Pat Forde on the Utes

Football
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“Utah (8)

Hate the schedule: When you play in the Pac-12, you have to schedule harder—yet what did the Utes do? They scheduled rival BYU plus Northern Illinois and FCS opponent Idaho State—that’s not hard enough. Plus they are in the Pac-12 South, which is basically the Island of Misfit Toys. And now that Oregon has lessened the showdown potential for the Pac-12 title game, Utah doesn’t even have that going for it.

Hate the team: Playing in the great national void known as the Mountain Time Zone has allowed Utah to hide its pedestrian offense from view. Quarterback Tyler Huntley’s full-game passing stats are basically a solid half for Joe Burrow. The Utes haven’t thrown more than two touchdown passes in a game this season. This team isn’t outscoring a quality opponent without running back Zack Moss dragging the Utes to the end zone.

Hate the coach: Kyle Whittingham could give Kirby Smart a run for his money when it comes to conservative coaching. He switches offensive coordinators like socks, but Utah still hasn’t had a high-flying attack. The Utes’ Pac-12 rank in passing yards per game since joining the league in 2011: last out of 12, last, ninth, last, 11th, ninth, seventh, 11th, ninth. He is who he is: a defense-first guy who still doesn’t trust this whole pyrotechnic offense fad.

Hate the unethical behavior they’re getting away with in broad daylight: This is an admittedly short entry in the Hater’s Guide. But a Utah fan did send a hateful Twitter message to an Arizona State player who was called for a targeting foul on Moss, which led to a flurry of apologies. So the presumption is that the entire fan base is verging on rabid vigilantism and will launch an attack on the CFP committee’s Texas hotel if the Utes are left out.”

I’ve read his stuff from time to time. Sounds like he hates Utah, at least in this context.

Oh well. Admittedly, I saw this on CB and thought I would share.

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The context is that he wrote one of these for each playoff contender.

In general though, Forde has never seemed to know what’s going on with Utah. He’s too national. Also, he rarely adds anything of insight. He also tweets about swimming all the time. My Twitter experience improved recently when I dropped a handful of national sports writers. They just aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know.

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The whole passing passing passing mindset is based on this:

One player goes out, throws 14-18 for 225 yards and no picks and just one sack and team has 200 yards in rushing.

Another player goes 34-52 for 400 yards 3 picks (one returned for a TD another gives opponent a short field) and 5 sacks and the team has just 50 yards rushing.

Second player considered superior because they had more yardage.

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Look, Utah football isn’t the prettiest thing to look at. Then again, neither is Pat Forde

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It’s worth noting that his article is a “roast” of every CFP contender, and isn’t focused just on Utah. Here’s the full article, for context.

I do find the “pedestrian offense” pretty funny though, considering the margin of victory and lack of opponent’s scoring we’ve seen this year. Unlike some teams, Utah doesn’t need to put up 50 every week to win.

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Well I guess Forde is a momentum type guy who’s into the fad offense of the day.

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I was going to say that his comments seem really odd and sound like a byu fan dog whistle. After reading it in full context, it makes sense because that’s pretty much what it’s supposed to be. There is a lot of funny stuff in the full article along with some truths and half-truths.