So tired of all the ire toward this game being scheduled and who should play

[UteDuke]

I am as excited as any that we will be playing in the conference championship game in two weeks, but I am really surprised at all the complaints concerning this game and whether or not the starters should play. Does everyone serious not realize how PERFECTLY this has all set up? Consider these points:

1. Having sheduled this game at the end of the season allowed us to wrap up the division a week early, giving us a full extra week with the knowledge that we are champions and putting us in the right mindset to prepare. Our North division counterpart will not have that! The hangover could be deadly for them.

2. The fact that we play an unimportant game at the end of the year ALLOWS us to rest our starters. That wouldn’t even be an option if we ended with a conference game!

3. This game doesn’t matter, and that is fantastic! I believe we can beat BYU doing what we have done all year, meaning we just gained extra time to prepare for the championship. We put Kyle in a bowl game prep scenario, and we all know how effective he is with those! Shelley and Shyne will get much needed experience and can take some risks and better identify their strengths and limits.

4. The Washington teams will be required to give it their very best and lay all their cards on the table to come out victorious. We will have excellent film on them. We are not in the same situation. We could install all sorts of new wrinkles. Troy Taylor could even throw out some new twists in the BYU game that would be risky under different circumstances, but will cause the Apple Cup winner to have to game plan for those looks.

In summary, Chris Hill made this work beautifully! He set the Utes up not just to play in a conference championship in a difficult schedule year, but to actually have several advantages! The starters will play as much as they need to play to keep them sharp, and not a minute more. Can you ask for a better setup than that?

 

[Anonymous]

I hate them. When we play them, we help them. I don’t want to help them.

[Utah]

I think this is more the reason for all the debate this week. If we were playing any other 6-5 G5 school, we’d all be so happy for the scrimmage before the title game. 

It’s not the game, it’s who the game is against. 

[User Suspended]

DING DING! CORRECT ANSWER!

[UtahFanSir]

The best, most righeous way to rest the first string…Utah bolts out to a commanding lead early. The second and third string get to experience this nasty “rivalry” game first hand. I say the Utes need to do that to address the question at hand.

It is disappointing to have so many whine on about playing BYU, and playing them at this time of year. This time of year is when the Utes always played BYU. So why not now? And the game is on the schedule, like it or not. The SEC has similarly scheduled games, going into their conference championship game. Why not Utah? I mean the local interest is huge.

BYU has played three Pac-12 teams already and beaten one of them. They probably think they are already in the Pac-12 given that Utah will be fourth Pac-12 team they will meet this season. And they played and beat Wisconsin. So this Cougar team is used to playing P5 programs, and in two cases this year, they prevailed.

Why go on and on about talent disparity? Utah still cannot get the best players in the state to commit to Utah. Not all of them anyway. And BYU has players on the rooster that Utah would love to have and missed out on. Freshman QB Wilson is a case in point. That kid was a Utah fan his entire life. Do you think he is just going to rollover on Saturday evening? I don’t.

We should expect nothing less than a competitive game this weekend. BYU has more to prove than Utah and the sheer volume of bulletin board material Utah fans have provided Sitake is amazing. I mean, BYU’s coaching staff burned up three inkjet printers and ran OfficeMax out of ink cartridges printing it all up. This game is likely to be a slug fest, at least for 2-1/2 to 3 quarters. My fear is that Harline is still open.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to it. And I really hope the players don’t suffer from what us fans have this week, and come out to play big-time football. You never know what recruit may have his head turned toward Utah with a commanding win.

[EagleMountainUte]

Well it is a home game that turned into a late night game for TV and the weather is terrible. I am weighing pros and cons of it all. You can’t really try fancy little tricks in s**tty cold weather. Apple Cup winner gets to rest and have an extra day of practice and recovery. Utah won’t get done until late. 

I really hope TT is scheming for Washington or Wazzu and basically treating this like a scrimmage for either team.  

Playing TDS is bad because they are turning into a B but play you like an A. Same as NIU tough road game and they don’t even travel here. Hill did a s**t job with this schedule. All OOC should be first of the year full stop. 

[Brichaute49]

From what I understand this wasn’t just a Hill thing. The conference kind of forced the issue. Maybe I’m wrong here??

[EagleMountainUte]

Yeah the time was so ND could play USC or some s**t.

[89ute]

Hill didn’t have a damn thing to do with this other than filling a hole in the schedule created by the Pac-12.

[EagleMountainUte]

Yeah as a “favor” to the morons on the Hill and the PAC12 look how they rewarded us with scheduling. Give us two back to back roadies, so polite of them. Given us even worse officiating. 

[Toopup]

Shelly is a redshirt freshman with 2 1/4 games under his belt.  Although he hasn’t played like a freshman, getting an additional 3 or 4 quarters experience is valuable.

Whitt is right, you have a stable full of thoroughbreds, let them run.  They put in too much time in the weight room and in practice to shut them down for one of their 6 home games. 

[Ute Bc]

We don’t have a full stable at QB – that’s for damn sure.

[Dwight89]

The majority of Ute fans love the rivalry game, me included. There is a smaller, but more vocal minority that dominates the message boards and twitter feeds which makes it seem like all Ute fans don’t want to play the game. 

 

However, the rivalry game is one of college footballs best traditions and seeing it go away would be a damn shame. 

 

What i’ve vehemently disagreed with is Hill’s A,B,C model and considering BYU our “A” non conference game. BYU needs to be considered our “B” game every year.