Are you saying that using “resiliency” was literally and definitely very unnecessary?
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lol, all good. This reminds me of working in the UK and having the office manager / language police remind me in front of everyone that “party” is not a verb.
The Irish guy in the office was a funnyman, pointed out it wasn’t as egregious as when Alexander Haige said “… we’re not going to sit back and let them nicaraguanize the situation”.
Everyone agreed… and I found a wingman to deal with being the one American in an office of uptight English who didn’t like that their company was bought out by one of “them”.
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it’s easy for us middle-aged, older crumudgeons to decide what’s best for twenty year old athletes, but we have the benefit of time and wisdom.
A twenty year old me that was offered $250k would have blown through that $$$ quickly with luxury car,(s), trips, etc. At that age your invincible, you’ll never get injured, your future is guaranteed. You likely haven’t experienced many of any setbacks, and your God given ability has shielded you from many of life’s harsh realities.
A good agent should help with with these types of decisions. I know there are some good ones out there, but they seem far and few between. I imagine a majority of them are just simply looking for their cut.
From Scalley’s press conference yesterday he seems to have a good grasp of the current realities of the sport. No doubt we’re always going to have some painful portal losses, but we’ll also benefit from some great portal gets. Every school will. Part of me wishes that Utah doesn’t dip into the PE money for players until some guard rails are put into place. But I’m not sure they can wait that long.
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Seeing all the QBs who are landing elsewhere makes me really hopeful that Dampier and Ficklin end up staying.
Partly because I like them both and partly because I worry there won’t be anyone left if they don’t.
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per ESPN700 today Wayshawn Parker is returning
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Huge. My son saw his name as a probable to go to Ann Arbor.
Keep it going!
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My understanding is PE will go to facilities, marketing, and if to anyone, only coaches, not players. Different ways to increase the value of the brand, but mostly things that will increase revenue. Even though it’s a $500M ‘deal’, sounds like it will be at most $50M a year and even then, ramping up to it. Money going in better mean incremental money generated to go out. Might only be fully realizable if we get into B1G or P2 or whatever the next step of sports organization with a czar there might be.
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Oh boy. They cited “donor fatigue” as a reason for the PE. We all know that song… hell we know all 17 verses.
There’s an expectation that PE will help us not fall too far behind TTech, and definitely not fall behind BYU.
If there’s a stimulating effect with other bigger fish Utah donors because of the PE deal - matching or whatever opens up check books - maybe it works out.
Congress is having a hard time with that whole “relevance” concept. Here’s their chance.
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17 verses? More like 444,000,000…and they keep making up more of them.
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rats … , JJ Buchanon enters the portal.
Oh well, next man up.
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Damn, was hoping he’d stick around.
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Utah just landed two big time WRs from the portal, Braden Pegan and Kyri Shoels.
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Picked up some pretty good portal WR’s today:
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In addition to the WRs: the O-lineman from Ohio State, Safety from Oklahoma and D-lineman from Wyoming signed yesterday all look promising. Utah is clearly ‘winning’ in the portal so far.
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I’m not sure Utah is winning the Portal. Yes, they have picked up some solid additions, but losing JJ, Snowden, Tao, Daley, Vakalahi and Leaea are significant. We have now lost our OL to graduation and NFL, our DL to NFL and portal, and 3 of 5 starters in secondary to portal. I know this is a weird year with He Who Must not be Named and 5 assistants going to Michigan, but if Utah cannot find the money to retain talent, we will not be able to compete for Big 12 championships.. Losing two guys in Tanavasa and Calhoun, neither of which were full time starters last year, is a lot different than losing 6.
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I’d argue the portal has definitely represented a net benefit for the U in this era (outgoing vs incoming and how they’ve contributed). To be clear though, I dislike what college football has become and I’d much rather the portal and unlimited transfers not exist.
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Offensive Line
I looked through last year’s roster, took out Seniors and NFL and one transfer (Ta’aga) and added in recruits (Obot, Benjamin, Pierce + Kema transfer). This is what I could find. A pretty young, raw group that will need to be coached and gel. I don’t know too much about any one player, but seems like we have a decent building blocks but not much skilled depth.
| Last Name | Ht | Wt | Class | Notes | HS stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garcia | 6-5 | 310 | R-Fr. | hurt 2025, 2 games 2024, #1 Utah HS recruit | **** |
| Obot | 6-5 | 265 | Fr. | OT in HS #1 Utah recruit | **** |
| Benjamin | 6-7 | 315 | Fr. | OT in HS #7 Utah recruit | **** |
| Kema | 6-3 | 312 | TR-So. | IOL (RG or C), Ok St. but served 2yr mission, Ohio St. FR | *** |
| Moea’i | 6-4 | 325 | Sr. | 2025: 11 games, mostly TE, 2024: 12 games, 3 starts, 2023: 13 games ST | *** |
| Olson | 6-6 | 307 | R-Sr. | 2025: 12 games (LG, RT), 1 start, 218 sanps, 2024: 12 games, 2 starts | |
| Alderman | 6-4 | 302 | R-Jr. | 12 games (RG, ST), 81 OL snaps | *** |
| Parmenter | 6-5 | 319 | R-So. | 12 games ST, 78 snaps LG (6 games) | |
| Molina | 6-1 | 260 | R-So. | no action, #1 CO recruit | *** |
| Pierce | 6-3.5 | 285 | Fr. | IOL, discus/shot put | *** |
| Hallock | 6-4 | 275 | So. | no action | *** |
| Raass | 5-11 | 260 | R-So. | no action | |
| Shinofield | 6-6 | 304 | So. | no action |
Hopefully Garcia is back from his season-ending injury. Both Obot and Benjamin were tackles and both are FR. I could see Garcia at LT and Obot at RT with Benjamin coming in as OT as well. Kema coming in might be a good C (played mostly RG, but projects well to C). Moea’i has been used more as a TE/6th OL. Olson, Alderman might be LG, RG.
