Over the hump & Consistency

[SackLakeCity]

One thing I have been thinking about lately is the question…is Utah finally over the hump in the PAC 12 or is this year an anomaly? I think the argument of whether Travis Wilson is a good quarterback can be debated over and over, but the fact remains that he is a 4 year starter Senior Quarterback and combined with this fact Utah has 2 of the best linebackers of all time at Utah, the questions I would ask,

is this year repeatable?

Can the Utes do this year after year or is it something that can happen once every 5-7 years when a senior quarterback at the helm combined with tons of defensive talent?

Can the recruit and develop this talent year after year?

Love to hear opinions

Long Live Sack Lake City!

[UTE98]

Sustainable? That’s a good question. I think we will probably only be able to attain 8-1 every 5-7 years. However I think it is reasonable to expect us to win at least two OOC games every year. Most years I’d say we probably don’t beat a Michigan like team to start the year OOC. I think we can sustain a level above Colorado for the near future 10 or so years, and we should be able to go 7-5 or better most years. However to think we can repeat what we’ve done so far this year is pretty lofty.

I think overall we’ll have a better program than OSU, WSU, Arizona, Colorado and Cal. We should be in the same ball park as UCLA, Washington, Arizona St, and Stanford. But over a ten year span I don’t see us being able to compete with Nike U and USC. We’ve definitely upgraded our facilities and that could pay off but we are who we are, and I think we are in the upper 1/3 of the PAC12 most years. With a few good years mixed in, but who knows what happens if we lose KW. I’ll ask my question in another post about BB v. FB and sustainability.

I’m ecstatic with this year and in most years think 7-8 wins before a bowl game is realistic, anything in the 9,10,11 win range is a great year.

[GadValleyUte]

Not yet. I think the evidence to date would say we are build and re-build program not a re-load program. That’s no disrespect to our team. Very few teams actually re-load. Look at our most competitive years recently: 2004 (huge senior class on both sides of the ball), next really great year? 2008 perhaps not coincidentally 4 years later, after that 2010/2011, after that 2014/2015. That’s a consistent 3-4 year groove from my perspective. Not sure why it happens, but that’s how it appears to me. Of course I’d love to have a well-oiled machine that was consistent, and maybe with stability at OC we could get there, but I don’t see proof we’re there yet. Time will tell.

I’ll take being very competitive every 3-4 years over what a lot of other schools have. I’d certainly take a truly amazing 11-12 win seasons every 4 years  mixed with a few 6-7 win seasons over 8-9 wins every year. That’s where Nebraska was with Pellini over the last 7 years and they hated it.

[oc_ute]

i totally agree here. we will have decent years every 3 or 4 years. next year will be telling. we have huge losses to graduation. i’ll be especially interested to see how our D turns out without GP and JN.

there’s no way we can compete with the recruiting power of USC/UCLA. however….. dynasties have to start somewhere. maybe this year gets us into a little more favorable recruiting situation but few will turn down USC/UCLA/FURD. When we start outrecruiting ASU, we have arrived……..

[SackLakeCity]

Great comment @Ute98 , I agree with your analysis.

If we breakdown Utah I see the following:

I’ll do defense first and then talk about offense.

D-Line– will always be good and most years Elite fits the history of the team, philosophy, and demographics

Linebackers– this year will be tough to top and is concerning going forward, but typically Utah is above average here

Cornerbacks–Put a lot of them in the league, but pay price for them because they are developed while at Utah and only become really good when they are about to leave.

Safetys–I think will always be above average, but again it seems like there is a lot of development that happens before they become good.

Coaching: Good Coaching emphasis on defense, I don’t see this changing.

Overall as long as Whitt is the defense will be above average.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by SackLakeCity.

[Tony (admin)]

Great post @sacklakecity and I believe congrats are in order for your first here. I think next year is going to be tough. Think of all the key players we will be losing:

Booker
Wilson
Paul
Aiono
Carter
Hackett
Scott

….just to name a few.

[SackLakeCity]

I think the same thing @maximumkungfu I think most years will be 6 wins – 8 wins when the stars align with senior leadership on the offensive and defensive end of things 10+ wins is possible for a special season and should hopefully happen every 4-5 years.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by SackLakeCity.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by SackLakeCity.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by SackLakeCity.

[Tony (admin)]

FYI @sacklakecity you can see TWO names under each user’s avatar. Just like twitter, we can have a regular screenname which is different than our username (the one with the hashtag). So if you look at Gad Valley Ute, his actual hashtag is @maximumkungfu. If you take one right, it will be in RED, just like the Utes.

[SackLakeCity]

@admin I think the ones most difficult to replace are booker, Hackett, and Paul, their quality and talent is a rare find.