Help me feel good about 2025 football

Both Utah DT starters are better than Tanuvasa. I’m not saying they will be. They currently are better.

Dampier in the run game will make life much easier on the Defense this year. They’ll have a full field behind them most every drive.

We had our worst season in 20 years and really only got beat in the Colorado game. If we had an average offense last year we would have won the conference.

I’ve choked on the kool-aid for 2 years in a row. I’m coming into this season hopeful, and not expecting anything.

New here but I share a lot of your concerns. My biggest concern is that last year’s team had a ridiculously easy schedule – maybe the easiest in the Big 12 – and they couldn’t figure it out. I get the games were close. I get that people can use the excuse if they had a better offense, they would have won more…but they still lost to a couple bad teams (Arizona and Houston) … and Arizona team that clobbered them at home. On top of that, they nearly p**sed away their game against Oklahoma State.

This year’s schedule is much tougher, with a lot tougher road games (including the opener vs UCLA). On that alone, I think 6-6, 7-5 is probably very real … with maybe even a losing season if things don’t click well one defense.

Utah could pull a BYU and surprise but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Fans can be broken down into one of three groups:

1. Those that think we are going to win the NC every year
2. Those that think we will suck no matter what
3. Those that enjoy the ride and don’t hang on to the wins too long or the losses too long

Know yourself and it makes life easier as you then realize that it is you that determines your happiness, not the team.

In the spirit of helping the OP feel good about the upcoming football season, here’s 1 nugget:

Wayshawn Parker is a LEGIT P4 running back, Dampier is a 1,000 yard rushing QB and they’ll be running behind what many college football media members consider to be a top 5 offensive line unit.

You say you’re worried about the defense, well show me the last time a Utah team could control the LOS with an above average O-line and K-Whitt/Scalley couldn’t figure it out defensively.

I won’t be convinced that we aren’t on track for one of the worst offenses in all of college football again until at least week 5 of the season.

To feel better, know that:
1) We aren’t relying on Cam Rising and Cam Rising alone like the last 2 years
2) We have an OC that doesn’t require 2 years just to start understanding the system

Beck and a ‘simpler’ offense that can adapt if injuries do occur (knock on wood, hopefully not) and a still very good defense and we can play a well-rounded game, even with some semblance of clock control and minimal turnovers (that’s my biggest worry – that Dampier will try too hard, throw it too hard, and have more INT than we are used to or that Whitt can stomach, but he isn’t going to throw IW in just because of that).

Last year, we were ‘unlucky’. CR injury derailed the season. It was on the coaches for not having an adequate backup plan (again), but hopefully we have Dampier and not too much of a dropoff in IW or Ficklin. Wayshawn is an upgrade (Bernard was asked to do way too much AND did). Defense wore out since the offense couldn’t sustain drives. And the team isn’t usually built for a come-from-behind quick scoring offense.

If Utah stays healthy they will win at least 10 games. If we see a lot of Zurbrugg then it’s another 5 or 6 win season.

I’m with Proud Ute on this. Maybe next year will be great, but honestly maybe it will be terrible. There are a lot of unknowns on this team right now. I hope we will win 6-8 games next year, and anything above that will be exceeding my expectations. If we can’t get to 6 wins again, while I will be sad, I won’t be shocked either.

This thread is mind boggling to me … I understand limiting expectations but even limiting expectations Utah is still a top 5 team in this conference! Health is the only thing that would derail that! Utahs done a good job addressing all of their needs through the portal while retaining key guys. This is a good team.

We had abysmal QB play and still only lost by 1 score or less in 5 games.

Iowa St 3 points
ASU 8 points
TCU 6 points
BYU 1 point
Houston 3 points

Then Az by 13 and Colorado by 25

I would argue that with even a slight offensive improvement we win most of those losses, so if you want reasons to think positive, then look at how awful our O was and how close our games still were.

I see our offense improving quite a bit from last year, if our D stays solid(with Whitt and Scalley, I don’t see a huge drop off), then we should look forward to a fun year. Last year was the exception, not the norm. Obviously we could end being awful, but no reason to assume that at this point.

I think we will be better if the culture is better. Last year was just off in the locker room and it translated to mayhem everywhere else. I am more optimistic than most because I think some of the locker room cancer issues might have been resolved.

To help you feel better about 2025 Football: You’re going to have a great time watching your favorite team play a game you love!!! The fans will be loud, hanging out with your football friends/family will be a blast, and every gameday will be a day to look forward to and enjoy, surrounded by screaming fans, good friends, family, and food.

Go Utes!!!

I’ve been a fan my whole life and I’m 54. Wilson was the worst QB I have ever watched in a Utes uniform. The running game was average & the play calling poor. Not sure how good Dampier is, but anyone, myself included, is better than Wilson. Wilson was so bad he would have been third string at Weber State.

The defense was solid but never got a rest thanks to Wilson. Because Wilson sucked that bad.

If the D is solid and Dampier is above average, the Utes could turn it around quick.

shon, you need to pay a little more attention to the games! blame Ludwig for Wilson poor play. offense has been pathetic for past two years. this has very little to do with QB and a lot to do with the play calling.

After the last few years, I am going to be more cautiously optimistic rather than blindly confident.

That said, until proven otherwise, we should expect the defense to have a strong baseline. On the offensive side, everyone’s been really high on Dampier thus far. If he can show out against a conference that doesn’t prioritize defense, they should score points.

The biggest question mark everyone should have is Dampier’s health. Even ignoring Rising, all of our other QBs have gotten injured over the last few years. Whether it’s the fault of the players, the offensive system, the strength & conditioning staff, or some combination of everything, we’ve seen how QB injuries can derail a season. IMO their season will depend on the health of QB1. If they have a relatively injury-free season, I think they will be right in the mix for the CCG.

Take this with an enormous grain of salt, as I have zero insider knowledge, but Lud’s system seemed to either work exceptionally well (averages of 35+ ppg in the two healthy Rising years) or not at all. Zach Wilson saying Utahs offense was resembling that of an NFL offense might have hinted at the playbooks being the size of a small car. Not great for the portal era.

Defense should be fine. Scalley laid an egg against Colorado, but that was about it unless there’s another camo jersey game that trauma has scrubbed from my memory. The inexperience and new faces do worry me, but the sliver of hope I have is that Lander and the safety group have been the ones making adjustments in the past; these are not inexperienced groups. Corner seems to have a focus on size and height, which isn’t meaningful in itself, but maybe something that can help once we start the season.

No game this season was as bad as unlv -utah 2007
i drove five hours through two delays on the freeway to get that stink fest. i had somoni yell September dawn at me walking out to the car. the only redeeming thing was the Polynesian guy punching the fan while he was handcuffed by police, and getting arrested himself. The guy had that walked up the stairs with his Nevada license plate taunting the ute fans. It was funny.

I would also submit utah tcu 2009 was worse than any game this year.