Of course. And “playing them” means on their field or – MAYBE – in a neutral stadium. In the South.
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Crap. I didn’t read it right. I thought you were referring to 2004. Correct. “At the time they were ranked.”
Alabama has tried to get 9th conference game and called for a ban on Non P-5 games. No other SEC team will bite. As for the “Only Neutral Argument” let’s see our future schedule against P5:
2020- vs SC (in Arlington, TX)
2021- vs Miami (in Atlanta, GA)
2022- at Texas in Austin
2023- Texas (Home) and at Non-P5 USF
2024- at Wisconsin in Madison
2025- Wisconsin (Home) and at Florida State in Tallahassee
2026- Home games against FSU and USF and at West Virginia
2027-Home vs WVU
2028- at Notre Dame in South Bend
2029- Home vs Notre Dame
2032-at Oklahoma in Norman
2033- Home vs Oklahoma
2034- at Va. Tech in Blacksburg
2035- Home vs Va Tech
We will probably add some more P5 neutrals in there as well since those are great for recruiting.
I Agree. I hate Neutral site games. Alabama has only played 2 P5 teams at their location since Utah joined the Pac 12. Utah has only played 1 P5 team at their location during that time. Must be because “they can’t find anyone who wants to play them”
Right 
Doesn’t help Bama to have the 65th worst schedule out of 65 teams. Maybe they don’t care, or don’t need to care. But it’s hard to see Alabama as powerless in this situation. Just sayin’.
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Bama has always tried to create a tough schedule under Saban. But a lot of this is not controllable in college football, and they fell very short this year.
Cool but I haven’t seen that. I’ve seen we’re 59th but our schedule is backloaded. Consider we have two top 25 teams remaining and will play a Top 25 in conference title. As I pointed out, Alabama has finally gotten people to sign home and home and is actually doing one with a non-P5.
Saban’s proposal is always rejected. 12 Power 5 schools and 10 of those conference:
No joke. Having season tickets to see Western Carolina and the Citadel sucks. It’s why attendance is down.
OK. Interesting info. Good for Nick.
I feel the same about having a Big Sky team visit Rice-Eccles every blasted year.
I bet. That said, I live in the same town as Western Kentucky University and they live off those games. Louisville did a Home and Home with them but WKU’s home was at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Not sure why UofL mandated the game be played out of state.
This is compelling evidence of how Kyleball works. There have been times when his style was frustrating, but when it comes to player development he’s a bloomin’ genius.
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When the Whit era began. Remember the old coaches’ shows, hosted by the guys who were voice of the team? This is great — Ron McBride on Bill Marcroft’s show, introducing his new defensive line coach Kyle Whittingham.
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Why is Kyle not able to recruit better talent? The 2020 class is currently ranked 119. How? He’s proved he can develop 3* and less. Why wouldn’t a 4* or even 5* want to play in the Pac 12 with a school who graduates 90%+?
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That’s the million dollar question.
I’m sure Corvallis is a lovely town but come on. Salt lake City - and our wilderness backing it up - has a lot to offer
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Name Cache is the biggest reason. So when you’re going up against the USC’s of the world you have to be smarter, so the staff has their own evaluating process that works for them.
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119 class ranking. For a top 25 team. I am next to WKU. I love my town but no way should the Utes ever rank lower than. P5 team. I love SLC. I get the stigma of Utah not being friendly to African Americans but that describes every SEC school town and a good portion of the ACC. I’m just in shock because Kyle seems like a guy I would want to play for and the U and the City are great.
I’ve always wondered why Utah struggles as much as it does to consistently recruit the 4/5* players.
Utah has done a fantastic job of coaching up and the rating system is very subjective but it sure would be nice to have a stable of 4 and 5 * guys hanging around.
I get it, Utah doesn’t have the name like USC/Bama/ and a lot of the other top programs. But over the past years the name has been consistently improving.
Some argue that SLC is a small market. frankly SLC is a much bigger town than where a lot of major power programs are located. SLC has a mormon stigma, that can certainly be a turn off for some. That being said, there are plenty of non-mormons at the U and in SLC.
If a player is choosing between USC/stanford and Utah, I get that they may chose one of the others for name and education alone. But choosing Oregon state, WSU or many other programs in the mid-west/acc/sec over Utah makes it seem like either our recruiting isn’t good enough or there is a real big stigma against Utah. Whitt thanks to Erickson has improved recruiting in Florida, hopefully Whitt et al can continue to grow new recruiting territory and continue to improve recruiting classes.
I completely agree that recruit rankings are subjective, but there are fewer misses on the 5* guys than there are on the 2 and 3*.
You’re right. They were higher in 2019. Still weird to be ranked lower than Indiana and Kentucky. It could also be the talent pool in your region is not as highly rated as the other kids that choose those two schools I mentioned. The Midwest and South are stacked with talent. It’s almost as if the Utes need to hire some coaches who can recruit the South and Midwest.
I know Alabama made three key hires which opened the West Coast up (granted the name helps).
Hey, welcome back. In years past the rank would be higher because they would be locking in earlier. Right now the team is generally ranked like this because total numbers are low while they compete with bigger names for people who commit later. Missionaries are not counted when they come back also. The team also focuses on getting to people they want first, and they find kids who got overlooked for whatever reason.
Our starting corners exemplify this well, actually. Jaylen Johnson was a four star who picked Utah over a long list if brand schools around the country.
Josh Nurse had no stars.
I understand that. That’s like how Oklahoma never offered Josh Jacobs and then Alabama picked him up late.
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