[Uteanooga]

Meh.

I don’t love the interlocking U’s. Too busy.

[Uteanooga]

Love your enthusiasm. Could be a great year, could be a middling year as far as I can tell. The B12 does not have a team stacked with elite starters and elite prospects backing up the starters. So it is hard to be certain about who will succeed.

A great offensive line can make a decent QB look calm, wise, and effective. If the balls bounce our way a bit, and we stay relatively healthy, and Dampier/Beck ball out- it will be playoff time!

On the other hand, if Dampier continues his tendency to throw picks, could Whitt continue green lighting the passing attack or would we tighten up and be predictable?

If the injury bug settles in for repeated and protracted blood letting, and Dampier/Beck can’t make the transition to more competitive play- it will be meh time (and the multitudes calling for Whitt to hang it up).

I am trying to keep expectations low and optimism high. I plan on enjoying the year.

[Uteanooga]

I’m not convinced that there is a lot of risk to the system. The haves are pretty content. They are getting the best players, big money, and have a fun playoff. Further, the playoff was a lot of fun to watch even though my team was not involved.

The reason we are have nots is due to our numbers. The system can afford less interest from Utah fans- otherwise we would be in the P2.

I am with you in terms of losing interest though. I don’t have much of an emotional tie to professional athletes coming and going moment by moment who happen to wear the uniform of my alma mater. The more Cam Calhoun types and the less Lander Barton types- the less I’m interested.

I’ve always enjoyed watching the prospects join our team as high-school kids, develop and progress over 4 years. The hope for future success has always been a big part of the equation for me. If it becomes who accepts our middling payment for 8 months and then searches elsewhere for a somewhat better payment- that is normal people looking for a better job. Perfectly acceptable, but not entertaining.

I’d support the university going back to being about education, particularly if that meant lowering cost to the non-athlete students. Even if Utah dumps football altogether, Georgia and Ohio State will still do their thing (and I’ll probably watch the playoff).

[Uteanooga]

Rewording what he said and placing it in quotation marks is really lame. Doing so is not reasonable behavior.

As for the player- he is gone and I’m not going to waste time thinking about him.

[Uteanooga]

1. The players all know each other as they have spent a lot of time together. The fans don’t know the new players. Most fans are not accustomed to needing a program to decipher the code of who is who. Some will find this annoying as they look to enjoy the game and get to know the players. Put me in this camp. It is not a big deal- but it is a bit irritating.

2. Some of us don’t want to know what other people’s ideologies and agendas are- particularly if we are paying them for a service. For example, if I go see my doctor, I don’t want to know if she voted for Trump or Harris. I don’t want to know if she is save the whales, or expand golfing rights, or whatever. I don’t want to know what church she does or does not attend. I don’t care whether she posts TikTok’s. I will assume that she has some ideology and agenda- I would prefer that her ideology and agenda is to promote my health but realistically I would guess that she has some other thing that she is into as well. But that is her business and my expectation is to be left out of it. In return, I’ll leave her out of my ideologies and agendas.

As for the athletes, I think it is great that they want to have a positive impact on society. But if they can’t win some football games, they will probably have to motor on without my attention as I don’t really enjoy watching them getting their asses handed to them. Given how last season went, I would prefer to have the impression that the players are focusing on football. I would probably have more patience watching Lander Barton and Smith Snowden play hard in a losing effort than watching Enough and Hope knocked on their butts.

On the other hand, if Together and Equality can lead us to the playoffs, I’m all in.

[Uteanooga]

I’ll be contrarian and say yes the system is sustainable. Given that it all started with judicial intervention rather than planned policy, it will take time for changes (hopefully improvements) to catch up. I suspect there will be formalization of the NIL deals with some type of time commitments for players accepting deals.

The system will allow players to get paid and place a premium for great college players who may not become great NFL players. Guys like Quinn Ewers and Shadeur Sanders who would have made a lot more money staying in college may be more likely to stick around rather than bolt early.

The system will allow big money programs with huge fan bases to thrive- which will keep the big money and big fan bases involved.

The playoff will allow teams like Boise St, AZ St, and SMU to have a shot- which gives legitimacy to the playoff and keeps the legislators from interfering. I suspect they will expand to 16 teams so that the P2 can get more teams in.

As for whether Utah’s position in the food chain is sustainable, that is a different question all together. We have moved downward compared to the P12 days. Development of diamond-in-the-rough players has been a big part of Utah’s recipe for success and for this to continue working they will have to find a way to retain their best players. But Utah should be able to compete for B12 championships and playoff bids.

On the other hand, drastic change to a new system would not be surprising. The top programs could bolt from the NCAA and start over. Would it be the top 20 or the top 40? Who knows. I’ll not lose sleep worrying about it. I’ll hope to see some quality games this fall. Perhaps Utah’s offense will score, the defense will stymie, and we will get a shot in the playoffs. That would be fun.

[Uteanooga]

I think you are probably right here. My question is how many people would shed tears over Cal dropping football? I don’t think that many. None in Georgia and Ohio, and probably not that many in the Berkeley area.

I am not trying to say whether it would be good or bad for Cal to drop football but it would certainly not destroy college football if they did.

[Uteanooga]

Are you suggesting that Whitt should trust an offense where the QB has an equal TD/INT ratio?

[Uteanooga]

Riseas that is a fine post- but your profile pic is not so pleasant. Not sure what is going on there but it makes me wish I had not noticed it!

[Uteanooga]

Truth

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