Next @ 
Washington State – Sat 9/29 – 4pm – Pac-12 TV
1. Stanford +6
2. ASU +4
3. Colorado +3
4. Cal +2
5. WSU +1
6. Washington -1
UCLA -1
8. OSU -2
USC -2
10. Oregon -3
Arizona -3
12. Utah -6
When trying to figure out our offensive woes, look no further. Take care of the ball and things will look much better. Each turnover against Washington happened on pretty promising drives. Dropped passes took points off the board. Give the team some stick’em and let’s go on a winning streak!
Beat me to posting this. But you’re absolutely correct. Note that these turnovers are not on Huntley (1 pick against UW going into halftime) but on fumbles. Hold on to the damn ball.
Turnover margin is sometimes exaggerated as well. Against NIU they were not exactly critical turnovers because the defense bailed them out. The one to end the half against UW probably meant 3 less points for Utah. I think the Covey against UW fumble lead to 7 for UW. Obviously against Weber State it was the only TD.
It also goes both ways. UW getting bailed out with a bad roughing the passer/targeting call on Fotu took away a Cody Barton interception and would have negated 7 points for UW.
Would’ve been a +1 for turnovers.
1. We’re coming off of a bye.
2. I believe we are going to see a run-heavy offensive game plan. If we don’t, I’m not sure Kyle lets Troy on the plane after the game.
One thing that gives me hope: Wazzu plays into our strength (pass defense). They don’t even pretend to have a running game. I think our secondary will feast.
They ran pretty effectively on USC. Also our pass defense is ok. I think we still shut down the rush really well.
Huntley’s best game was supposedly vs Washington last year. Washington had recently lost to ASU, and just lost the North to Stanford the week prior.
1- What interest level did Washington even have playing that game?
2- if Washington was disinterested what other game by Huntley gives you hope he can be a successful P5 QB? UCLA???
I don’t see it. I think WAZZU mops the floor with Utah, and Whit switches to Shelley but not until the 4th quarter when the game is out of hand.
If the defense quits I owe you a Coke.
“You know, when you were a baby in your crib, your father looked down at you, he had but one hope – “Someday, my son will grow to be a man.” Well look at you now; you just got your asses whipped, by a bunch of goddamn nerds.
*Nerds*! Well, if I was you, I’d do something about it. I would get up and redeem myself in the eyes of my father, my Maker, and my *coach*!”
After reading this I’m predicting a blow out 😄
I don’t.
This is where we fans come to rant or rave about 18-22 year olds playing a game. It’s rather trivial in the grand scheme of things. Granted, it’s something that we’ve all decided is important to us, but it’s not something that these kids need to, or would benefit from reading. I would hope that they are focusing on their own lives: school, grades, relationships, and practice.
There are some terrific posters here. I am not one of them. But some folks here do have great insight or takes. At the same time, there is a reason that none of us are D-1 football coaches (except Onlyu?) Players should not look to fan sites for motivation. If they do, then I think that would point to a coaching deficiency. Or a lack of intrinsic motivation.
I love this team and I am grateful to them for putting it out there on Saturdays. Go Utes.
I know the reference.
I hope Utah comes out looking sharp. The offense doesn’t even have to be prolific, as long as it’s serviceable we can get a W.
I think Stanford and Oregon are losses. Additionally, USC is starting to improve and ASU and Colorado look decent. I am thinking this is a must-win game if Utah expects to have a shot at winning the South.
It’s do or die time for KW. If he can’t win the South this year, I don’t think he’ll ever do it.
Wow I didn’t expect it to open even that low! I think the Utes surprise some people this week with a big win at Wazzu!
I’m optimistic too. Biggest thing is if offense can avoid the turnover bug. Utah is worst in the PAC-12 currently with a -6 TO margin. We’ve been so good at this stat last couple of years, hoping we can get back to that.
I think our offense struggled last week because Zack Moss wasn’t healthy, thus making Troy Taylor employ a very unsuccessful pass-happy offense to protect him from injury. Well, hopefully they have learned that they need to play to their strengths, and hopefully they improve dramatically. Also, I think WSU’s one-dimensional passing offense plays right into Utah’s hands because the Utes are dynamite against the pass. I think that they ran the ball against USC somewhat effectively because USC’s defense is just not that good. I predict a close Utah victory. Like, 27-20. I think Utah is hungry for a victory after their frustrating loss to Washington and Wazzu will be sad coming off of a game they probably should have won @ USC. I still believe in this team, and I think they come out with something to prove against the Cougars. Go Utes!
So reading the board I just realized something one of my old bosses used to say, “You’ve got to score!”