They’ll have to play around and see who might shift from OT to IOL, but my guess would be:
LT: Garcia/Obot
LG: Olson
C: Kema
RG: Alderman
RT: Obot/Benjamin
Young and mostly inexperienced, but not too bad given we had all the starters graduating or to NFL (Fano, Lomu).
The rest need to step up to provide depth.
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I know many do not like twitter and that it can be a cesspool. I try to filter out the sh$t and get information about the Utes and other topics that I am interested in. I think this is a thoughtful take and the part about it taking all Ute fans for the teams to succeed is true. In the past, present and hopefully the future, those of us in this Utefans.net community has had a fairly high level of interest in seeing the University and the Ute teams succeed. From the time I was a kid growing up in Sugarhouse, Utah athletics has been a part of my life. On my LDS mission to Spain (77-79) my parents would clip the articles on Utah football and basketball. I remember how good it felt to read that the Utes had won against BYU in 1978. Even when I was in law school at BYU (they gave me more NIL money) I bought Utah football season tickets and wrangled student tickets for many bball games. I started taking my daughter to women’s bball in the mid-90’s and that provided us an avenue to grow closer together. One year as we drove down to Vegas for the bball tournaments, we heard on the radio that the Utah women unexpectedly ost in the first round. That 11 year old daughter quietly cried from Filmore to Cedar City. I had some great times with Ma’ake and ColoUte attending football practices together during the Mac and Urban era. The ride with KW the past 20 years has been better than I could have imagined.
Now we all fan differently and that is perfectly fine. Some years ago I decided that I would probably stop buying season football tickets when I turn 70. I stopped buying basketball season tickets a few years back because we spend most of the basketball season in San Diego. Well, 2026 is the year I turn 70 and like most of us, the Portal and NIL have zapped much of our interest, not only in the Utes, but in college athletics in general.
I want the Utes in every sport to succeed and I want Morgan and Alex to succeed. But like most here (other than LAUte), my pockets are limited and they seem to have more and more holes in them today than ever before, so my ability to contribute financially is pretty much limited to buying season tickets and giving a token financial contribution.
Why am I posting my thoughts and what was said on twitter? I honestly don’t know, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Utah athletics has provided me with a great deal of fun and entertainment over the years. Do I wish we did not have the Portal and NIL was limited to a reasonable amount? Yes. But I guess I am just thinking out loud about how and how much I am going to fan moving forward. I appreciate this community and will continue to try to bring something to the table.
Go Utes - UTEopia
@TheChosenUte
I’ve been thinking a lot about Morgan Scalley’s introductory press conference. To paraphrase, he specifically said, “I believe we can win a national championship here at the University of Utah, and it’s gonna take all of us… and then some.” The words ruminating most in my mind from that press conference (aside from being great fathers) are “it’s gonna take all of us… and then some.” Those words made us feel part of the team-quite literally as if we fans suit up with them each game and take the field. That made me think about Utah fandom and how we can pull our weight for these players, coaches, and everyone else involved. I don’t know all the answers, but I thought about programs that have won national titles before us (besides BYU, because that didn’t count) and how they got there. Thanks to the internet, and to summarize the obvious, research shows the blue-blood fanbases are massive. So to me, a key ingredient as fans is to become even more massive than we currently are. How exactly do we do that? There have been things happening recently that are not great for the fanbase. While it’s okay to have differences in how we see things, one thing we all need to do is remain unified as Utes. Our energy bleeds into the locker room, and that blood must be a unified, loving family. We cannot be a dysfunctional family and bleed the right energy into that locker room. In order to grow into a massive, blue-blood-type fanbase and program, it doesn’t end at just loving each other. It also means supporting each other. Like Morgan said, it’s about serving others. Here on X, we can show support through engagement: like each other’s stuff, retweet it, share it, come join spaces and make your voice heard. Be part of this family. Each fan has a voice and energy to offer the Utah Utes that pushes Wayshawn Parker that extra inch to extend a drive or fuels Lander Barton’s intuition for a game-sealing interception in a miracle comeback. So love each other, support each other, and remember- even when it’s hard to like someone or their stuff- that this is for Morgan, for Bud, and for Grandpa Ford. This is how “it’s gonna take all of us… and then some” gets us to the higher heights Morgan is talking about and taking us to. Be there for the accounts that have few followers as much as the ones with large followings. The more we like, share, and get Ute voices into the atmosphere, the bigger, louder, and more inevitable we become to the Alabamas, Michigans, and Ohio States. Liking, sharing, and engaging in Ute fandom is not about any individual or their agenda, even though some will stand to benefit at different levels. It’s about Utah athletics. It’s about becoming inevitable. It’s about becoming champions. Family on 3… Go Utes!!!
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Nice analysis! I know that several portal OL’s have announced visits to Utah, not sure how many more they’re looking to add though. Really hope they can put together a solid OL.. the offensive skill positions seem to be shaping up quite nicely.
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