2013 Utah Football Season

[The_Douger]

I'm still surprised Kelly's rumored to be looking.

He could stay forever and be a king there if he wanted to.

[OrangeUte]

Hey, that's the game I attended!

damn - next time we will have to meet up in eugene and get a voodoo donut together.

[MartyFunkhouser]

damn - next time we will have to meet up in eugene and get a voodoo donut together.

Voodoo donuts are overrated.

[Portland Ute]

DDD is right. Utah has a very good game day environment and it is a nice stadium.

thanks to HFN, I have experienced Oregon in 2009 when they played the Utes, and i was there last year when gameday was in town and the ducks played ASU, who was ranked 18 at the time. that game was loud, loud, loud. the duck fans screaming "O" is obnoxious if you aren't . there was a whole lot of tailgating going on. in town, on that same day there was a bunch of "occupy autzen" and "occupy eugene" protests going on, and tons of ducks fans were mingling with the protesters and walking the streets. we hit up a fair/farmers market type of place, which was a lot of fun, and hung out at the stadium a few hours before kickoff. we also went onto campus and saw the gameday crew. the only advantage that utah has over Oregon, in my opinion, is that its stadium is right on campus whereas Autzen is not. Still, the tailgate scene at Autzen is pretty damn good, and the stadium is incredibly nice.

It's nice of the few dozen Oregon fans to show up for Gameday.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

It's nice of the few dozen Oregon fans to show up for Gameday.

It was nice of Whittingham to be part of the promo and say "Autzen is the loudest stadium in the country" I imagine they just edited the part where he talked about how loud The MUSStard kids are dancing on 3rd down.

[LA Ute]

It was nice of Whittingham to be part of the promo and say "Autzen is the loudest stadium in the country" I imagine they just edited the part where he talked about how loud The MUSStard kids are dancing on 3rd down.

"MUSStard" is politically incorrect. Just thought you should know.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

"MUSStard" is politically incorrect. Just thought you should know.

But that wiener in the suspenders loves to dance on 3rd down and be crazy! That's why RES is always mentioned in the top stadiums in the country.

[LA Ute]

But that wiener in the suspenders loves to dance on 3rd down and be crazy! That's why RES is always mentioned in the top stadiums in the country.

You're just jealous.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

You're just jealous.

Very, I've heard the Hunty is so exquisite...you know the rest.

[LA Ute]

Very, I've heard the Hunty is so exquisite...you know the rest.

You can blaspheme the JMHC all you want. It won't bother me a bit.

[LA Ute]

From Ted Miller's Mailbag:

Ryan from Salt Lake City writes: What do the Utes need to do next year to be a competitive PAC 12 team? I understand the need for depth and a QB who can actually run and lead the offense, but after watching a failing team I wonder about the coaching staff. I think Kyle Whittingham is a great coach and I would be upset to see him go, but I don't see him running his coaching staff and making enough changes during games to make them competitive. I mean no disrespect to the Utah football coaching staff but its time to get aggressive and form your team around a formula that works best and not try this or try that during games they should have/could have won.

Ted Miller: Stay the course and grow up.

Here's the reality: The AQ conference folks were and are right, and the defiant non-AQ folks were and are wrong. There is a significant difference playing in an AQ conference and a non-AQ one. The Mountain West is a tough league, but if you dump a Mountain West team into the Pac-12 -- or the Big 12, see TCU -- it is going to struggle. At least at first.

Why? Well, it's fairly simple: The quality of players. It goes like this:

Big-Time recruit three years ago: I really like Utah. Coach Kyle Whittingham looks scary but he's a really good dude. And Salt Lake is underrated. Have you eaten at the Red Iguana? Yummy.

AQ coach: Whittingham scares me, too, so please don't tell him I said this, but Utah plays in the Mountain West. Its champ plays in the Las Vegas Bowl. That's where the Pac-12 sends its No. 5 team. I mean, you look like a big-time player to me. Don't you want to play in the big-time. Or are you afraid? You don't look like a fraidy cat to me, but, well, maybe you are.


