Best South champ ever …

[ProudUte]

Jon Wilner, a reporter for The Mercury News, reasoned Monday that this year’s South champ is likely the best of all other South winners since the conference started. Looking at the past winners’ path to claiming the division title, Wilner found that Utah had the most challenging cross-divisional schedule.

“Seeking context on Utah’s accomplishment, the Hotline examined the paths traveled by the seven previous South winners and found the Utes can credibly claim to have faced the most challenging cross-division schedule,” Wilner wrote.

[jamarcus24]

This dude confuses me.  He dogs Utah and our fans a lot yet he hypes the football team just a shot much.  His schtick puzzled me.

[stonguse]

Ute fans have this small conference mentality that leads to a lot of people getting mad whenever a reporter writes something negative. The reason for this is we used to have to fight for table scraps for recognition. We needed to claw our way into BCS games. We don’t have to do that anymore.

[Utah]

He admires the coaches and program, but a certain subset of BYU/Utah fans…he could do without. 

[Anonymous]

People under the guise of Ute fans say the rudest things to him just because he voices sometimes unpopular or controversial opinions. I don’t really follow him that closely, but the things I have read from him have been pretty good.  I think he gives every team a pretty fair, objective opinion.

[SkinyUte]

His AP ballots are typically nuts, especially with regards to Utah. His last ballot had us at 23, and he makes some consistently wacky picks.

[utefansince79]

At some point there was (may still be) a site that micro-analyzes all the teams and voters, among other things, breaks down what voters deviated the most from the average ranking for teams and Wilner is usually the voter with the most extreme votes for the most teams and it isn’t even close. 

[Anonymous]

I don’t know about his votes but his commentary is usually pretty good. 

[stonguse]

And in 2015, he had us at #2 before we collapsed. He doesn’t have an axe to grind.

[Tony (admin)]

I would read the post, but I need an electron microscope and I’m fresh out.

[Warrior Ute]

I don’t get that he thinks we are the best South champion. In fact he says that would be USC in 2017. 

He started that we had the most difficult path.  The 4 North conference teams we played were the top 4 in n the North.  Only one other team had to deal with that.  In addition we lost our starting QB and RB for November.  He argued that our accomplishment is the most impressive.

[gothamute]

^this

[Hellhound152]

Wilner has come around.  When we first entered the league he was the “not competitive for a decade and no Rose Bowl for 25 years if ever” guy.  

[Tacoma Ute]

You lost me at “Wilner”.