The only thing those two seasons had in common was the name on the front of the jersey and the number of losses.
2004 was flat out domination. You had Whitt’s attacking defense (his, not the version that Scalley is running these days) that just made the other offense look like they were playing in quicksand. I think it was 8 sacks they had against Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl (maybe 9) and that was a team that had future NFL hall of famer Larry Fitzgerald.
The Meyer/Mullen offense was absolutely nuckin’ futz. I know Sanford was the OC but he’s pretty much disappeared from coaching while the other two went on to big things. They hit you from so many angles the defense had no idea what was coming next. My favorite play they ran was the receiver lining up in the slot and then shifting to halfback. They would then run speed option to either side and no one could handle it. Smith could pitch to the back, keep or shovel pass to the receiver. I have no idea why that play isn’t run in college anymore unless something about it became illegal. No base defensive scheme has ever been designed to flow 3 defenders with the ability to stop 3 highly skilled offensive guys with each having man responsibilities.
2008 was the most frustratingly wonderful thing I’ve ever witnessed. If the D and special teams were flipping the field, Utah would put up points. Otherwise, Ludwig’s offense would plod along appearing to play down to the level of their opponent and the 4th quarters would be needed to come from behind. The Oregon State game was the last time I turned off a Utah game before the final gun. Oregon State scored with 2:18 left to go up 28-20 and I turned it off because I was so disgusted. Went outside to yell at the stars and then called my former Utah roommate to bitch about how that crappy team blew a game that they should have won. I didn’t even get hello out of my mouth before he was screaming about the amazing comeback where they scored a TD, two point conversion and field goal to win. You have to ask someone else how it happened because to this day I have no idea.
The TCU game that year was about 2023 level lethargic offense. Utah couldn’t make any headway and Andy Dalton was doing just enough to keep moving the chains but not being able to put up points. They went up 10-0 early and King Louie kicked a couple of field goals to make it 10-6 at half. The 2nd half absolutely nothing happened except Utah punts but the D did manage to pick Dalton off a couple of times to stop scoring drives. Finally Utah got the ball back with a few minutes left and all of a sudden Brian Johnson was running this dynamic offense that marched down the field and scored with 48 seconds left for the win.
And then the Sugar Bowl happened. A month of every news outlet and every talking head saying that Utah had no chance against MIGHTY ALABAMA. Over the month of prep Utah came up with two things. One, they decided to start the game with the ball since not deferring was unheard of in those days. Either they win the toss and keep the ball or Alabama defers. Two, they pretended to run hurry up by getting to the line which didn’t allow Bama to substitute. Then they did the everyone look to the sidelines for the play which I won’t claim they invented but I don’t remember seeing utilized before. Utah also came out attacking Bama’s defense with the quick passing game which Bama wasn’t prepared for. 21-zip after 1 quarter. Gave up a Punt Return TD and field goal to make it 21-10 at half. Cut to Barry Switzer for the halftime show who had spent the whole pregame chat talking about how Bama was going to hang half a hundred on Utah. Obviously stunned, he was asked whether his opinion had changed. Switzer damn near screamed NO and my screenname was born. 31-17 in a game that was nowhere near as close as the final score.
Sorry for the book
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