Football Special Season

[SackLakeCity]

This is something I have been thinking about lately, what would constitute a special season. I think far too often as fans we compare everything to the 2004 and 2008 seasons, but now we are in the PAC 12 I think we need to adjust those comparisons to the current realities. I would say a special season for the PAC 12 would be anything over 9 wins.

I would consider last year and this year special seasons. To beat the LA teams last year and Oregon and Arizona State this year were impressive. Obviously this year could have been a really special season without the offensive deficiencies, but I would still consider it a success.

I would say special seasons for Utah would be 1994, 2004, 2008 2014, & 2015.

[Anonymous]

Any season that you have a winning record should be considered unique or special at least right now starting in the PAC12. Nebraska comes to mind when you force out a winning coach.

The aftertaste to this season and last is that “What if” game Utah fans keep rolling over in their heads. In fact every season has “what if” to it. Fans of every school like to play the “what if” game in losses. You can just as easily play it in the wins and come up with a different season entirely. But usually the “what if” is plural meaning “if” this happened and “if” this happened than yeah Oregon doesn’t get curb stomped.(A lot more than two “ifs” needed to happen in that game to make it close) I am rambling now but I think if you look at some of the losses in the PAC12 all you have to say is: “IF Utah had an offensive identity maybe Utah wins some of those games.”
I am not bagging on a single player like most want to do (Wilson) because a single player has won games for Utah to. But if Whittingham had a giant glaring weakness it is the fact he has no clue when it comes to what offense he wants to run. Yeah you can get a lot of talent and recruit all kinds of skill players but if you don’t have an identity on the offensive side of the ball you get losses like, UCLA at home, or Zona on the road or hell an ugly win like Colorado.

[SackLakeCity]

@beehiveute…great analysis! 100% agree the biggest coaching deficiency is not defining the offensive identity and understanding why it makes sense to run it considering the assets Utah has and the recruits Utah can get, and what advantage Utah might have by running a certain system. It seems like the offensive identity is a week to week thing. I think success in anything in life is about focus, a plan, strategy, and tactics.

[Tony (admin)]

Well 2004 and 2008 are the only special ones I for me. The others are good, or great seasons.