram II and Rob Stone had all the right things to say as they talked to reporters on Friday about coming to Provo for Saturday’s “Big Noon Kickoff” show.

They love the gorgeous setting, look forward to a great atmosphere and invite everyone to come join the party in the parking lot west of LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday morning before BYU takes on Arizona in the afternoon (2 p.m. MT, Fox).

“We need BYU and Provo to show out for us,” Ingram said. “Big Noon is the best college football party in the nation. We have fun. We celebrate the game of football. We hope all of Provo, all of BYU nation comes out.”

As much as shows like “Big Noon Kickoff “enjoy visiting venues across the country, the reality is that often it takes some success to get their attention. The national commentators said BYU has earned it with what they’ve done on the field in 2024.

“It’s one of the things that makes college football so special,” Quinn said. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself in saying this, but I think back to like TCU’s season (in 2022), and how that kind of started the momentum that built after no one picked them to finish anywhere close to the top in the Big 12. I look at it and I just think part of what makes college football amazing is stories like this.”

Stone said he is “a sucker for the underdog” and that makes him love seeing the Cougars start out undefeated.

“I think BYU and the Big 12 are kind of underdogs naturally in the college football pecking order,” Stone said. “To see a team that was picked 13th in the Big 12 in the preseason to move up to No. 14 in the nation, it’s awesome and it should be honored. They’ve earned it, and they have a big stage on Saturday to continue to push that narrative.”

Stone credits the underdog mentality for helping the Cougars get to this point with one of the best resume’s in the game in the first six weeks.

“I think sometimes you use that lack of respect as motivation,” Stone said. “I think (BYU head coach Kalani Sitake) knew how good this team was. His approach was that if people want to dampen our story, no problem.

“That’s a narrative that’s easy to build some momentum around. Nobody believes in us. If you believe in yourself, look at the things that we can do. I think we all kind of knew coming into the season that the Big 12 was wide open, so why not BYU?”

Ingram said that he feels the Cougars are a team that has a “great identity.”

“They play tough defense,” Ingram said. “On special teams and offense, they get it done. They are just a very well-rounded team and obviously extremely well-coached. I think that’s why they’re undefeated and they turned this thing around from last year.”

He grinned as he talked about how much he enjoys these types of surprise stories.

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

Both Quinn and Stone took a few moments to look at the big picture and where a team like BYU fits in the modern world of college football.

“It’s a rarity, for sure,” Stone said. “It’s an outlier, particularly when you’re talking about the upper echelon of athletics where so much is the transfer portal and NIL.

“People don’t understand maybe the Polynesian pipeline that exists here in the Beehive State. They don’t understand what a mission is. And then you’re combining that with elite athletics, obviously, not just on the football level, but basketball and other sports as well. To me, it’s a very unique outlier that should be preserved.”

Quinn said he appreciates institutions like BYU that represent more than just sports.

“It’s what they stand for,” Quinn said. “It’s a spirituality or a sense of belief. I obviously kind of draw close to that because of my ties to Notre Dame and how where everything’s going right now.

“To me, that is a reason to root for them because it’s not just about football. It’s about graduating. It’s about the academic portion of it. It’s about the faith or spiritual based portion of it.”

He believes those things are important and make a big difference during formative college years.

“It’s what differentiates college football from the NFL, and for a lot of these young people too,” Quinn said. “It’s this time in their life where they’re growing and developing, maturing into something. All those things are kind of like mixed into one when you talk about college football at BYU and Notre Dame and TCU and Baylor, some other places where they’ll say a prayer before a sporting event. It kind of makes you reflect back on what this is really all about.”