Nothing in the regular season can change a narrative. If some of the five truly big games you listed (Oregon/OSU, UCLA/LSU, SC/ND, UW/UM, CU/A&M) go for the Pac-12, the door is open for a change in narrative. But it takes winning the playoff to really change a narrative.
I see 4 for sure P12 wins. 1 see 3 for sure P12 loses. I see 7 toss ups.
Cal at TCU (TCU)
Oregon at Ohio State (Push)
Oregon State at Purdue (Push)
Stanford home vs K State (Push)
Stanford at Vanderbilt (Stanford)
Washington at Michigan (Push)
Arizona Neutral Site vs BYU (BYU)
(Before you call me a blue gogled homer, Arizona is terrible, they’ve lost thier last 12 games)
Arizona State at BYU (ASU)
Colorado home vs Texas A&M (A&M)
Colorado home vs Minnesota (Push)
UCLA home vs LSU (LSU)
SC at Notre Dame(Push)
SC home vs BYU (SC)
Utah at BYU (Push)
(Now you can call me a blue gogled homer)
I am going to contradict myself here. If Ohio State beats Minnesota and then loses to Oregon it changes the narrative quick.
I’m not going to dwell on the rest of the PAC. They’ll have to take care of themselves. We as fans can hope that the PAC does well OOC, but who really knows with some of the teams.
As for our game against Weber, I hope that the team builds up a BIG lead, and the back ups get in to get in some practice against a live opponent. Will that happen, maybe, but I’d like the starters sitting for the 2nd half, if given my druthers.
I’ll give you all of those but the Utah-BYU match up. Until BYU shows otherwise, it’s a Utah win.
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At some point there will be a Utah/BYU game where Utah is favored but a combination of great play by BYU and average play by Utah results in a BYU win. I’m old enough to have attended the 1978 Randy Gomez miracle and the the 1988 goal post tear down to believe this won’t happen sometime in the next couple of years.
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I don’t remember the 1978 game, I do remember the goal posts coming down in '88. I know that eventually BYU will get a win in the series. That’s just a statistical eventuality, whether it’s this year, next, or 100 years from now we don’t know, but it will happen. We as Ute fans will be grumpy about the loss until the Utes win the next one.
That said, I’m like you, I don’t expect it this year, unless with wheels fall of the cart.
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byu will win a game, sooner rather than later. I hope it’s not this year as I want Utah to own the longest win streak in the series. Last year was byu’s best hope, Wilson vs Bentley would have been a huge advantage for Provo but Ty Jordan would have been a huge advantage for Utah.
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I think that every year that passes is byu-provo’s best chance at winning. Last year they had a better chance than this year. This year they have a better chance than next year.
Now, if they get into the Big 12, then that could change.
But at the same time, yeah, byu-provo will sneak in a win at some point.
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I thought last year would be the year, because Wilson was seasoned & we had so many teenagers on defense.
Wilson moved on, and our youngsters got a lot of practice and 5 games of experience. We played a lot of zone last year because the freshman weren’t proficient in all the aspects of man coverage, and almost all HS teams play zone.
Being credible playing zone is important, a nice changeup that could have useful in the past when teams have employed extensive use of drag routes, which man coverage sometimes struggles with (against an accurate QB and good WRs).
Especially if the offense is good at pick plays.
BYU is better than you give them credit but probably not as good as we BYU fans want to believe. We bring back a lot of talent that have played a lot of live minutes over the last few years. Utah has a tough team this year and they bring back a ton of talent and experience. Utah always has a great DL, DB’s and RB’s. The talent between the two teams is not as wide as you would like to believe IMO.
I have to believe that the way some of you talk here, would sound very similar to the way BYU fans would have talked in the late 80’s early 90’s (I don’t know, I didn’t live in Utah growing up). The first step toward de-escalating the vitriol in this rivalry is showing respect where it is deserved.
Does UF.N have a guess the final score poll somewhere. I’ve missed it.
I’ve seen scores such as Utah 42 WS 13. Who knows. But that looks about right. First game for both teams. Against a team coached by a Whitt protegee. Utah not wanting to reveal much. Wanting to get reps to the third sting if possible. Et cetera.
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Not even close. It was all thru the 80’s and most of the 90’s. In 1996 (the last decisive win by byu) the fans were talking about the “return to normal”. The arrogance was off the charts.
“Scott Mitchell wouldn’t have played QB for us, DB maybe”
“byu is the Notre Dame of the west”
“No player who played his college ball in the state made it in the NFL until LaVell took over at byu”
“The byu game is Utah’s bowl game”
(after losing to a 1-2 Air Force) “Air Force should be nationally ranked”
These are all things (and more) that I personally heard from byu fans in the 80’s and 90’s
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Are you basing this off last season? Because over the last four years you are a 7 win team. Nobody thinks a 7 win team is good. They have only beaten one team with 10+ wins in a season the past 4 years, Boise State. Before that it was well over 10 years since they beat a team with 10+ wins. BYU is building a reputation beating other 7 to 8 win teams.
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to be honest did Utah deserve to be respected by BYU in the 70’s and 80’s? No, we were god awful and we knew it.
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That sounds rough. I feel bad for you. It must have been tough to be a stalwart ute back then. Knowing the way you were treated, I don’t understand why you want to repeat the cycle.
Living in Utah over the last 20 year’s has pushed me to become as close as I’ve ever been to a Utah hater. I didn’t like that about myself so I came here to try and understand the other side better. Honestly, it’s helping a little.
Good point. Do you honestly think BYU is awful? I don’t.
That’s a fair observation. I’m saying that begrudgingly. I do think that it’s also fair to say that BYU’s talent is getting better. Now we need it just win. I think BYU has gotten progressively better over the last few years also.
No, I never said that.
I’d agree with you that BYU was likely better last year than Utah fans want to give them credit for, but at the same time we’ll never know because of the last minute scheduling dilemmas.
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