For many athletes their allegiance is not to the institution, not academics, and not to “family”, but rather to the almighty dollar.
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Switching subjects, I think I’d like to see Fresno State beat Kansas in Lawerence on Saturday August 23rd (FOX, 4:30 p.m. Mountain). It will be the first game played after the Jayhawks major expansion and refurbishment of their stadium. Plus I have a soft spot for MWC teams desperately trying to hang with schools at the next level of the D-I athletic industrial complex.
Browsing at schedules, Nebraska’s first five games are at home, and they only have four away games.
I will never understand how some Utah fans have such a hate-boner for Rising. Without Rising, Utah has zero Pac-12 titles, no Rose Bowl appearance and Whittingham is probably long gone with how that 2021 season was shaping out. He literally stepped in and elevated Utah football unlike any other quarterback sans two: Alex Smith and Brian Johnson. And even then, only Smith was able to do what Rising did here: win two conference titles.
Rising was a powerhouse in the locker room and still remains best friends with a ton of players (many still on the team). None of what you said has any level of truthfulness.
The culture slipping? Look at the Head Man. He was the one who downplayed the severity of Rising’s injury in 2023, letting Rising take a lot of heat from ungrateful fans who spread rumors that he was sitting his chubby ass out and collecting a cool million in NIL incentive. It wasn’t until Rising finally called Whitt’s bluff and went on Bill O’Reilly discussing his injury and how bad it actually was – which was not sanctioned by Whitt – that led him to swallow his pride and finally admit Rising was out for the season (like a week later, or maybe even days later, I can’t recall, Whitt officially declared he was done for the season). And that’s not to say Rising’s relationship with Whitt soured (though he was always closer to Ludwig since Lud recruited him). But Whitt played games all year in 2023, and then again in 2024 and Rising’s image took a hit – not within the locker room, mind you, but with fans like you.
Beyond that, Rising was not game-ready for that ASU game. He had no business taking the field but because he’s a competitor and wanted to get out there, and Whitt saw the season going down the tube, he played. Whitt should have firmly said no and ended the charade instead of putting Rising at risk for further injury (and well…).
Rising led Utah to arguably the two most impressive seasons in school history (cumulative, when you factor in winning the Pac-f**king-12 twice). He’s a legend and never once lost the team or the locker room.
This may have one of the most bulls**t posts to ever show up on this site. You have no clue and probably bl ed blue. Cam is a warrior who had his opportunity stolen by trying too hard. You are not a Ute fan and should not post here again as you are not only a fool but an asshole.
I agree w/ a lot of the underlying points you’re both making, but I still think development of high school recruits (many of which will end up being 3-stars for Utah) is an important, if not essential, part of building a good team.
Important players we developed as 3-stars out of high school on last year’s team: Micah Bernard, Johnathan Hall, Tao Johnson, Connor O’Toole, Karene Reid, Junior Tafuna, etc. We only won 5 games last year. Without these players, we might’ve only won 1-2 and there would’ve been a lot more blowouts than just the Colorado game. If we include 4-stars we developed out of high school, then add Spencer Fano, Caleb Lomu, Smith Snowden, Lander Barton, etc. (i.e. all of our best players this coming year). Sure, these obviously played and made important contributions their freshman year, but they were still freshman and needed development to get to where they are today.
Look at BYU’s team last year. Mostly built from under-appreciated 3-star high school recruits that they developed.
And I also disagree that it’s not worth developing a 3-star athlete into an all-conference player. If they get to that level, then we will have gotten a fantastic ROI on them even if they leave after their sophomore or junior year. This is no different than what used to happen where you might develop a great player who leaves for the NFL after his junior year. Keanu Tanuvasa was still a positive ROI for us based on the three years we had him (particularly the last two). Cam Calhoun is maybe the prime example of a guy we helped develop who then jumped elsewhere for the money (but we only had him for one year so it wasn’t a massive investment on our part).
You just have to accept that some of those guys you develop will inevitably leave. If you’re losing most of those guys, then yes I agree. What other good players did we lose to the portal who we invested a lot into development?
I’ve been saying since Utah got in to the Pac-12 that it’s unbelievable that Utah is the only school that brings in WR’s and they ALL underperform. All you have to do is look at a school like WSU where they routinely bring in high 2*, low 3 *’s and they become all conference. It’s not the skill level of the player, it’s how you utilize them. And since Utah has only been interested in downfield blockers for the last 15+ years, it’s no wonder that room has consistently underwhelmed in the passing game.
I’ll also throw out that Utah doesn’t have the financial luxury of developing a player anymore. You can’t invest all the time and energy taking a three-star recruit and turning them into an all-conference star because other programs are going to throw a ton of green their way and Utah likely won’t be able to compete with a lot of them. They for sure will keep some but what we saw this last off-season will be the norm: unheralded players blowing up and getting picked off. To be fair, Utah will do it to some poor program too.
But we’ve got to be of the mindset that a new recruit is here for two seasons and two seasons only. You can’t be developing them for those two seasons or you’re getting very little in return at that point. And if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get two more seasons out of them.
If Whitt is to be believed, Utah will mirror New Mexico last year more than what many here are suggesting. He flat-out said it will be the same offense Beck ran with the Lobos. New Mexico wasn’t a pass-first team but they were far more aggressive through the air than we’ve seen for most of Whitt’s time at Utah. The Lobos last year finished just behind BYU (61st I think) in passing yards per game. Utah has only managed a better ranking twice under Whitt since leaving the MWC (2017 and 2022).
So, if Whitt is being honest, I would expect more passing than we’re generally used to.
I might be misunderstanding you with the Sugar Bowl comment. Are you using it as an example of a non-traditional Whitt offense? Or an example of what he likes to do? Because the game vs Alabama was not a run-first offense. They ran hurry up and picked apart the Tide early through the air. I think Whitt knew he couldn’t establish the run vs their dline and knew the only chance they had was to run a pass-first hurry up offense.
On Utah’s first three drives, they had 14 pass attempts and only three rushes (one was a two-yard TD run from Asiata set up by a 30 yard pass from BJ to David Reed, and another was a run by BJ – so only two handoffs on their first three drives).
That offense caught Alabama off guard because it was so out of character from what Utah ran that season.
I disagree with the notion that we have a right to know. We as fans, want all the info all the time. However, the only thing we are owed, is maximum effort from the players and the coaches to win the game.
I miss the days OnlyU was more active on this site.
Utah @ 
UCLA 
