Nice breakdown ALUF. I was ready to mortgage my house last year to attend the CFP games. Reality was a wake up call. I think we have reversed roles with BYU. They used the disrespect and lack of success in 2023 as motivation. Now we have the same motivation they had last year. BYU has the target on their backs now. Whittingham loves the underdog role.
It will come down to who can stay healthy and has depth in critical positions. Our weight training and physical style of play leads to more injuries. For me it’s pin the tail on the donkey. Blindfolded the tail can appear anywhere on the donkey. Last year proved it. I hope the tail appears on the head for us and the tail for BYU where it belongs. We should be a little more prepared to make adjustments in year 2 of the Big 12.
Per Fox News, Utah has officially selected the Interlocking UU’s as a logo, to replace the designation of “The U”.
This ‘to differentiate and distinguish ourselves’ from other institutions, such as the University of Miami.
Obviously, and sadly, UU has not copyrighted the term “The U”, but historically, they are the originals using the term since 1907.
They say the term is often confused with the University of Miami.
They did state that existing Block U may continue to be used (for now?) They stated that money will not be spent at this time to change all Block U’s to the interlocking U’s.
A 2023 survey stated that 96% of Utahns recognize the Block U as a logo for The University of Utah.
The new logo, interlocking red U’s, and will have the name “Utah” below it to make sure people recognize it.
Linky
Wilson was no where in the stratosphere of play maker, especially that 2015 season. Utah’s offense under Wilson was generally middling. Under BJ, Huntley and Rising, it was on a completely different level than anything we ever saw consistently under Wilson. I’ll concede of the game managers, Wilson was the best but he was far closer to the likes of Hays and Barnes than he was BJ, Huntley and Rising.
Just look at the stats (passing rank and TD rank for each QB):
2008: Brian Johnson (26th in passing, 14th in touchdowns)
2015: Travis Wilson (77nd in passing, 81st in touchdowns)
2019: Tyler Huntley (30th in passing, 53rd in touchdowns)
2022: Cam Rising (33rd in passing, 24th in touchdowns)
And now to compare to Barnes:
2023: Bryson Barnes (108th in passing, 92nd in touchdowns)
Like I said, Wilson was definitely the strongest of the game managers but he absolutely was a game manager in 2015. You don’t rank 81st in touchdowns thrown if you’re a play maker. You just don’t.
But let’s also remember why we’re having this discussion: BJ was referred to as a game manager. Not sure how you can call BJ a game manager with those numbers and turn around and say Wilson was a play maker. Johnson was far more successful in 2008 than Wilson and again, it really isn’t close. Wilson never sniffed the top 50 in passing or touchdowns, while the others easily did so.
It’s also talent that isn’t decimated by not staying healthy. Cam is a great example of this. He was not healthy for all of 2022. He came out of that USC game seriously banged up and the injury lingered with him the rest of the season (forced him out of the Wazzu game that year and was a big reason Utah lost to Oregon in Eugene as he struggled in that game). But Cam was such a force that even with a lingering injury, he was able to lead Utah to a win over SC to win the Pac-12 (who was also battling an injury at QB).
I’d also say luck is in play too. Cam’s injury in 2022 would have cost Utah a shot at the Pac-12 had Oregon not blown a 34-17 fourth quarter lead vs the Beavers.
I’ll say this: in the post-MWC era, injuries are way more part of the game because the talent is significantly more consistent. In 2008, once you got out of the early preseason and the grind of the regular season, Utah had only two games where they faced a team anywhere near their level: TCU and BYU. The grind just didn’t exist. The gap between Utah and UNLV or Wyoming or New Mexico was much wider than any gap Utah has seen since leaving the MWC.
Oklahoma State, the worst team in the Big 12 last year, is still essentially clustered with Utah in overall talent compared to say UNLV in the MWC back in 2008. Because the talent is deeper,likely stronger and overall better, the grind will wear every team down. It’s inevitable. The good teams compensate. The bad teams collapse. We compensated enough in 2023, but collapsed in 2024.
Utah fans should expect that Dampier will be injured this season. The question is whether he’ll be able to overcome it like Rising in 2022 or fall to it like Travis Wilson in 2015 (assuming it’s not a season-ending injury).
I’m saying Whitt had very high expectations for Utah entering 2024 and it was a big reason he even came back after the 2022 season (everything was predicated on a healthy Cam, which he didn’t get in 2023 but fully expected in 2024).
Whitt fully bought into the idea that Utah was the favorite to win the Big 12 last year and make the playoffs. Had they done that, he was set to hang it up.
Jacob Patrick
Patrick is a 21-year-old shooting guard who hails from Ludwigsburg, Germany.
The 6-foot-6, 192-pounder played five seasons with MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg in the German Basketball Bundesliga, Germany’s top pro basketball league.
This past season, he averaged 9.0 points, 2.1 rebounds and 0.6 assists in 23.9 minutes per game.
During the 2023-24 season, he was one of two players in the BBL to shoot better than 50% from the field, 40% from 3 and 90% from the free-throw line.
Jacob Patrick
Well said, Miami. This echos my feelings.
For the first time in my life, I am thinking of taking a step back in my fandom. The 2024 season was very painful, and the 2023 season was not a lot better. I enjoyed the 1975 1-10 season more than this last season. This may seem odd, but the expectations were limited back in 75.
I have no idea what the 2025 season will bring. I hope we see a team that is united and plays well; I do not expect our Utes to win the conference championship. I want to see an offense that can score points. 🙂
‘Just fine’ is the key.
Literally a poster in this thread said 8-4 would be a disappointment. If your framing of Utah’s success is calling 8-4 a disappointment, then you need to recalibrate things.
Utah will be just fine in the sense I believe they’ll be competitive and likely push for a bowl game – probably even make a bowl game.
But I’d wager the most realistic ‘just fine’ scenario for this team is closer to 2023 than 2022.
Yet some are predicting 9-3 as the expectation and that they’re 11-1 with a few breaks.
That’s crazy. Utah might go 9-3 but that will be the result of a few breaks. 11-1 should not be anywhere near Utah fans’ vocabulary. It reeks of delusion.
Not sure, but Pope Francis didn’t ever go back to visit Argentina (did visit other SA countries). Although he grew up and studied in the US, most of time he has been in Peru (becoming a naturalized citizen) and then on to Rome in 2023 when he became Cardinal. Seems like he wasn’t generally on the list of top ‘favorites’ but is centrist, maybe a compromise between the progressives that would take Francis’ path even further vs the conservatives who want to take things back several decades.
All I know is that he’s a Covid player…he started at BYU in 2020, transferred to Utah in 2021, transferred to UCONN in 2022, transferred back to Utah in 2023, and hasn’t played a down the last two seasons. Hard to see how, after five college football seasons where he hasn’t even played in a game, he’s anything more than a footnote or an afterthought. Stranger things have happened, but, for athletes, usually the most consistent predictor of future success is past performance.
Utah @ 
UCLA 
