[UTE98]

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[UTE98]

I was not in favor of Rising coming back last year. And IMO Rising’s poor decision to hold onto the ball way too close to the sideline hoping to make a miracle play is just as much the reason for his injury as the latish hit. He has always been a gambler, and he went all in on one play and lost. Not monetarily he robbed the Utah casino house blind. That’s my opinion. May not be popular but that is how i see it. After the debacle of 2023 and game time decisions I was ready to move on from him before last season. Rising and Whitt both mishandled the past two years. Luckily Rising is gone. Whitt’s move.

Do NOT think i am taking anything away Rising in 2021 or 2022, I’m not but if the pig farmer can beat Caleb William’s and USC in 2023, last year should never have happened.

[Holladay Ute]

FWIW, I do think it’s important for Utah to focus “development” efforts on certain position groups, while avoiding others.

We are good at developing offensive lineman, running backs, and players on defense. That’s where I think Utah should focus most of its high school recruiting resources. If you’re going to spend time growing players, grow them in those places.

As was said below, we are not good at developing WRs. And it’s probably not worth it for us to develop QBs either. So those are places where I think you go all-in on the transfer portal to buy players who can make instant impacts.

[Holladay Ute]

I agree w/ a lot of the underlying points you’re both making, but I still think development of high school recruits (many of which will end up being 3-stars for Utah) is an important, if not essential, part of building a good team.

Important players we developed as 3-stars out of high school on last year’s team: Micah Bernard, Johnathan Hall, Tao Johnson, Connor O’Toole, Karene Reid, Junior Tafuna, etc. We only won 5 games last year. Without these players, we might’ve only won 1-2 and there would’ve been a lot more blowouts than just the Colorado game. If we include 4-stars we developed out of high school, then add Spencer Fano, Caleb Lomu, Smith Snowden, Lander Barton, etc. (i.e. all of our best players this coming year). Sure, these obviously played and made important contributions their freshman year, but they were still freshman and needed development to get to where they are today.

Look at BYU’s team last year. Mostly built from under-appreciated 3-star high school recruits that they developed.

And I also disagree that it’s not worth developing a 3-star athlete into an all-conference player. If they get to that level, then we will have gotten a fantastic ROI on them even if they leave after their sophomore or junior year. This is no different than what used to happen where you might develop a great player who leaves for the NFL after his junior year. Keanu Tanuvasa was still a positive ROI for us based on the three years we had him (particularly the last two). Cam Calhoun is maybe the prime example of a guy we helped develop who then jumped elsewhere for the money (but we only had him for one year so it wasn’t a massive investment on our part).

You just have to accept that some of those guys you develop will inevitably leave. If you’re losing most of those guys, then yes I agree. What other good players did we lose to the portal who we invested a lot into development?

[OffensiveLineEnthusiast]

Fair enough. I appreciate the input

[NarfUte]

It was senior night for Ty Jordan and A Lowe. Leadership committee could have requested the team wear it because of that? I don’t know. I do know that it’s not team issued gear

[OffensiveLineEnthusiast]

Point taken–I did not know that the FCA at Utah operated like that. Neglect my second point.

Still, I’m not convinced. I just do not think that a game-day uniform would ever include non-team issue gear. If not everybody has it, it won’t work as a game day uniform. If everybody has it, it’s team issue.

Are you disagreeing that they coordinate what to wear pregame? Or are you saying that the pre-coordinated game day outfits might include non-team issue gear?

[NarfUte]

Yes, it’s from the Utah chapter of the FCA. They hold their ‘huddle’ at capital church and all religions participate. Including Scalley. Plenty of other athletes wear the same hoodie. Brynna Maxwell, Jenna Johnson, maile okeefe. I’ve got a friend who wears the same hoodie to games, since at least 2019.

And for someone who wanted to leave religion out of it, sure seems like you want to judge their choices. Wait til you learn the team chaplain isn’t Mormon.

(The shoes have nothing to do with it)

[2008 National Champ]

I’ve been saying since Utah got in to the Pac-12 that it’s unbelievable that Utah is the only school that brings in WR’s and they ALL underperform. All you have to do is look at a school like WSU where they routinely bring in high 2*, low 3 *’s and they become all conference. It’s not the skill level of the player, it’s how you utilize them. And since Utah has only been interested in downfield blockers for the last 15+ years, it’s no wonder that room has consistently underwhelmed in the passing game.

[BeachUte]

I hate to say it but it feels like pure hubris all around has cost Utah – from the coaches, to the players and to the fans. It’s been an awful look since Utah was forced into the Big 12. Our fans thumped their chest, Whitt hinted at Utah not being a permanent member of the Big 12 (when he made that comment about expecting Utah and UCLA to play again due to conference alignment changing again) and so many people suggesting Utah was on deck for the Big 10. Well I’m guessing any interest from that side has cooled significantly. On top of that, the hubris of coaching, specific to the vquarterback position, has really set Utah back. And all of this at the worst possible time since there’s already a huge amount of uncertainty in college football right now and the teams poised to take advantage of it are the ones with some level of stability and success, which boggles the mind because that was Utah up until 2023.

It just shows how rapidly everything can come undone. We just gotta hope it can be fixed just as rapidly… but I’m not so sure. Utah feels broken right now.

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