Overlooking UCLA?

I think that if anyone on the fan side or admin side is overlooking anyone, they should be shot

I’m 50/50 or even 60/40 (loss). They always have high talent players. It’s the first week. It’s a road game. New offense etc.

We can absolutely lose this game!

Not overlooking anyone except cal poly

After last season, we definitely can’t afford to overlook any team this year.

No way the team overlooks game 1. Guarantee it.

Not guaranteeing a win, but a loss will not be because of overlooking UCLA.

I just can’t imagine Utah overlooking UCLA- or anyone for that matter.

Last time we played (and lost) in Pasadena I remember being so frustrated that they were the more physically dominant team. If I remember right, their center was cooking our D-line. And they had DTR and Charbonnet at the time which makes for a very difficult offense to scheme against, but still, they just repeatedly punched us in the mouth and came out on top.

They have some very talented and very athletic players this year as well. Because of the bad taste in my mouth from Utah’s recent performances, I am very worried about opening up on the road against them. I think we can win, I think we SHOULD win, but I think it is going to be a very tough ball game.

If anyone is overlooking UCLA and we do end up losing, I hope they get reamed.

After the last couple of seasons, I am trying to be mentally prepared for Utah to lose every game.
After the usual overdose of off-season Kool-Aid, I am hopeful that Utah will win every game.

I know reality will be somewhere in between, but hopefully the wins (and losses) are more entertaining.

I am definitely not counting UCLA as a guaranteed win. I doubt anyone paying attention (including the team) is going to overlook UCLA.

I am with you! UCLA was not an offensive juggernaut last season but their rushing defense was in the top 5 last year in the Big10. I have no clue what our WRs will be this season and if they make us one dimensional on offense that could be trouble.

Very much want this one. College sports and conference affiliation in the entire Western part of the country is a terrible mess due largely to the LA schools heading to the Big10.

By virtue of the results of the last two years, Utah has lost the right and ability to overlook any team on their schedule, to include Cal-Poly. For me, it’s going to take a couple of successful seasons before I start getting the feeling that we can beat any team as we walk off the bus.

For all the reasons everybody already stated, I think a loss is totally possible. Much like us, they weren’t very good last year, but they weren’t terrible either (a lot of closeish games). Other than the TN QB transfer, what else did they gain/lose in the offseason?

I think it’s close to a 50/50 game, but I do think it’s more likely we win. And there’s no way Utah is overlooking it.

I’m just glad we’re playing some good non-conference programs. In our two Rose Bowl years, we had real preseason tests (and lost several of them). I think it’s better for our team to play tougher non-conference games. If we lose this one, it’s not the end of the world. It would definitely be an important step toward maintaining/improving our national respect, but it’s not a make or break game.

Seeing as how we usually come out of the gate in super slow mode, a loss to UCLA wouldn’t exactly shock me.
My hope is that the offense comes out on fire and the defense is the best we’ve ever had. My guess is we will see something a little less spectacular than that.
I think we win this one but it does look like a 55/45 type of game.

I hate to say this but I’m just trying to force myself to care at this point. I have heard that UCLA is the first game several times but I forgot that until I read this post and will probably forget it again. In years past I would take one look at the schedule and know the order of the games exactly. I hope the Utes win every game but at the end of the year if players are just going to bail and then I’ll get blamed online for not donating a ton of money to the collective, it’s just hard for me to have my usual fandom.
Like others, I have had too much to drink from the Kool Aid too. It’s just exhausting.

The 6-7 pt road spread does seem odd to me. fUCLA finished with a meh record last year, but their only badish loss was probably UW. They had a 5-game skid but come on, IU-LSU-Oregon-Penn State-Minn. Seriously? Can’t blame them for dropping the Minn game (who are a pretty good team) on the back end of that stretch. Both teams will be installing new offenses. I would call this game a toss-up, with the edge to the home team. No way the team is overlooking these guys.

I was surprised to see Utah favored by nearly 7 points.

My concern is the offense taking time to jell. Opening up on the road vs any P4 team is a challenge when there is so much uncertainty on the offensive side of the ball. I would much rather flip the Cal Poly game with this one just so that Dampier has some real game experience at Utah under his belt.

But I guess it’ll be a good indicator game. If Utah does win, I think they might be in pretty good shape as I think UCLA is on, or close to the level of teams like WVU, Colorado, Cincinnati and Kansas… maybe BYU if they struggle a bit and that, coupled with wins over Cal Poly and Wyoming, puts Utah at no worse than 7, or 8 wins outside the real tough teams (and winning out at home gets them to something special).

But a loss? While it won’t upend the season at the start, it’ll likely leave me lacking confidence in Utah getting things turned around.

Well, in the Pac UCLA didn’t seem to be a team to worry about other than on the road in 2022. What I do remember is the Rose Bowl can be quite hot early in the season so I expect it to be. Like Utah, UCLA has a lot of new pieces to get working together. Who is more in sync will have an advantage. Very likely it will be hot so the rotations of 2s will be a factor. I like Utah being set with good experienced LBs and Safeties to bother UCLA, the defense will be fine if the UCLA WRs don’t go off and the QB does not run all around. When Utah is on offense the RBs and receivers are unknown, no reason to be confident or reason to be concerned. But if the Utah OL has their way with UCLA I like Utah’s chances. If Beck can game plan at this level than it is all good. Two years with awful QB luck should not give us overwhelming PTSD, let’s just see if solving that issue returns us to the last half decade trend. I’m thinking it does.

Lots of people seem worried. I’m really not.

First, UCLA is returning 2 starting defensive players. Yikes.

Second as good as Nico May be, he didn’t wildly impress at Tennessee. He was an an amazing system that worked well for him. I don’t think he beats us. Especially in a new offense where he only is getting to work with the coaches for a few months.

I vote to replace the title of this post to “Are we worried about Wyoming”