Search Results for '2023'

[The Miami Ute]

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.

[Caleb]

Yes. Whitt is the reason fans could not trust what was going on because he has to live this secret code that gives his team zero advantage.

I never agreed with the fans who started going after Cam but the coaches did him no services by teasing his return with goofy, “well we sure hope Cam plays…” week after week.

In fact, Cam actually forced Whitt’s hand during the 2023 season with his interview on Bill O’Reilly’s Show. Cam was pretty open, much to the chagrin of the coaches, about how severe his injury was after we spent weeks being told he was just a week away. Surprise, within a few days of that interview, Whitt announces Rising is out for the season.

Last year was a bit different because they didn’t expect him to be out the season like they likely thought the year before. But it was still a game and felt like an exact repeat of the year before.

Whitt plays these games and it just sets the team up to fail.

[The Miami Ute]

I’m hoping someone, probably Rising, eventually writes a tell-all book about what happened behind the scenes during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. I’m guessing that if he does, it won’t paint many people within the program in a good light. I can only refer to what I, and others like Chingiskhan, said once we found out, in early summer 2023, the extent of Rising’s Rose Bowl injury; that Utah should have said “Thanks for all you’ve done, Cam,” and moved in another direction at that point. But that didn’t happen. Why? Well, that’s an easy answer. It didn’t happen because Utah was addicted to the glory that Cam brought to it, and Cam was addicted to the million-dollar NIL payday that playing QB for the Utes brought him. It was a mutually destructive relationship that essentially sabotaged two complete football seasons for the program. But hey, I’m still a fan, I still have season tickets, and I still hope that the team does something special in 2025.

[2008 National Champ]

Rick, I think you’re making my point with the 2020 injury. Whitt didn’t have to announce Rising’s injury, but it was made clear that it was season ending. We all moved on to the next option instead of speculating on when QB1 would be back.

Counter that with 2023 where after 4 weeks of “he’s splitting 1st team reps” and “we’re doing everything we can to get him on the field”, they went to the extreme of suiting Rising up at Oregon State for pre-game warmups. Which, as we found out ~ 3 weeks later, was all a ruse because he still hadn’t been fully cleared by his surgeon.

I hold no ill will towards Rising and I am still glad Whitt is coaching Utah. But this has all been a self-inflected error. So, to circle back to @Asmitty, both Rising and Whitt were willing participants in the subterfuge(s).

[2008 National Champ]

I’m not sure that’s necessarily true about making his life a living hell, but if it was it was enabled by the way his injury and his previous injury were handled. Both in 2023 and 2024 the word from Whitt and the rest of the staff was that he was always a game-time decision. And since a “large group of our fan base” takes every word that comes out of Whitt’s mouth as holy writ, when he wouldn’t play in games he became the focus of those same fans’ ire.

The policy of not talking about injuries unless they are season ending has bitten Whitt on the tookus the last 2 years and I’ve never seen it be the competitive advantage that he seems to think it is.

[22Ute22]

After his mediocre spring ball performance, and given that Beck doesn’t utilize TE’s much, I don’t think this is a huge loss. He was also never able to bulk up to the needed weight. As it stands, he’s 6’5” 232. He’s always had a tweener build like Kuithe, but was never able to become a big part of the offense like Kuithe. Obviously that wasn’t All his fault. 2023 and 2024 obviously were terrible years for us offensively due to Cam’s injuries, but even with that taken into account, he’s done nothing special. Vaki in 2023 was able to, halfway through the season, be a much more impactful member of the offense than King ever was. Good players shine regardless of their circumstances. If King was truly a good TE, he would have more contributions than he had. I am curious to see where he goes though. I can’t imagine many P4 teams will take him as a TE unless they desperately need bodies.

[Rick]

Interesting perspective Caleb. I think you fit into “we suck no matter what category” with that response.

Having watched the team a little in spring and spoken with a few insiders, I think the floor is 7-5 and the ceiling is 10-2. Utah is capable of defeating everyone on our schedule and losing to five or six of them, but only if injuries become a significant factor again. As much as I’d like to say that won’t happen again, we said after the 2023 season and then 2024 happened.

The parts are in place to sit back and enjoy this season. The offense is going to be interesting to watch and over-analyze as we tend to do. I don’t get Proud’s angst about the defense. I see talent everywhere – every position group and good depth. I do think the defensive line has something to prove this season, including depth at defensive end; but I sure like the guys lining up as starters right now.

Proud asks about playmakers. How many do you need? I think Fano, Barton, Damuni, Hall, Johnson and Davis will all be playmakers – perhaps even in that order. I think there are three or four more we could list and a few more who will emerge. By the way, I shouldn’t omit the defensive tackles but if they do their job, Barton, Damuni and Hall will make a lot of plays. I have all kinds of optimism for the defense.

