Seeing Arizona get absolutely destroyed by UCF (35-6 at the half), and I think that’s the loss that hurts the most this year. Just so, so turrible.
10 Likes
Sounds like Pittman and Lyons (the WA transfer) have both been dismissed from the team. They had a whopping 7 catches between them, so not a big loss.
7 Likes
This team keeps finding ways to shoot itself in the foot. How frustrating.
1 Like
From what I’ve heard (all internet rumors, so take with the appropriate truckload of salt), both of those guys were constant locker room drama.
If that’s true, then getting rid of that while not losing any actual on-the-field production isn’t the worst thing in the world.
7 Likes
Yeah, makes sense to axe them if true. Still frustrating about this team over the last couple of years. Injuries and poor teammates just make this irritating.
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That would be consistent with MIcah Bernard’s cryptic comment a couple of weeks ago when he said he knew what the problems were with the team but wouldn’t say it to the press.
8 Likes
Perhaps revealing.
If the issue was grumbling, that stuff can be seriously corrosive, especially among young guys that haven’t learned how to ignore naysaying.
Could have been something else, entirely, too.
3 Likes
This team is about to get really young really fast next season, so having guys in the locker room who are pouring gas on things will unravel performance even faster than what we saw play out this season.
4 Likes
If you’re old enough to have navigated life during Ute Football in the 70s and 80s, you can manage anything.
Humor helps.
4 Likes
Phantom penalties when the game is won.
Two fumbles that bounced right back to BYU
INTs that bounced barely off our DBs fingers.
Our best offensive weapon goes down…again.
Utah has not had one single ounce of good football karma go our way this year. I just hope we can eventually atone for whatever we did to make the football gods mad, because they are pissed at us.
9 Likes
Impressed with the offense finding an identity, even if it wasn’t until the 9th game.
Nice to see Rose rise up as a leader and find his groove at QB. Making that jump from being good in practice to making it happen in a game is a big leap. It would have been nice to have more games to really gel and put some of the final touches on his game… but at least we still have 3 games left.
The mystery of what happened to McClain, Landen King & some of the other receivers is over. I don’t know if we’ll ever know the details… but we really don’t need to know. Teams are complicated things.
Crazy year, keep fighting!
4 Likes
What did happen to McClain who has 1 catch & King? And what about Alford? Was he in just to throw that pass—not sure I saw him after that?
The other question: who makes decisions on depth chart? Which leads to why did it take so long to play Rose?
I don’t know the specifics in this situation, but FB teams have so many positions, players and personalities involved, it’s so damn complicated to put the symphony together.
Analogies are limited, but it’s like if a basketball team had five position groups and 35 players, and only ran plays, then improv only when the play broke down.
Inevitably the egos, bruised egos and limited chance of getting minutes leads to some grumbling, especially if the team struggles. 105 people at different stages of development, different egos, sometimes individual agendas, etc.
On NFL teams, if somebody goes down the replacement is fully ready to step in. Replacement QBs know the whole playbook (unless they brought in a free agent in the case of injury). In CFB they’re only supposed to have 20 hours a week, whereas in the NFL you have guys that are more mature, in meetings and in development for 50+ hours a week, on the practice squad they hash the details into fine powder.
(An insightful story about the difference between CFB and the NFL. Chris Kemoeatu was a 2nd round pick to the Steelers, and well into his rookie season he was doing well, but not enjoying it. “These people don’t do anything except for football. It’s too much, it’s not fun anymore.” Chris got through it and played for a decade until he needed a kidney transplant, when his brother Ma’ake gave up one of his and they retired at the same time.)
5 Likes
I might be embarrassing myself for suggesting this but maybe the best thing for this program long term would be to finish 4-8 / 5-7 and completely reset for 2025.
5 Likes
It has certainly turned into a rebuild at this point.
Utah FB lost its way, this year. Were we going to be a Top10 program throughout the year? Impossible to know, but the injury in the Baylor game was a big course change for the worse, and things tumbled further than anyone would have thought.
Hopefully the guys come away from last night’s game knowing they had the #9 team in the nation on the ropes, but didn’t get the job done. If that’s not motivation enough to get back to the core identity of Utah FB, I don’t what will.
(Another reality in CFB is roster turnover, year to year. Historically you have players at different stages of development, and the starters are mostly upper classmen. Indiana this year has shown you can use the portal to build a team of veterans much more quickly. They have something like 10 starters who were all-conference somewhere else a year ago. For IU this translated into immediate success for a team that has been a perennial cellar dweller in the B1G. It can be done.)
3 Likes
In Utah’s last 5 games, our defense has given up 23, 27, 13, 17, and 15 points.
Utah is now 0-5 in those games.
Utah has never been known for its offensive prowess, but everything on that side of the ball this season has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
10 Likes
Out of curiosity- does anyone know if Rising is on the sidelines for the games? I haven’t noticed the cameras giving him a cameo. Not sure it matters, but for some reason I would expect him to be there in street clothes supporting the team.
2 Likes
CU fans are laughing hard, especially with all the crowing by a few of our fan-base. Schadenfreude, I suppose.
2 Likes
Salty fans that thought we were bigger than the big 12 and made alot of noise. We havent balanced that out yet
2 Likes