The Ute Facebook discussions

[Ghost of the HEB]

This is the first year I’ve followed them, and my goodness that is a reactionary bunch.

How bout we play more than one game and see more than three series from Rising before we start proclaiming this as the worst Utah team ever.

[Ute2]

Agreed!

im chalking that mess to Covid!

a reshuffled oline that had hardly practiced.

vs. A team with 2 games under its belt to work out the kinks.  

Resulting in an early qb injury

there were some pleasant surprises but this is all just a mess and a lot to ask a team to deal with and be successful.  That WAS NOT a level playing field.

im hating on how the p12 and L Scott botched this (or didn’t even try to handle this) more than I’m hating on anything in the teams orbit right now.  

 

 

 

 

[Ute2]

I don’t think I’ll ever feel this healthy again about a season.

I’m going to enjoy every success and blame the rest on 2020(and some leadership ineptitude)

[UteBacker]

Ghost- I’m actually pretty surprised about the expectations Ute fans had for this team.  I mean:

1) We had a THIRD of our starters drafted to the NFL.  That’s a LOT of talent that walked out the door.

2) We were wiped out by Covid (who knows how bad).  That could have affected some key positions (OL).

3) We were breaking in a new backfield against USC who had already played 2 games to get their bugs worked out.

4) They’re not great, but this is USC.  There’s 4* & 5* talent all over that roster.  

5) In my opinion, there are three teams in all of college football that can reload: ‘Bama, OSU & Clemson.  I think we may be getting close to Oregon replacing Clemson on that list in the next few years, but Utah isn’t part of that club.  It’s simply going to take some time to make this team cohesive enough to win games.

Don’t get me wrong, I have concerns.  I’m guessing Peter Costelli is excited about his shot at a starting job next year.  Our OL was swiss-cheese, but I’m going to see what they do this weekend before I start forming an opinion.  On the flip side, I liked what I saw out of the secondary and our linebacker play exceeded my expectations.  I guess I just didn’t have many expectations this year.  I’m viewing these as scrimmages that are getting our guys some valuable reps.  With all we lost, I was prepared for big learning curve and some losses.  

[Utes 69]

This is the first year I’ve followed them, and my goodness that is a reactionary bunch.

How bout we play more than one game and see more than three series from Rising before we start proclaiming this as the worst Utah team ever.

My response…we need Rising healthy and a starter. Bently is not the answer here. 

[Stone]

I wonder if Lisk will get some playing time this year. 

[Charlie]

We are very close to the team down south. It can be too easy to catch their delusion where there are years your team is #1 and the years in-between where someone screwed up perfection.

In the P5 almost every team is very good, even those under 500. Very good teams most often don’t finish undefeated. When you understand that, any one loss to a preseason favorite does not collapse your world. There will be more than 1 good team in the south. However, some still remember the days when we were a mid major, when the only possible recognition came by finishing undefeated. If you hold on to those thoughts you may only be satisfied once every 15 years. If you are a fan of football and not just a fan of winning, you can find more to enjoy in almost every season. Count how many Pac teams win their division three years in a row. Sure, you can shoot for the stars but do so without being annoying to others around you. Myself, I remember the 80s when almost nothing was good enough for Y fans. If you experience that, you become determined not to repeat it. I once worked with someone that told me any Y loss depressed him for weeks. Goodness, that is not a fan of football, that is a fan of winning.

[UteBacker]

Charlie… you nailed it.  We’re simply not in the position (yet) to lose as much talent as we did and come out unscathed the following year.

[EagleMountainUte]

Perspective matters viewing this season as experience for young talent is important. BUT it is hard not to see this as mismanagement at the QB position.

I want to see more of Rising of course. 

Bentley though either he needs to get more first team reps or that mentality of “prepare like you could go in at any minute” doesn’t matter to him OR that is what he is.

Really wish Utah could have kept Shelley. He seemed like more of a Utah blue collar player to me. Obviously that has changed. 

[noneyadb]

If Shelley can’t cut it in the MWC with a bad oline, why would he be any better at Utah?

[Central Coast Ute]

He wasnt that bad at Utah. I don’t think he’s starter material but a solid back up. It seems like he wanted to be the guy though so I don’t know what Utah could have done to keep him.

[EagleMountainUte]

I want to say because of his dismissal possibly something is going on his life. Because I don’t get how he couldn’t beat out Bentley or Lisk. 

[Charlie]

We donn’t know if we have a QB issue.  We know we lost to what may be a good USC team.  We know we just had QB1 get hurt.  We know QB2 had a tough time with USC, as has lots of our QBs.  We suspect that we may go the next 4 games to finish the regular season with QB2, we have done that with Shelley before.  We don’t know Bentely is a step down from Shelley, no reason to believe than now.  We do know that there is a very good QB added to the room next year.  We don’t know that Rising is not a very good Pac QB.  None of this is unusual stress if you follow a football team.  I think we just need to breath a moment without wishing our QB situation was different.