Lots of over reactions on both sides here

[AZUteFan]

I am seeing posters calling out Harding, Whit, the OL, the QB, etc. and then on the other side, we have posters calling anyone that brings up legitimate concerns a “fair weathered” fan.  I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Ever since the Pac 12 championship loss to Oregon, there has been something that feels off around the program.  I really believe that loss took a lot out of Whit.  Almost feels similar to when Majerus lost to Kentucky in ’98.  Now I realize covid messed things up last year – a lot of external factors beyond Whit’s control, to be fair.  But 2019 was a special team and to not capitalize on that talent was a tough blow.

I think it’s ok to be critical of certain parts of the program without being a fair weathered fan.  Our “throw game” is bad.  Is it the OL, WRs, QB?  I don’t know.  I think it’s short sighted to call for a certain coach to be fired or to label Brewer a Bentley 2.0 (although some of his passes felt eerily similar to last year – can’t deny it).  

I think the old saying “you’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose” applies here.  This team is not as good as we thought coming in to the season.  However, this season is young and I think we still have enough talent to turn this thing around and compete for the South.  

[ColumbiaUte]

Agree with your points. Anyone who thinks we will beat BYU every year is delusional. They had a big week this week with the invite and just we’re more amped. Fine give them their one win in the last ten tries. Our main goal should be a pac 12 championship and it’s still within our reach! Yes there is a lot of work to be done but that’s the point of OOC schedule. Work our your kinks and see what needs to be addressed. 10/10 I would rather lose to BYU than to drop an easy game to Oregon State or Arizona because those games actually matter for use to win the south.  USC got smoked last night by Stanford so they are already down 1 game in the pac 12 standings. This division is till within reach! A lot of football left to be played. 

[Trailgoat]

Yeah, KW is not going anywhere until he decides to retire. I highly doubt considering KWs short term time as HC he will fire Harding. KW is smart enough to leave when the time is right especially if it’s in the best interest of the program. Not sure he sticks it out for more than 2-3 more years. The program definitely has a different feel since losing to UO back in 2019.

Full credit to BYU for the win, but the concering part is Utah plays 6-7 teams waaaay better than BYU. Rivalry aside, BYU completely man handled Utah on the line of scrimmage. It’s going to be a tough season if Utah does not figure out how to get motivated to play football. 

[Charlie]

When you loose the LOS, offensive or defense, there are things you do to counter that. Offense goes quick to the edge, screen passes, roll out the QB and make the DL run. The defense rolls up LBs, run blitz, come off the edge. That is all considering you are loosing the man to man engagements. The remedies get easier when loosing the LOS is due to numbers, as an example, when LBs fire into the pass rush. Now you have a defense out of position and need to take advantage of that. So many times when the Y defense calls a play they hope we stay with ‘A’ and hope we don’t go to ‘B’. And that is where you put players in the position to be successful, not simply count on studs to manhandle people. On offense, the Y absolutely counted on running Hall at 4 seconds in run or pass. Could they be hoping that we don’t ask Lloyd to spy the QB often enough to make Hall be concerned with that? There were many things in the game the Y was hoping we would not do. Did we do a good enough job of getting to those things?

I was hoping we had many things to go to when we face someone counting on us doing what we like to do. I would love to have the insight as to if we did not have those things prepared, did we not want to use them in this game, did we have communication issues, has Brewer not been given the keys to change a play, or were plays coming in late with no opportunity to read and change? I would be surprised to know we simply thought the initial game plan would work in spite of their adjustments.

Emotion and momentum play a part and they had that going. They had a greater ability to create chaos and had better reactions to chaos. We need to learn from what happened and bounce back. Good news, we just had a 3 hour lesson on how a lessor team takes down a better team. Apply some of those lessons.