I feel like they’re getting a lot of good stuff that we do here so people can actually see what we’re about. I think that’s good. – BYU linebacker Fred Warner
PROVO — At first, said BYU linebacker Fred Warner, the ubiquitous video cameras around fall camp “was kind of weird.”
Those cameras he referred to belonged to BYUtv, which is combining Cougar football and reality television this fall with a weekly series called “Inside BYU Football.” It premieres Sept. 1 at 5 p.m. MT on BYUtv. The Cougars open the season Saturday at Nebraska.
The 60-second promo for the show says, “It’s spontaneous, it’s raw, it’s unplugged,” adding, “take your field pass and see the storylines impacting BYU’s 2015 season through our lens.”
The show’s crew was granted all-access to practices this month and the series debut captures BYU’s recently completed fall camp.
Warner said that as the days passed, he and his teammates and coaches got used to all of the cameras following their every move.
“You started not to notice them at all,” he said. “And even if you do, you try to joke around with them. I feel like they’re getting a lot of good stuff that we do here so people can actually see what we’re about. I think that’s good.”
Warner added that the show should be interesting for any viewer.
“It doesn’t even have to be BYU fans,” he said. “It can be anyone flipping to the channel that happen to come across BYUtv and say, ‘Oh, I wonder what this is about?’ They’ll see what we’re about. I have people say to me all the time, ‘BYU does this and that.’ It helps a lot to explain who we are.”
Reality TV shows like "Inside BYU Football" is becoming more commonplace these days. The Pac-12 Network, for example, is starting its third season of “The Drive,” a series that offers viewers an inside look at various college football programs. This year, Utah and Oregon State will be featured.
“Inside BYU Football” is produced by Mikel Minor, a senior coordinating producer of Sports Events & Programming at BYU Broadcasting and former ESPN Sports Center producer. It is directed by Alan Seawright from “BYU Sports Nation.”
BYUtv will offer viewers a look at practices, team meetings, conditioning sessions, in the locker room and on the sidelines at home and road games throughout the season.
The idea is for fans to experience what the team goes through and allow players and coaches to share their own stories.
“I think they got an inside scoop of how camp is and how it really is, accurately,” wide receiver Colby Pearson said of the BYUtv crew. “I think it’s a really cool thing what they’re doing. They sit at meals with us and everything. I’ll be recording them on my TV to check them out. It’s cool to see what goes on behind the scenes for people to see what we’re all about.”
Athletic director Tom Holmoe talked recently about "Inside BYU Football" during Education Week.
“I was in a team meeting this morning at 8 o’clock. Talking about it, I’m about ready to cry right now," he said. "One of the players on the team got up and said something. It was on film. Whether or not we let you see that ... but if you could see it, you would love it. We’ll fight to get that on. We’ve got to go to the player and say, ‘Are you okay if we put this on in front of Cougar Nation?’ This is a beautiful thing, but private. Sometimes the only thing you guys see are difficult news items that don’t shine a great light on BYU. Those things happen. But I can assure you that for every one of those, there are about 100 beautiful experiences that are private, sensitive and sacred. That’s something we’re working on with BYUtv. Every week we’ve got to get together and see what it’s like and put together of hours and hours in a week of behind-the-scenes, on the field and in the coach’s room."