Not sure it goes exactly like that, but that basic approach does work. An overwhelming majority of big-time recruits, as well as the best so-called diamonds in the rough -- see programs like Oregon State -- would rather play in an AQ conference.

Utah is now a member of the club (how are those Pac-12 Diamond Cards treating you, MUSS members?). But it's got to find its footing. It's got to figure out its new recruiting base. Whittingham has repeatedly said that the Utes are getting into living rooms with the sort of guys who told them "no thanks" before. But it figures to take a few more recruiting classes to narrow the talent gap, which is best reflected in terms of depth, rather than a starting 22.

Utah has been competitive from the start. It went 8-5 last season and was a home choke vs. Colorado away from playing for the Pac-12 title as the South Division representative. This season, after star-crossed quarterback Jordan Wynn went down, Whittingham decided to go with a true freshman quarterback. Travis Wilson is promising, but he's green.

Sure, there were some high expectations for an easy transition. Sure, some of us thought the Utes might be in the thick of the South Division race this season, but that assumed a reemergence of Wynn. And maybe the crossed fingers over the offensive line didn't work out.

I'd advise patience, Utah fans. I know that's not what you want to hear, but the right course of action often isn't the easy, fun, quick-fix.

[pelagius]

From Ted Miller's Mailbag:

The AQ conference folks were and are right, and the defiant non-AQ folks were and are wrong. There is a significant difference playing in an AQ conference and a non-AQ one.

Ted miller's argument is a straw man. Of course, the PAC-12 conference is better than the MWC (no reasonable person really ever argued otherwise). Of course, Utah would on average have a worse record in the PAC-12 than in the MWC. The question real question is whether Utah's quality has been revealed as worse than what we thought given their MWC performance. The answer is a resounding no. Utah has performed almost exactly the same terms of overall rating (MOV model benchmark):



And Utah this year is 33th by the same benchmark; so the average immediately entering the PAC-12 and right before are remarkably similar. Outside of 2008 (2008 is just a huge outlier in the Whittingham era), Utah's quality is amazingly consistent. Importantly, Utah performed almost exactly as we would expect given their usual performance under Whittingham in the MWC conference.

LA Ute, I am not trying to pick on Utah (you know I don't take shots at Utah or troll). Utah is typically a solid team in the 25-45 range; that's a good team and similar to the average quality of BYU. They are still exactly that same kind of team: it doesn't matter if the play in the MWC or PAC-12. Utah has not been exposed.

[LA Ute]

Ted miller's argument is a straw man. Of course, the PAC-12 conference is better than the MWC (no reasonable person really ever argued otherwise). Of course, Utah would on average have a worse record in the PAC-12 than in the MWC. The question real question is whether Utah quality has been revealed as worse than what we thought given their MWC performance. The answer is a resounding no. Utah has performed almost exactly the same terms of overall rating (MOV model benchmark):



And Utah this year is 33th by the same benchmark; so the average immediately entering the PAC-12 and right before are remarkably similar. Outside of 2008 (2008 is just a huge outlier in the Whittingham era), Utah's quality is amazingly consistent. Importantly, Utah performed almost exactly as we would expect given their usual performance under Whittingham in the MWC conference.

LA Ute, I am not trying to pick on Utah (you know I don't take shots at Utah or troll). Utah is typically a solid team in the 25-45 range; that's a good team and similar to the average quality of BYU. They are still exactly that same kind of team: it doesn't matter if the play in the MWC or PAC-12. Utah has not been exposed.

Thanks, very interesting. I guess we can still conclude that to compete at a higher level than we have been, we need better players!

[pelagius]

Thanks, very interesting. I guess we can still conclude that to compete at a higher level than we have been, we need better players!

Absolutely, and that may very well happen.

[LA Ute]

Absolutely, and that may very well happen.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.