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Photos by Jonathan Bachman and Alejandro de los Rios

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You gotta hand it to the Utah fans who came out in force at the Sugar Bowl yesterday. All week long there was speculation about whether or note they would even show enough presence to counteract the massive hordes of Alabama fans. Utah fans were certainly outnumbered in the Superdome but they made the presence felt (helped in large part by their team scoring 21 unanswered points to start the game). But as the picture above shows, Utah fans brought the creative and funny down from Salt Lake City as well. Here are some of the best signs from yesterday’s game.

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In newsboxes this Sunday, online on Monday afternoon….

• It’s our New Orleanian of the Year edition. In past years, we’ve honored great civic leaders, philanthropists, soldiers and first responders. With so much activism and accomplishment being carried out at street level in 2008, we decided that this was the Year of the Citizen. Pick up the paper to see who got the laurels. (Hint: It’s “New Orleanians of the year” — plural.)

• In Politics, Clancy DuBos looks at Bobby Jindal’s year ahead. If the governor spent most of ‘08 basking in the Technicolor glow of Oz, Clancy sees ‘09 as a slog through Kansas without ruby slippers…

• Stephen Colbert has truthiness. Up in wicked, wicked Baton Rouge, lobbyists have “ethickyness.” Jeremy Alford explains the concept…

• Tuesday is Twelfth Night and the kickoff of Carnival season (yes, already). On the eve of a major new exhibit celebrating the centennial of Zulu, Noah Bonaparte Pais takes a look at the long and distinguished history of the krewe…

• This week also brings the reopening of the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts. Alison Fensterstock previews the ‘do…

• Movies: Reviews of Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Tulia Texas…

• Art: Franklin Adams, Melissa Roberts, and The Built Environment at the Preservation Resource Center…

• Stage: A look back at Scrooge in Rouge, and a look ahead to the comedy of The Uprising…

• Making his debut on our puzzle page: crossword constructor extraordinaire Merl Reagle.

• …and some changes for us at Gambit Weekly The Gambit.

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Photo by Jonathan Bachman

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For all the joy and revelry involving everyone involved with the University of Utah, it’s got to be absolutely miserable to be involved with anything Crimson Tide related right now. And, for all the mixed emotions Louisiana has for Nick Saban, you gotta feel for the man guy — that’s a pretty rough way to start 2009.

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There are so many levels of hurt right now for Alabama football: the immediate shock of a 14-point loss to an overlooked but completely prepared and focused Utah team; the lasting hurt when it sinks in that this team’s season actually ended when they lost to Florida on December 6th in the SEC Championship. Though Nick Saban didn’t go as far as saying his team lost because what they really wanted was to play in the BCS National Championship game (because, after all, who’d have the gall to say they don’t want to play in the Sugar Bowl?), but he did take a good amount of responsibility for his team’s performance.

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“You know, I’m responsible to have the team ready to play. I don’t think we were ready to play today,” he said.

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In retrospect, the outcome of the 75th Annual Sugar Bowl Classic should not have come as a surprise. Though the talk all week was about Alabama and coach Nick Saban’s return to Louisiana, it was clear that this was a team that wanted to play in the BCS National Championship. Utah, on the other hand, couldn’t have been happier to be in New Orleans. Everyone from the players to their families and fans of the program, they all seemed to be having the time of their lives.

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Probably the biggest mistake that Alabama, not to mention the media in general, made was thinking this year’s game would be a repeat of last year’s. Utah felt slighted all week long and felt that they weren’t geting the respect they deserved. That all changes now.

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There will be a full report come tomorrow morning on everything that took place tonight. One thing is immediately certain, though: everyone in New Orleans and the rest of the country knows what a Ute is.