Do we really care if we rack up 1200 yards on offense if we fumble the ball, get stopped on 4th down, or throw a pick all after we’ve driven 98 yards to the 1 yard line? NO!!!!!!!
It ain’t about the stats it’s about putting the ball in the freaking end zone, FGs I could do without them.
Yes we’ve got great special teams and defense but would you rather have a Ray Guy winner, Lou Groza winner and the best defense in the nation, if we lose 7 games cause we can’t “Put the ball in the hole?”
Yards are lipstick on a pig, painting over the cracks in a load bearing wall, putting a bridge over a river running along the foundation of your house.
Yards and stats are for losers!!!!!!
That’s like saying you want to be rich but you don’t want to work for it. It’s hard to score a lot of points without racking up yardage and first downs.
Not really. He’s just saying he wants the payoff that comes with/from the hard work to be rich. Who wants to work hard and still be poor?
Teams that generate a lot of turnovers create short fields for their offense, which means they have opportunities to score points without racking up yardage and first downs.
Teams that get a lot of big plays or chunk yardage aren’t going to have as many first downs as teams that methodically drive down the field getting 3-5 yards per play.
Ultimately it comes down to the payoff. Who cares if your QB passes for 286 yards or your RBs rush for 123 yards if they can’t come through with TDs to go along with the yardage?
I agree with UtMtBiker.
Scoring results in wins it is more important. Sometimes yards don’t tell the story of the game at all. Stanford’s punter pinned Oregon back a lot and credit to Oregon they drove the field and scored. They also turned over the ball at key moments and lost the game. So who gives a s**t about yards and QBR if you don’t score. It really is just a good measurement about some of the things you might be doing right. Utah historically has been horrible in the redzone so what if you get in there if you can’t score??
Yards and first downs are poor predictors of winning. Turnovers and explosive plays are much better stats for predicting wins, and this offense sucks at both. Selectively looking at stats that are poorly correlated with winning while ignoring more important metrics is putting lipstick on a pig.
I view it as more like, I don’t want to work 60 hours a week but get a reduced paycheck. (Stats and yards with no pay day.)
I don’t care if we hold the ball 50 minutes of the game, rack up 1200 yards if we give up five pick sixes returned 99 yards for a TD and lose.
What matters at the end of the game is if you put up more points than your opponent. Not whether you had twice as many yards or completed 100% of your passes. I want to see TDs, I don’t care how they come, I don’t care if it only takes 30 seconds each and are the result of fumble recoveries on the opponents 1 yard line.
I’m not bagging on Pita Tonga, in fact kudos to him. What I’m bagging on is the offense had a TD handed to them and squandered it. I’d rather score TDs on 100% of our red zone trips than lead the league or nation in yardage.
Maybe I’m in the minority but I’ve realized in my life, the more money I make the easier my job has been. As a teenager making minimum wage I did construction, manual labor and worked late hours and long days. My last three jobs I’ve made a ton more money and never really broke a sweat. Sure I had to know more to do the job but I don’t work harder.
I don’t play the lottery because that is what you were talking about, get rich quick, money for nothing. NO, I want TDs as a result of honest to goodness offensive effectiveness. END RESULTS are what I want.
Leading the nation in Rebounds for basketball but shooting a terrible fg%. Same thing.
USU won their game last week by a score of something like 72-12. They only had about 290 yds passing and 330 yds rushing. IMpressive numbers, but that is still a hell of a lot of points scored on relatively few yards (the Aggies gained one fumble, one INT, and had one PRTD).
That is a complete team win. Stanford team won that game last night.
I hate to say it, but after watching the games this weekend – I think Utah will be lucky to win 2-3 more games this season. Things can change as they did after the 27-0 loss to UNLV in 2007. I thought we were in for a 3-9 season that year, but we bounced back. If it wasn’t because of our defense, I am not sure we could win another game this year.
I hope that something changes and we find a groove and the offense improves. But, our offense has shown nothing. When you can only score 2 touchdowns in your last 30 possessions – there is a huge problem. Can it be fixed? We have seen it before, so I hope it can. But, I don’t believe there is any reason to be too optimistic until we see this offense move the ball.
I hope to be proved wrong this weekend. I would like to see these guys move the ball, get over 400 yards offense and at least 30 points.
Go Utes!!!
I also watch way too much football yesterday. From what I saw, UW is maybe the third or fourth best team in the N. division….. not looking good for the Utes
I know the Utes will win again this year but based on what I saw yesterday, I really can’t find a win.
Yes, I feel the same.
I know UCLA is very bad, but they are young and you would assume to see some improvement.
Arizona looks to be getting better.
