[quote=“Ute_With_Dogs, post:32, topic:9798”]
Now that Whitt’s retiring, I’m definitely going to the game. Just got a room at the Orleans. Too bad the Luxor is sold out, that would be a nice stroll across the street to the stadium.
Same with us. We’re headed down now, staying near the convention center. Not ideal but we can either park at the MGM or whatever and walk around or take an Uber to be close. Prices up by the convention center aren’t too bad if people are still considering.
Headed down. Kickoff 1:30 pm MT. Be back in St George by 7:00
Who else is rethinking their decision to go to the LV Bowl now? We definitely are. We’re gradually moving toward a “go to support Scalley” attitude, but between the opt-outs and Whitt leaving the shine is definitely diminished. Just one more straw the power brokers that are destroying college football have put on the camel.
The real possibility of him taking major staff members with him massively diminishes my respect for him.. Way to crap all over the program that made you a legend. At least Meyer stuck around for the bowl game in 2004.
I really thought kyle had better ethics than this.
Utah would be stupid to let him stay.
The transfer landscape was night and day in 2004, now it’s basically letting the wolf into the sheep pen.
It would be far more shocking to me if he didn’t take anyone with him. He’s not going to hamstring himself in his new job out of a sense of loyalty.
College football is a brutal business and that’s not how it works.
For me one of the angles on this and why I’m so upset about it is that he had agreed to stay on it via consultant for a few years, which would not have involved him harming the program in any way. But if he takes the offensive coordinator in anybody else’s significance with him that’s a major hit to the program. That is not acceptable. You make court all the stuff about what the landscape is and what he needs to do to be a coach, but I guess I’m just a traditionalist and I think his loyalty and respect and gratitude for this school and this program should be greater than his ego and looking for another job right away. He should never have made the agreement to stick around me a consultant, because now he looks like he’s going back on his word.
I’m really interested in how the team reacts and performs in Vegas.
Obviously some distraction, but now that has sunk in and it’s time to turn back to prepping for the game.
By this point in the season, the player leadership is what carries you.
Our player leadership on offense has been Spencer Fano, and though not named a captain, Devon Dampier, who really connects with his teammates.
On defense a lot of the leadership has been Barton, but also Logan Fano. Shah’s CBs and Nickels have really played well, overall. I think the DL and LBs want to show they addressed the gap issue.
For the players, play for yourselves, play for each other - you put in all the work over the year, make this game a celebration of that, honor the process, end this year right. They already announced Ficklin will get a nice NIL package, underclassmen go make the case for yourselves.
It’s a crazy business, you never know what the future holds, but lay it all out there - for your teammates, for yourselves, honor this season the right way.
This is also Scalley’s first chance to show what he’s made of as a head coach. How well can he prepare the team? How does he motivate the players? How does he get them to rally around him and each other?
I think internally on the team, Scalley is a proven motivator / recruiter / leader / strategist / tactician. Inside the team, I don’t think there’s a ton of difference. Whit was the proven tough coach, Scalley was younger and maybe more relatable, but overall it’s pretty similar. The culture is common.
There doesn’t seem to be any kind of offense-defense divide, which helps a lot. The offense has had to carry the load some games, and vice versa.
Maybe there’s some chatter about what Harding and the other offensive coaches are doing, but I think for this game (hopefully) it’s not a massive distraction.
Throughout the year, it’s always one game at a time, handle what’s directly in front of you. No different right now, then… everyone knows changes happen in the off season. That’s part of the football, nowadays.