When I was in law school at the U, sometimes on a Saturday during football season a few of us would remember there was a game going on and we’d walk over to a 2/3 full Rice Stadium. We’d sit down in the bleachers, usually in a very good spot, watch for a while, then wander back to the law building. Usually the Utes were losing. There was kind of a relaxed party atmosphere among the fans in the stadium. Nobody expected much out of the team.
Fast forward to today.
I was talking with one of my sons (an ardent Ute fan) about our situation: Our only loss this season was to USC in the Coliseum by a touchdown in a game where we dominated them statistically and that everyone knows we could have and should have won.
This week, as fans on this board we are actually debating whether, if we win tonight, we should be disappointed if we end up in the Rose Bowl.
Think about all that.
To this long-time Utah fan this is the most magical sports day of my life. And there is an excellent chance that over the next few days and weeks it will get even better. It’s all a marvel to me.
It’s crazy to think about. I want to pinch myself every day lately. I must be dreaming. When I was a kid in the 90’s I remember getting harassed in middle school wearing my Utah shirt. Now those same type of fans from another team look the other way when they see me coming in my Utah gear. I remember like you sitting in a half empty Rice stadium watching us play Wyoming and losing. I remember turning on the radio and hearing the Utah score but nothing more. We were an after thought. Where this program has climbed in such a short time is nothing short of astounding. I feel blessed to have been a part of it. What a great time to be a UTE!
No loss on my mind! With a win tonight we will at least be in the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl! And we are having debates about whether we should be disappointed with that outcome. How far we have come.
I personally will not be disappointed with the Rose bowl. I do expect tonight to be a dogfight, and think Oregon is the toughest opponent we’ve had all year.
I first moved to SLC in '85 and immediately got season tickets. I’ve seen the not-so-good too. I think if we can jump on them early and hold them down, the air’s going to go out of them. We are much more difficult than UCLA, for example, to make a comeback on. Go Utes!!
Lot of us old timers remember times when it was challenging to be a faithful Ute fan. Some of the lowlights were suffering through a 2-19 stretch against BYU, including a 56-6 loss in Salt Lake, a 50-10 loss to CSU (where our TD came in the last minute) and going with no bowl at all for about 3 decades (didn’t see too many 6 win teams in bowls back then).
We’d attend the Ute-Cougar game every other year in Rice-Eccles, and perhaps 1/4 or more of the crowd was in blue. We struggled in a mediocre conference and hoped to simply have a winning season (6-5) a few times a decade (and that was with teams like UTEP, New Mexico, and Utah State on the slate).
Played the occasional one-and-done body bag game at places like Nebraska, Ohio State, Tennessee, Arizona State, and get spanked.
Now we’re on the verge of a Pac-12 championship which if we win, we’ll feel slighted if we wind up in Pasadena. We lost a one score game to USC and feel it was far below our abilities to do so.
Times certainly have changed.
Really want to win tonight to get that Pac12 trophy, but Oregon wants that trophy too and it will be a tough fight.
