Perspective

[123punt]

Like everyone, I was disappointed by the 2nd half.  The turnovers were brutal.  Some of the positions are clearly below the rest of the team.  I get the frustration a lot of you are feeling and I am and have been right there with you (I swore after traveling to the Notre Dame game I would never watch the Utes again lol). 

I’m not sure any of us were sure what our expectations were coming into the season.  But, naturally after last year’s high of nearly cracking the rose bowl, it’s easy for us to still be disappointed.

While we all want to see our team excel, I think there are a lot of factors to keep in mind.  We lost A TON of talent and experience last year.  Some of the weaknesses that plagued us last year still look to be work in progress (O-line).  We’ve already lost our starting QB to injury.  Additionally, this season brings a strange set of circumstances with limited practices, uncertain schedules and lack of being able to game-plan, position group depletion due to COVID, etc.

That said, the team is showing it has potential.  I’m excited by the raw talent.  The first half of the UW game gave us a glimpse what this team is capable of.  We may not put all the pieces together this year, maybe not even next year.  But, I like the trajectory we’re on.  I’m going to try and be more supportive of the coaches and players.  This has certainly been a challenging year for them.  Does that excuse everything?  No.  But I’m going to be a bit more patient and trust in their continual improvement and overall trajectory.

I appreciate the time and dedication everyone on the team puts in.  It’s great to finally feel like football season is here and we can actually watch them play.  Hopefully they’re able to play their remaining games and the team continues to improve.  Either way, I’m going to enjoy it and keep cheering them on.  GO UTES!

[UteBacker]

Great post, 123.  I think the level of disappointment is in direct correlation to the expectation of this year’s team.  There are a few of us on here that think we are going to struggle considering how many of of our guys from last year are now on NFL rosters.  I think it’ll be 2022 before we see the next great Ute team.  There are some on here that have the expectation that Utah will simply reload and be good to go.  I don’t think our program is quite to that level (yet).  By the way, there is no wrong or right on the expectation thing.  Maybe I should have a higher expectation of this program, but I’ve been a fan for way too long to think the Utes should be able beat SC and Washington in our first two games during a rebuild.  It does kind of p**s me off that we couldn’t score 4 points in a half of football though…

[MDUte]

Great posts 123 and Backer. It might not be a popular opinion amongst fans but I’ve always felt that this year is basically a throw away season due to Covid. And so I have always thought this crazy pandemic year was a benefit to us since expectations aren’t high like they were last year and we can get our youngsters experience when it really doesn’t matter (I’m sure many will disagree with this sentiment)…just my opinion. But this would give us a better chance to be solid in 2021 and look towards another “special” season in 2022 as Backer mentioned. I totally agree that we aren’t at the level yet where we can simply “reload” and expect similar results year in and year out. That’s reserved for teams that consistently finish in the Top 10 of recruiting classes…not sure if we could ever get to that level, but it would be amazing if we continue the trajectory towards a Top 20 class year in and year out. Our coaching staff has been doing great work to continue improving our recruiting YoY and push us into the Top 30. That still means we’ve got to continue developing guys and building towards “special” seasons. If you would’ve told me even 5 years ago that we’d be landing dudes like Jaylon Johnson, Clark Philips III, and now Ethan Calvert, I wouldn’t have believed it. I for one don’t want to forget how far we’ve come in such a short period of time. It is a great day to be a Ute fan and the best is still yet to come….go Utes!!