I can’t remember Utah ever starting a season with three home games.
I’m optimistic, but expect there will some growing pains. Both from a new coach, a new OC, and from losing the entire offensive line.
I don’t follow closely at all, but I would have sworn we had a couple of starters back. Did we lose some to the portal?
3 to graduation 2 to the draft.
Moe’ai, Harrison, and Olson all are back, and are very experienced including several starts under their belts. But none have been full-time starters.
There’s also Garcia, the 4-star kid who looked very promising as a freshman but had to sit out last season due to injury.
And Obot, the 5-star kid out of Idaho that’s a projected Day 1 starter.
The line has potential to be very good, but might take a little time to gel.
Yep if I’m not mistaken, Obot and Garcia are the two highest rated O-linemen Utah has ever signed out of HS. Both were highly sought by all the bluebloods.
There’s another OL kid from Obot’s high school who is supposed to be really good. He will be a senior this year. I would hope we would have a chance to get him given the connections.
Here’s a write up on him:
Rocky Weatherspoon, 12, Fruitland
Not every coach keeps track of blocking stats throughout the season, but it’s safe to say that Weatherspoon led all Idaho road graders in 2025 with a staggering 65 pancakes. The 6-foot-3, 280-pound senior is just one piece of what promises to be a fun group of Grizzlies this season. College coaches from all over will be flocking to Fruitland to watch Weatherspoon and countless others perform this year
He’s only 12 and he’s 6’3", 280? Sign him up!
Too bad a good 75% of the people who 10 years ago would gladly have a $10 have been priced out. We literally can’t afford even those single game tickets anymore. And unlike me lonely what it were without much family, most of the rest of you have at least one other person you want to go to the game with.
I am glad we did have a good run under Kyle whittingham, I am heartbroken but everything blew up in such a nasty negative energy type situation there at the end. And even if he did get treated badly I still don’t believe in taking everyone with you. That’s just a real s***** kind of thing to behave I don’t care if it’s sports or business or anything in life.
But at the end of the day I think my interest in all of our athletic programs is going to diminish rapidly under the control of this greed-driven company that we have sold part of the program to
I’ve posted before that due to high costs (not health), my 71-year-old mother had to give up her tickets after last season following 56 YEARS of having season tickets. Ridiculous.
I hate how the Whit era ended, but I’m a Ute fan first and foremost, regardless of who is coaching.
If you wouldn’t mind, I’d love for you to provide context. I am unfamiliar with most current goings on with the team.
I don’t understand all the financial details, but the general way of freezing is that the athletic department is now in direct cahoots with a private equity firm. They are no longer directly just another part of the university bureaucracy. Utah is hardly the first program to actually get into some serious financial maneuvering, but they are definitely in the forefront of the way. And now we’re all just holding our breath hoping disaster does not follow.
Thank you. I appreciate the info.
In my opinion, this sounds like a boon.
We are certainly a 2nd or 3rd tier program as regards economics with what appears to be no way out but down. If this fix brings in dollars which change that trajectory…boom.
It’s schedules like these that are the final nail in the coffin of me caring anymore. Besides private equity, complete chaos in the NIL and transfer rules, I used to at least be able to look at a PAC-12 schedule and see which of the Oregon or Washington (or even California) games that we might travel to on top of a home game. Now, the regional games are gone and I have near zero desire to see any of the opponents on the home schedule. We’ll travel to SLC, but it will be to see friends and tailgate.
I have been going to Utah football games by myself for 20 years. It is not so bad. I got to know my neighbors over the years.
I look forward to the enhancements that the PE capital injection will bring. Lots of opportunities ahead. Go Utes!
I watch the team play because they are my team. I don’t care who they are playing. I watch the games because the Utes are playing. You seem to be saying that you watch the games to see the opponent. Am I understanding that correctly?
Sounds like travel to PNW is easier to catch a Ute game and those are gone, a lost opportunity. That’s how i read it. I’m in Denver and I drove over the KU game, but in the PAC12, I traveled to away games at UW, USC, UA, ASU. I don’t have much desire to travel to many Big 12 destinations. i will still watch on TV, but I think that’s what UteKing is getting at - a degradation that just keeps lowering desire to put extra effort into seeing the team play live overall.
I loved the PAC 12 road trips. They were stops that were worth the visit, and had more to do than just football.
The Big 12 destinations are really pretty meh. There is not a lot to do except go to the football game and go home. Right now I have too many things to do at home to be traveling to games up a holler or next to a truck stop.