Never in my life did I think I'd ever see a piece like this from Gordon Monson.

[leftyjace]

And there’s a lot of truth in it too.

He even tactfully avoids the issues with Bronco Mendenhall, and avoids praising Whit a little too much.

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/2017/09/05/monson-is-there-a-talent-gap-between-utah-and-byu-yes-yes-there-is/

Goodness. Goodness gracious. That’s a flippin’ awesome op-ed. Even if every BYU fan out there thinks it’s shiz.

[Tony (admin)]

I can’t stand Monson but I guess it is so obvious that he has to admit it. Plus he knows he’ll get a lot of traffic by ruffling the zoobie’s feathers.

[gUrthBrooks]

He loves BYU…he’s building an excuse for the program losing its 7th in a row so the devastation can be minimized among his BYU loving fan base. He is right….he’s setting up the David and Goliath scenario should BYU win.

[RiseasUtes]

I dont think anyone in the state likes Monson.  He is always so negative towards both Utah and byu.  Im not sure I understand his schtick and why it is he still has a job doing what he does.  He talks a lot without really saying anything at all.  

[PlainsUte]

So he’s crediting ACT scores and the Honor Code for the talent gap?

[mpute]

You’re right, Plains, among the other facts he mentioned:

– quality of coaches/recruiting/development of players

– conference affiliation

– are there even enough Mormon players wanting to go to BYU?  –> “Are there enough clean-living, faith-espousing, Book of Mormon-believing, scripture-reading, religion-class-attending, hallelujah-shouting, Eagle-Scout-achieving, weed-and-booze-avoiding, short-hair-wearing, smooth-face-appearing great athletes on the planet to level out the playing field for BYU?”

[PorterRockwell]

I carding point. Umber three you make. The resounding asnwer is no

[ironman1315]

Some one is on the sauce early. 😜

[Chidojuan]

Ooo! He card reads good!

[EagleMountainUte]

Thanks for the summary I was curious enough to almost click on the link. I don’t want Monson to even have my traffic dude is a dinosaur and should be out of work. 

[Puget Ute]

Yes, of course they could field that team. But it is going to be competitive at the MWC or AAC level.

[UM4G]

My favorite was this guy

Point being, I believe Utah is every bit as talented as LSU minus 13 scholarship players, and I believe Saturdays game result will prove it

Are you nutz? Utah is more talented than BYU and closer to LSU than BYU but that does not mean that Utah’s talent level is closer to LSU than it is to BYU. Utah would have been manhandled by LSU as well. Not to the same degree as BYU but there is no way in heck they can stack up to teams like LSU on a consistent basis. They do not face that level of competition through out their season.

Alabama is about the only team in the SEC I don’t think our Utes could keep up with right now. I’ll agree that our depth across the board is not equal to LSU, Alabama, or Auburn, but we’re definitely getting there, we wouldn’t have been manhandled by them, it would have been a close game IMO. As for not stacking up to teams like LSU on a consistent basis? We do it every year in the PAC when we play USC, UW, Oregon, Stanford, etc.

[shakeitsugaree]

Hi @UM4G – welcome!

[UM4G]

Thanks!

[TheNuschler]

@um4g and that the Utes have beaten every one of those four. Stanford hasn’t beaten Utah since joining the Pac 12.

[Ute1998]

Let’s remove BYU-P from the schedule and put LSU on it so we can find out!

[89ute]

Talent gap, yes, it huge. What we need to keep in perspective as a P5 and Pac-12 program is that this same talent gap exists between us, USC, Oregon and UW.

Where we’re at now, we have to somehow wiggle around USC to win the south, then we get served up to the north champ like every south champ before us.

Unlike every south champ before us, we need to continue to build with blue chip recruits. No team has done anything without at least 40 active blue chips recruits on the roster.

I just can’t get excited about putting away BYU. We should, we have and we will.

As fans it’s time to focus on what matters. THE PAC-12.

The media will follow and it looks like they are ready to come along.

[COFfrom83]

I think we’ll have a hard time not paying attention to this game as long as chris hill keeps it on the schedule. time to move on. play out the current contract then be done. Want an in-state rivalry game? Battle of the Brothers is a much more fun, and clean, and more historic rivalry. tell the legislature what they can do with their phony audits when we drop the zoobs.