BLUE ELVISES OR BLUE ELVI?

Before deploying to Iraq with the Army Reserve in 2004, Boise State alum John Vogt made his buddies promise they would purchase season tickets to Bronco football games and paint their faces when he returned.

Whatever, his buddies said. “Just come back safe.”

After a tour in Iraq, where Vogt used an armored bulldozer to knock down buildings where insurgents were holed up, he made sure his friends remembered their promise.

They did — and purchased season tickets in 2006 in Bronco Stadium’s South End Zone.

“What first drew us there were like-minded whack jobs,” Vogt said. “Our paint started getting more elaborate.”

Before the Broncos’ 2009 season opener against Oregon, Vogt and friends Brent Coburn and Bill Belau kicked it up a notch, dressing in full Elvis Presley garb.

“It took off from there,” Vogt said.

During Kellen Moore’s Heisman Trophy campaign, the trio painted their faces and dressed as the Heisman Trophy Guys.

“We’re all married guys with kids and wives and careers. It’s our chance six times a year to revert to our inner 15-year-olds and be brainless hooligans for three, four hours,” said Vogt, 37.

ANYONE NEED A LAWYER?

Matthew Jensen’s South End Zone persona is Orange Jacket Guy or Bronco Fett’s lawyer.

Bronco Fett, of course, is a blue-and-orange take on Boba Fett, a villanous bounty hunter in “Star Wars.”

He also happens to be Jensen’s brother, Thomas.

Or just another regular in the South End Zone.

“There’s no greater passion for BSU football than what’s found there,” said Jensen, 27.

“It’s one of those places that you want to be with a few hundred of your closest friends. There’s a lot of like-minded individuals who aren’t just going to sit down quietly for a game. You’re expected to be loud and crazy when you’re in there. There’s a lot more people to be crazy with us — a more-the-merrier kind of thing.”

WHY NOT DO MORE?

Scott Hale is 44. He is a veteran of the first Gulf War. He teaches middle school in Meridian. He got a masters’ degree from Boise State.

And he wears blue spiked shoulder pads, a blue-and-orange mask and an orange cowboy hat to Bronco games.

“I think it comes down to we just love Boise State football. You can only scream and cheer so much before you feel like, ‘Why not do more?’ Why not become a part of it more than just the average fan?” Hale said.

His daughter Jessica, a Boise State graduate, is joining in too, dressing like the Stig, a stunt driver from the TV show “Top Gear.” She has a Boise State motorcycle helmet and a blue jumpsuit.

MORE SEATS, MORE NOISE?

Bronco Stadium’s south end is now enclosed with the expansion of the South End Zone bleachers. There are now 5,000 seats in the reserved section. The metal bleachers, the enclosure, the height of the stands and the extra fans should create headaches for opponents.

“It echoes a little more with the taller end zone sections,” Boise State linebacker J.C. Percy said. “For that second scrimmage that we had, a lot of the fans were stomping their feet in there, which seemed to make it a lot louder.”

The fans are planning on it, said Voodoo Daddy, one of the South End Zone’s ringleaders in revelry. He’s one of the fans dressed like a pimp, a one-time only proposition that has turned into an every game occurrence. Like the Elvises, Boise State fans — and fans of the other team — want photos. He always obliges.

“It’s a completely different feeling in the BluNatic Fringe,” he said. “Little by little everybody’s gotten into it.”

Brian Murphy: 377-6444,Twitter: @MurphsTurph