UW did not impress me last night. They won, but didn’t pass or run effectively against ASU. But, they beat us at home.
We play ASU on the road and they seem to have a defense. They may hold us scoreless.
I don’t see any way (right now) that we could beat Stanford or Oregon.
We need to score points to beat WSU because they will score a bunch. That is scary.
CU didn’t play yesterday, but from what I have seen – they are a better overall team than our Utes.
NIU got blasted by a poor FSU offense yesterday. That says a lot about our offense.
I really hate to say this, but BYU is playing better football than we are. We have better athletes, but that isn’t enough.
So, where do the wins come from. Like PM said, I am sure we will win again. I am just not sure when.
I drank the Kool-Aid. I was very hopeful. If it was just one bad game – I would say, crap happens. But, this offense has done nothing to impress.
No one wants the Utes to win more than me. But, please tell me that I am wrong and that this offense will produce. What do you see that I don’t. I really want to believe in this offense.
Agreed. As of now, I feel the only way Utah can win another game is to hold the other team to 14 points or less – that’s a real tough ask for the Ute defense.
Congrats to jamarcus24 who won this past week’s Pac-12 Pick Em contest in a 4-way tiebreaker. Week 5 is NOW OPEN for entries. This week’s winner will collect an awesome Ute blanked from sponsor Minky Couture.
Congrats Jamarcus!
I think by now we can all see that Tyler Huntley has made no progress. We always try to have an offense and coordinators who want to get more RPOs and option runs with quarterbacks. Our offense clearly needs to become like Stanford’s of Washington’s offense. Washington for example has arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the nation and their pass to run ration is around 40-60. Utah traditional has really good backs that can help the offense to get going after some runs. We need to become more of a pro-style team to start producing a better offense. Jack Tuttle needs to be the starting piece to that.
All I’ve seen of Tuttle, which is the spring game, is a QB who is not ready yet. He threw some unwise throws for interceptions.
But at what point do we start planning for the future? I know it’s early in the season and we’re 2-1 with a shot at the South but Huntley has shown that he’s not the guy. So in my opinion, we either lose a bunch of games with Huntley and then next year we just hope Tuttle is ready OR we get Tuttle as much playing time as we can this year, probably still losing a bunch of games.
At least not until we are out of the running for the south. We’ve lost a single Pac12 game and honestly, it looked worse than it was. If we take the FG before half instead of force a throw down the sideline (Terrible play call) and we don’t drop a walk-in score we would have lost 17 to 21. Throw in 2 targeting calls that extended drives, targeting calls that don’t get called 90+ percent of the time, and we were probably in another tight battle with UW.
I think we’ll bounce back this week and start putting some points on the board. Still, think we lose but maybe something like 31 – 38.
The future could be the QB we’re trying to sign this year, and he’ll be looking elsewhere if Tuttle gets the start. Tuttle hasn’t even beat out Shelley despite the fact that Tuttle is a better system fit for Taylor’s offense. That should put a big damper on Tuttle expectations.
Or it’s because he’s a freshman.
Shelly has one less camp* than Tuttle and a hell of a lot less coaching prior to entering college. Whatever experience advantage Shelley has is negated by having a pass-first offense.
*pretty sure that Shelley wasn’t an early enrollee.
I wouldn’t discount a whole year’s worth of practice and film review.
I want to see Shelly.
All of last year we were “playing for the future” by starting Huntley. This is the future.
He regressed or defenses know how he works this season. Utah needs a spark something to ignite the offense. Not a great example but Terrence Cain against Wyoming Halloween night 2009. He gets benched and thus begins the Wynn era.
Good grief .
Official statement regarding cultural sensitivity during Homecoming Week. Stay updated on next week’s HC events at https://t.co/i2OZi2oMYx pic.twitter.com/yuCxOO1AUA
— WSU SEB (@WSU_SEB) September 21, 2018
A few funny responses in the comments to the tweet:
“Can we PLEASE end the use of the term Cougar/Coug. Its a disgusting term that reinforces patriarchal stigmas against womyn who r attracted to younger men.”
“UW needs to stop using Husky because it’s insensitive to young boys who wear husky size jeans.”
I’m curious to know where the ‘many’ of the people in the tribes they refer to are complaining about the use of the name? Is this from the one or two people who complained about it a few years ago? The actual tribe continues to endorse the U and will continue to provide the halftime show on occasion.
The official Ute tribes endorse the use of UTES for our team name. This isn’t BS like Florida State, where a tribe in Oklahoma who (*centuries ago) was historically tied to the Seminoles has endorsed the use of the name, whereas the remaining Seminole tribes in Florida do not.
