I watched most of the KU - ASU game. The Forks expended a great deal of energy coming from behind to beat the Jayhawks, with more than a few injury timeouts.
On the energy aspect, we should have a distinct advantage.
With every quarter, Wilson should be seeing the game slow down just a little more, and as his dad said, he’s got a resilient personality, so I’m less concerned about the QB position than last year.
I think we get out of Tempe with a win…
After we got the Tempe monkey off our backs a couple of years ago, I think we have a good shot at getting the win. It will still be hell hot at game time, but not the 140 degrees the kids had to deal with in Stillwater. As you pointed out, Wilson continues to grow, learn, and develop. The better part is his teammates are helping him along. Even if Rising comes back and plays out the rest of the season, I feel good about next season simply based on what Wilson has been able to do out there.
Seeing Bernard come into his own has been a plus, too. You could see the talent was there and now it’s clicking.
The lines should be recovered from having the life sucked out of them in the last two games. It’s basically impossible to describe what the Big Uglies went through with the Hell Game, followed by playing a rested team that had time to game plan a nice trap.
Time to get ready. GO UTES!!!
just spoke to a friend in Phoenix, supposed to be a hot one, triple digits on Friday.
So, in other words, an average weather day there.
we call it Friday
I think I saw a t-shirt for Arizona that read
WELCOME TO ARIZONA
300 miles from Water
3 feet from Hell
I am more concerned about the OL and DFront play then I am the QB play. Arizona lit Wilson up too many times. ASU averages over 200 rushing ypg and their QB is a solid dual threat guy that the Utes pursued in the portal. Every game is a must win for the Utes.
I’m hoping the BYE helps solve some of the line concerns. DL gets a recharge, OL recharges and usually gets better through the year under Harding, especially if the offense is balanced and moving the chains.
One area of concern with the D is Rojo said they aim to limit the opposing offense to 60 snaps - that’s usually an indicator we’ll win. (Unless the snap count hides long plays on short possessions.) That would ordinarily be tough to pull off against a team that rushes as much as ASU does, Scattebo a is beast, like Devontae Booker.
The overall factor that makes me optimistic in this game is energy. They expended a LOT in an emotional comeback win, and have a short week to play another physical team… while we were re-charging, getting some clarity on the QB situation and investment more in Wilson.
We’ve had multiple games with hot temps, but in this one the sun won’t be a factor.
Keys:
Need stronger effort in the trenches than what we saw against the Wildcats.
Just not Utah-like to be dominated in the rushing game on both sides.
I’m taking the kids to see Imagine Dragons at Usana (or whatever it’s called now) on Friday night, so I’ll miss the game. It’s a band I can’t stand in a venue I hate during a Utah game, but the kids are so damn excited that I had to bite the bullet for the sake of making a core memory for them (it’ll be their first ever concert). Pray for my sanity.
(And for those concerned, I will be re-establishing my metal cred at the Fleshgod Apocalypse/Shadow of Intent/Disembodied Tyrant show at Metro on Sunday night. I’ll meet any of you MF’ers in the pit. 
)
thoughts and prayers for you SkinyUte
Now is the time to invest in some noise-cancelling headphones!
I actually have two pair of concert earplugs in my glove box at all times, as I go to a lot of concerts (my tracking sheet hit 432 at the Amorphis/Dark Tranquility show a couple weeks ago). Bought some for the kids too.
Sadly, I don’t think they’ll quite protect me from the barrage of overly generic radio rock my earholes are about to experience. 
You may be a better father than I am. My 8 year old really wants to go to that concert, and wanted to go to see them last time they played here, but I have stood my ground and refused each time. If I’m ever out driving around and I hear them come on the radio, I immediately change the station. I’m sure it would be a great memory for him, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.
You know kids tend to gravitate towards whatever music drives their parent the most nuts? Well, when dad listens to death metal, that means you end up with kids who listen to Imagine Dragons and Taylor Swift.
Welcome to my hell. 
25+ years ago, I actually took my kids on road trips to see Robert Cray.
Missoula, Sun Valley, etc.
“Hey dad, remember when we drove 12 hours to see Robert Cray band with all those drunk college students? What was that all about?”
Me: “You’ll appreciate R&B when you get older”
Remembering that trip, some coed from Univ of Montana was talking with my wife: “You drove from Salt Lake to see this concert? Wow”
I would rather do just about anything than endure that concert. (I used to say, “I’d rather have a root canal than …” fill in the blank with awful activity. But then I recently had a root canal where the dentist couldn’t me numb enough. Oh, man, I wouldn’t wish that excruciating experience on anyone.)
My boys actually liked some of my music. Especially the Doors, Pink Floyd, and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
To this day, my son who is now 30, will play “Smoke on the Water”, when ever he wants to get a rise out of me (he knows I grew up playing in bands in the 70’s, and hated always getting requests to play that song).
Otherwise, he listens to a lot of the same music as I do, since he grew up hearing whatever I was listening every evening (classical, opera, jazz, blues, rock).
I always encouraged him to listen what ever interested him, and bought a lot of recordings for him as a child, many I knew nothing about.
In his youth, he never seemed interested in attending live performances. Perhaps I got off easy.
He has a lot of his own interests now.
Hey, I saw Robert Cray in Sun Valley about 25 years ago. Fun show.