On offense, if your best playmaker is the quarterback, you’re in pretty good shape. We saw that when Rising was healthy. Of course, he had terrific tight end play both of those years and a good to great running game. I see parallels to that this season – best playmaker at quarterback, a tight end room that looks good coming out of spring and a remade running back room that looks good. It will be great if Parker meets expectations. All of these position groups depend upon an offensive line that features a first-round tackle and a future high-level draft tackle at each end.

I don’t think we’ll win every game but we’ll win a lot.

[Anfernee]

The last time we played a young 5⭐️ QB from UCLA was 2023. Dante Moore was 15/35 for 234 yards. 6.7 yards per pass average. 1 touchdown and 1 pick 6 by Karene Reid. He had a QBR of 7.8 Morgan and company should 🍽️ 😋

[krindor]

As someone who follows both teams, here’s my thoughts – starting with the offense

QB: Slight Utah Lean…but with extremely High Variance
BYU had a great season last year, but a lot of it was despite Retzlaff instead of because of him. He definitely had moments where he rose to the occasion, but he also led the conference in interceptions and hurt the team a lot when he made big mistakes.

Dampier is clearly more electric and may be better than Retzlaff….if he’s everything he’s cracked up to be. CBS Sports ranks Dampier as a top 10 returning QB from last year. The caveat is the jump in competition, and it’s hard to put him above a proven commodity yet. The upside is certainly higher, but so is the downside until we see something. I’ll give the slight lean to Utah here, but no outcome would be too surprising and I really wouldn’t argue with almost any take here.

RB: BYU Advantage
Utah brings in Wayshawn Parker who was one of the best RB in the portal and had 735 yards with 5.4 ypc. He’s the clear #1 and guys behind him have either a proven track record or a high ceiling…but generally not both

BYU counters with LJ Martin who had 718 yards on 5.2 ypc…which puts him pretty close to Parker. Arguments between the two can be made either way – Martin did it against better competition, but Parker did it as a true freshman, whereas Martin was a sophomore (and had a correspondingly better line). Martin also has had quite a history of nagging injury. If it were just a Parker-Martin comparison, I’d give it a slight advantage to Martin for those reasons, but BYU also has more established quality backups in Moa and Haunga so they take this category with a bit more room to spare

WR: Major advantage BYU
This isn’t (or shouldn’t be) a surprise. BYU is fairly loaded at WR with lots of high-end and demonstrated performers. Chase Roberts is the headliner (and somehow still doesn’t get enough credit from the BYU fan base), but with Marion, Phillips, and Kingston, BYU also has multiple other guys who’ve shown they can play at this level. Add in a couple high end youngsters who BYU is really excited about (Hagen, McKenzie) and BYU’s biggest issue at WR is having enough targets to go around.

Utah has largely opted for quantity at the WR position, bringing in a LOT of options and trusting (hoping?) that a few of them will step up. There’s absolutely some exciting possibilities there and I know we all love Zacharyus Williams….but for now, the Utah WR room remains mostly projection.

TE: Push
On the one hand, this is clearly a BYU advantage since Carsen Ryan was the leading TE for Utah last year and is now on BYU. But Carsen Ryan has also never had as many receptions as even the 14 that Landen King got in 2023 (Ryan’s career high is 13). There’s a lot of justifiable excitement in BYU camp about Ryan and an expectation that he’ll take the next step…but if we’re looking at spring hype, then Utah also gets credit for the excitement around redshirt freshman Hunter Andrews or Dallin Bentley (who is also getting rave reviews in spring, despite only 3 receptions in 2 years so far). Carsen Ryan gets the slight edge over any one of Bentley, King, or Andrews…but Utah’s superior depth at the position is enough to push it to an effective tie. We’ll see where the spring hype is justified, but until Ryan and/or Bentley and/or Andrews live up to (or fail to live up to) the hopes, I’ll call this a push.

OL: Utah major advantage
Let’s start at the bookends. Utah has two tackles who are likely to be drafted (both possibly very early) with Fano and Lomu. BYU is replacing both starters. On the interior, Utah brings every player back and has several high end backups. BYU has more turn over.

That’s not to say that BYU’s cupboard is bare. Jatta played well in limited time as a RS last year, Gentry had time starting at Michigan pre-injury, Lapuaho looked very good last year, Mitchell was a solid injury replacement for Pay, and so on. But there’s some losses and some new pieces. That said, Utah getting the advantage here is less about BYU and more about what Utah has across the OL.

[NarfUte]

The practice jerseys have been this way for years. see 2023:

https://utahutes.com/news/2023/8/3/football-2023-camp-kyle-hear-it-from-the-players-week-1