Your season W-L prediction if Cam is 80% and no Kuithe for the season?

[SalUteopia]

Hypothetical situation (though quite plausible), but assuming Cam plays at 70-80% and virtually no / marginal Kuithe for the season, what is your W-L prediction? We already know Bernard is out, and assume we get the remaining injured players back at full or near-full strength.
My prediction is 8-4, which is not too different from the 9-3 I’d predicted at the season start. For some reason though, it feels we’re closer to 7 wins than 10. This is not a knock on our players / coaches, but more a combined effect of the injuries and a vastly improved Pac.
Your predictions / thoughts?

[The Miami Ute]

I’m looking at 8-4 as well. Lose to USC, Oregon, UW, and probably Oregon State. It could be 9-3 with some good fortune or 7-5/6-6 with no luck at all.

[RoboUte]

Well you’ve upgraded your prediction by about 6 wins since the 1st quarter of the Baylor game so it look like we’re trending positive. Go Utes

[The Miami Ute]

Are you trolling me? If you go back and read what I wrote, I’m predicting a 4-5 win season if the Utah QB room consists solely of Barnes and Johnson. I completely stand by that prediction. The OP, however, was asking for a prediction based on Rising playing every game at 80 percent and little to no contribution from Kuithe. That’s a totally different proposition.

[RoboUte]

I’m not trolling but I am exaggerating the number for comedic effect, a joke as they’re commonly known. It was really more like 4, humor occasionally calls for a touch of creative license. I only mean to say that cooler heads prevail.

[Utah]

I thought Baylor was a scheduled loss. We won that game. Woohoo!
Weber St – big win for us.

UCLA in Utah – Let’s see how UCLA does, but I think we can beat them with an 80% Rising. They are good, but our defense is better and I like what I’ve seen out of the WR’s. We have weapons everywhere. We win this game.

@ Oregon St – I know everyone loves them, but I’m not sure they can beat WSU. The game is on the road, but we have a bye afterwards and we will be a pretty balanced team. Oregon St can’t handle our defense, there is a reason why their QB is at Oregon St and not somewhere else, and that’s because he ain’t that great and won’t be able to handle our defense. We win.

Bye – win baby. Undefeated this week.

Cal – Win. Cal sucks.

@USC – We never win there. Like once in a hundred years. Loss.

Oregon – Oregon has UW, WSU then us. I think we are p**sed coming off a USC loss and win this game at home. BUT, if we beat USC, I could see us losing this game.

ASU – win.

UW – This is a tough game to call. I could see either team winning. We don’t win in Seattle. They have USC the week before us. I think UW wins this game but then loses to OSU or WSU or both. They have a killer end of the year.

@Arizona – win

Colorado – kick Deion’s ass.

So, I have us with two losses. One loss to USC or Oregon and a second to UW.

I think UCLA ends up with more than 3 losses. Oregon St has 3-4 losses. I could see Colorado having between 3 and 6 losses. I could see them struggling with USC/Oregon back to back and quitting. WSU with three-ish losses. UW with 2-4 losses. The back end of their schedule is killer. Oregon with 1-2 losses. USC with 1-2 losses.

So I’d say the P12 championship will be two of USC, Oregon, and Utah.

[The Miami Ute]

Cal does not suck. Their defense held Auburn to 230 yards and they only lost that game because they shot themselves in the foot more times than should be legally allowed. They have some athletes on both sides of the ball and it would behoove Utah not to sleep on them. I’m pretty certain that KW thinks along the same lines.

[Utah]

I mean, Auburn is a SEC team and their conference sucks. Their best team couldn’t even beat an overrated Texas team…

/s

[The Miami Ute]

Well, for starters, the best team in the SEC is Georgia, not Alabama. The other thing is that, based on their performance, I’m not certain that Texas is overrated. This might be their year.

[SalUteopia]

Cal looks better than usual, but still a winnable game. With a decent kicker, they win against Auburn.

[Ute2]

Does 80% mean he has enough to extend the play regularly and keep on the zone read 2-3 times a game?

If so, I’m still very bullish. 10-11!!!!

But if he can’t do that, he can’t really even play…. That’d be 8-4. 9-3 with Nate Johnson.

[SalUteopia]

70-80% is hard to define, but I meant that as limited mobility, or at the very least tentative mobility.

[Utah5410]

Without all those guys o still think we run the table at home. Yes that includes UO and CU. RES is special. And CU will not be the CU they are now. UO will be tough. But I don’t relay believe in Bo Nix and out D is nasty. On the road though

L OSU, USC, UW

SO 9-3 without CR and Kuithe

[Central Coast Ute]

9-3

[D T]

Just to throw this out, OSU in Corvallis on a Friday night, with CR just recently returned, IMO might just be our most daunting game this year.

[ProudUte]

If 80% means Cam cannot run the ball – I predict 7-5, maybe 8-4. Cam needs to be able to run to make him an effective QB. If Cam can run effectively – there isn’t a game we cannot win, but I still do not expect us to go undefeated. We need an offense and we have not had one in games one and two.

[SalUteopia]

Agreed. Cam without his running ability (see UO 2022 game) is nowhere near the same threat.

[DataUte]

I’ll go 10-2. I believe Cam doesn’t have to be as mobile as before. He is more accurate and on the same page as his receivers. Nate had a few misses because he and Vele or Yassmin weren’t on the same page. Get them involved plus Mikey and Money and continue with JQJ and a few others, and we might be more traditional, but it’ll be good. Add in our D with others getting healthy, and we be great.

[SalUteopia]

Cam with limited mobility is still good, but but not sure it’s 10-2 good.

[2008 National Champ]

I know the easy reaction is that if Rising isn’t picking up first downs with his legs, he can’t be the same QB he was. And that’s true. But I also keep remembering how much better the offense operated after Huntley got hurt in the USC game.

Sure they created a package for Shelley to run RPO’s – which is what we’ll probably see again with Johnson once Rising returns – but Huntley also made huge strides in the passing game once he only used his mobility to escape pressure and kept looking to make plays downfield. The running game was more effective because Huntley wasn’t pulling the ball away from Moss.

My prediction has always been 8-4 whether using the backups or a reduced Rising. But I am open to the possibility that if Rising has to utilize more of the weapons around him, it could make both him and them better in the long run.