SJW’s the devolving of Humans before our very eyes.
And what an incredibly stupid thing for them to say. They know that we have PERMISSION from the Ute Tribe to use their symbols and name right? What a bunch of hypersensitive nincompoops!!
Not just “permission”, but an active endorsement from the tribe.
I’m all for using more respectful language as we move through the world, and even I think this one is just stupid.
The difference is we RESPECTFULLY use the symbols and name. WSU appears to want to prevent students from using the symbols and name in a derogative fashion on signs, posters, chants, etc (a la the zoob chick with the ‘Go back to the Reservation!) sign a few years ago.
Respectful use of the team name should be just fine.
I am dumber for having read that.
They should focus on their strengths, like pot smoking. Idiots.
“As coaches we failed to make our coaching points and our points more compelling than their fat little girlfriends.” – Mike Leach
Anytime this guy opens his mouth the students must run to the nearest safe space on campus
Nah, Mike Leach buys beers for students in the bars. THey love him as a dude, though they are less impressed with him as a coach.
“vikings” is offensive to my scandanavian ancestry, “celtics” to my british ancestry, “fighting scotts” to my scottish ancestry, “trojans” to my…..”wildcats” to my love of old warplanes, “sundevils” is religiously insensitive, etc ad naseum.
I guess they have nothing better to do in the palouse (or however it’s spelled)
hopefully they will eventually grow up, get a life, and become productive members of society – not looking good, though.
I guess the university of Utah should change the mascot name, marginalize the Utes back to their reservation far away from society and stop sharing their rich history with the country.
funny how these sjw pussies think they know what’s best for the tribe when they know nothing of their heritage and the fact they endorse the U using their name.
This country is turning into a bunch of pussies and this WSU group can go f**k themselves.
Seriously though, isn’t it ironic they’re speaking for the Ute nation as if the tribe can’t speak for themselves?
Nothing worse than people who feel like they owe it to society to speak for a group that can speak just fine for themselves.
It’s actually most offensive to assume that the Ute tribe can’t handle their own affairs.
Actually our “mascot” is a red tailed hawk… 🙂
I did notice both ESPN and the PAC 12 Network dropped the drum and feather. The “offensive” war feathers will be gone soon enough, I fear.
The U already bans feathers, headdresses, etc, on the request from the Tribes (although Whittingham’s mom sometimes forgets).
The feathers suck. They make our logo tiny in digital media and they tie us to the stupid Swoop mascot. The circle defines our logo and brand identity more than the feathers.
<- see featherless avatar
The second best logo is the UU interlocking also has more tradition than the DnF. The generic U with a circle is ok.
Get your tattoo now!
Liberals. What do you have to say for yourselves? This kind of crap is why Donald Trump won the election and will win a second term.
Liberals. What do you have to say for yourselves? This kind of crap is why Donald Trump won the election and will win a second term.
I’m the libbiest lib that ever libbed. I’ve already said that these Wazzu people are idiots. But in case that wasn’t a strong enough answer, I’ll add that I find their response to be ridiculous, and think they should justifiably be mocked for it. That said, I don’t claim to speak for all liberals.
I will add that, in my experience, those who scream the loudest about “political correctness ruining the country” are generally just upset that they are no longer allowed to be a**holes to people and treat them like garbage without society calling them out on it. YMMV
People are still assholes though. This liberal SJW crap of taking on causes that no one gives a s**t about is just virtue signalling.
In this instance, I absolutely agree with you. However, I don’t agree that any time someone stands up for minority populations that are traditionally met with disrespectful behavior, it counts as “virtue signalling”.
That’s a political discussion for another time and place though, so I’ll just leave it at that. Cheers.
This isn’t a liberal position. This is a hyper and extremist position. Hyper PC idiocy on the wildly far left is about like neo-Nazi bs on the far right. 80% of normal people in the middle think they are all idiots even if we disagree about education funding, healthcare, or tax rates. I’m proud of my liberal bonafides and those SJW idiots can shove it up their tunnel vision asses. That is all.
If the captains saw this perhaps they could give off the ultimate “eff U” to show “the university claims to have permission of the tribe”. They should wear the original Ute Proud helmets that had the drum and feather on one side and the official seal of the tribe on the other.
They probably think the Ute tribe seal is racist.
Not which was the best performance, but which season got the most out of the available talent.
1: 2013 2: 2011 3: 2015 4: 2014 5: 2016 6: 2017 7: 2012 8: 2018
I give the nod to 2013 over 2011 because we were more talented on O-line and at RB on the 2011 team (an injured James Poole was our 2011 RB).
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