9-3 Easily.

Love your enthusiasm. Could be a great year, could be a middling year as far as I can tell. The B12 does not have a team stacked with elite starters and elite prospects backing up the starters. So it is hard to be certain about who will succeed.

A great offensive line can make a decent QB look calm, wise, and effective. If the balls bounce our way a bit, and we stay relatively healthy, and Dampier/Beck ball out- it will be playoff time!

On the other hand, if Dampier continues his tendency to throw picks, could Whitt continue green lighting the passing attack or would we tighten up and be predictable?

If the injury bug settles in for repeated and protracted blood letting, and Dampier/Beck can’t make the transition to more competitive play- it will be meh time (and the multitudes calling for Whitt to hang it up).

I am trying to keep expectations low and optimism high. I plan on enjoying the year.

I admire your enthusiasm, I really do. But, I don’t completely agree. A couple of counterpoints.

1. We had a great Oline last season, yet … I understand our QB play was terrible. I blame the coaching staff for that.

2. Our defense lost a lot of key players. Our LB starters are good and very experienced. Our safeties should be okay. But, our Dline is thin and our CBs outside of Snowden are an unknown. This may be our weakest defense in a decade. I truly hope that they excel.

3. Our WR group is a huge question IMO.

4. I am pleased with our starting RB, but there is no depth as far as I know.

I think 9-3 is possible, because I don’t see a team that we cannot beat. But, there are maybe 2 teams on the schedule that you can book as wins. I am excited to see what our offense can do with a great Oline and a gamer at QB. It could be fun. I won’t even try to predict our record because I don’t know how they will all play together. There are too many unknowns.

Go Utes!!

9-3 seems like a stretch. There is a lot of talent in the Big12 and our schedule isn’t a cake walk. That, coupled with the instillation of a new offense is scary. I do think that we have a winnable schedule, but that is assuming our offensive system works. I don’t think anyone has doubts about defense. It’s the offense and the questions if they can keep up.

Nothing is ever easy with Utah Football. I will be drinking no koolaid. Instead I will wait and see, and hope for the best.

I’m with you on 9-3. Though not quite as enthusiastically. A whole new offense can take a while to install. It helps that we have a few people who know it already, But, its definitely a question. Also, I think the conference has some teams who have vastly improved liked Texas Tech and Baylor. That said I expect BYU and Arizona State to take a step back. Still solid teams but not Championship worthy. Iowa State, Kansas State will both be good and I think Kansas will be improved.

It’s simple: Utah has way too many questions for someone to day, “9-3 easily”. Love the optimism and I think 9-3 is possible with a few breaks but no, it’s not “easy”. That implies it’ll be the floor – and that Utah could even do better than 9-3. I’m extremely skeptical Utah can do better than 9-3 and it’s again because of the questions that we have no way of knowing the answers to at this point.

Yes, Utah’s offense will be better, which theoretically should mean they’ll be better too because, gosh, with an awful offense last season, they still managed 5-7 and probably should have been no worse than 7-5.

Great. A few things:

1. Last year’s team was bad vs bad teams. They nearly lost to Oklahoma State, got bullied by Arizona in Salt Lake and seemed lost all around vs Houston. Yes, bad offenses cost Utah two of those games, no, Utah had no business losing either, especially Arizona. Those were poor losses no matter how you cut it and indicative of a larger problem that ultimately was responsible for the poor offense (some super poor coaching). The coaching change on offense might make the world of difference but I think Whittingham has to reprove himself before I buy that 9-3 is “easy” after the last two seasons.

2. Utah had a stellar defense that kept 5-7 from being 4-8 or 3-9. That defense is largely overhauled this season talent-wise and while I expect it to be stout af this year, there’s legit concern about whether it’ll be stout right out of the gate. With all the change on offense, can Utah successfully lean into the defense while the offense finds its footing? That will be key as Utah has three season-defining games through September: @ UCLA, Texas Tech and @ WVU. While UCLA isn’t a conference game, you’ve got to think 2-1 is probably the worst they can do if they’re gonna easily hit 9-3 like you’re suggesting.

3. Utah had its easiest schedule (sos wise) last year since the MWC days and still couldn’t finish with a winning record. 2025 is likely to be harder, maybe by a lot, and that alone could mask the improvements the team sees compared to 2024.

I think the most likely best case scenario for Utah will be a 2014-like season, one where Utah made changes on the offense after another disappointing season, and bounced back to finish 8-4 before the bowl game. But even that team had some issues, including blowing a sizable halftime lead vs Wazzu (who was awful that year) in SLC and getting boat raced vs Arizona. They were inconsistent but good enough to be good enough… and I think that’s what we’re probably looking at as the better ending for Utah. In fact, I suspect this team to be extremely inconsistent for most the year. The question is whether that inconsistency costs them games vs UCLA and WVU and say the Kansas Schools, while keeping them from upsetting Texas Tech or BYU or Bsylor – or if it allows for an upset or two to offset a tough loss…like 2014’s team with wins over UCLA and USC that made up for bad losses to Wazzu and Arizona (who was good that year but the loss certainly wasn’t)?

Everything hinges on remaining relatively healthy, particularly at QB, which we know all too well from the last two years.

The best thing about DD’s time at UNM last year? He played in all 12 games AND was sacked just five times.

Hopefully, that durability/“escapability” transferred with him, as I believe we’ll have an extremely successful season, IF he remains on the field, throughout.

#GOUTES!