On one high note…
While a whole lot of the teams and coaches didn’t show up for this game…
The fans did. And Singer did. They deserve the nonexistent game ball for trying their best. Really Wilson showed guts out there too. He never looked like he quit. Kinda like Barnes last year. Played as well as he could with what he had and the plays he was given.
Well said. The fans, Singer, Wilson really did try. But coaches? No, like wathcing the last 5 bowl games. Like they dosnt care.
I learned a valuable lesson last night: stop buying into the hype. The media loves Utah in the offseason. The Utes have consistently been hyped as a top-15 top-10 team coming into the season. They are not. I am going to temper my expectations and try to enjoy things game to game. Utah has been a solid program for two decades or more. But this isn’t an elite program. I am just trying to be realistic.
Moving beyond that hairball of “bleh”…
#1 - Officiating. The refs didn’t cost Utah the game. Let’s get that out of the way, first. But my god, those guys were lost.
The sheer incompetence got to be sad, actually, like the group of six 50-somethings coming through the east entrance of the stadium, through the metal detectors and then the ticket scanners, so blasted they were holding hands, ring-around-the-rosey style, so they didn’t lose track of each other, while admirably helping to keep each other upright.
Time after time, the refs huddled and had LONG conversations about a call or penalty. It got to be a joke. I kept waiting for one of them to pull out the rule book and point out a page to the rest of them, then see nodding heads until somebody said something else, then hats would come off to facilitate scratching of heads. It was like having seven Barney Fifes as Supreme Court justices. That game had easily another halftime full of official reviews.
#2 - How 'bout the guy who won the car with a 35 yard FG! Thank you, Ken Garff, way to go phantom kicker!
More broadly, everyone needs this BYE, maybe especially the fans. (Big exhale)
I described last night game to Mrs CCU as frustrating.
Yeah, time for a bye for everyone.
I’d better stay off YouTube today…just got on and saw a few videos with the word “embarrassing” for the Utah/UA game.
I mean…they’re not wrong.
Agreed. Just didn’t want to further ruining my Sunday. Haha
I was making a mental list of the ways in which it was embarrassing. Then I borrowed this from Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
“How didst thou embarrass us? Let me count the ways…”
Then I decided to go do something else.
I understand Whitt being upset, but claiming Utah should have been up 21-3 or 21-0 after Utah’s first 3 or 4 drives is disingenious.
Your QB is 18. Your offense with a freshman is scaled down and lacks creativity. UA’s defense has athletes. They recruit ever bit as good as Utah does.
Maybe he could have claimed Utah should have had one or two TD’s but I’ve watched enough football over the years to know that three straight TD’s given those circumstances is unrealistic.
I think he was trying to cover up for the poor coaching job his staff did on Saturday.
Agree completely. A freshman QB is going to do freshman things. I thought he (or anyone else for that matter) played well enough to win, when the coaching staff would let him (them). I ran the numbers today to confirm what it felt like to me when watching the game. The red zone problems are tied to the play calling.
In a nutshell, we were moving the ball very well through the air until we entered the red zone. Then play calling, went ultra conservative. I don’t understand why you would completely abandon what got you to the red zone to start with. I’m all for mixing up, balancing, and keeping the defense honest, but you can’t just completely change your entire offense when it has been working.
