QB

If we had Rising this year, we have one loss, at worst.

Cam Rising is not capable of playing next week, last week, or any of the weeks that have passed by this season. People need to stop pretending like Cam Rising of 2021 or 2022 could have won games this year that were lost by the team on the field. You weren’t going to get that version, even if he’d been cleared to play.

People have fallen in love with “Cam Rising would have done ___”. Brian Johnson would have won that game, Alex Smith would have won that game, hell, Tyler Huntley, Brett Ratliffe, Lee Grosscup would have won that game. If it’s going to be inane straw man, at least get creative because one-legged Rising wasn’t winning that game on Saturday.

Oh, and the elite defense gave up 6 scoring drives. 28 points by the offense should have been enough. But I don’t hear anyone saying Devin Lloyd would have won that game

And UofA, which we will see next week. The drop in the BigXII won’t be as big of a pushover as people seem to think. It seems like there are a lot of inconsistent teams, but not bad teams. We have 5 away games with a lot of travel, too. OK St on the road won’t likely be a pushover. We also don’t know these teams as well. We struggled enough with a bad Baylor this year that I won’t assume we are going to go in and necessarily dominate.

I think we will go in and compete, but BB would be on the lower end of the QB rankings in the BigXII going into next year. I think our best shot is with Rising. We will see though.

You serious Clark?

There should be at least 90% of the starting lineup from Saturday returning for 2024. Damuni and Vele should be out of eligibility and I think Laumea and Battle. 18 of 22 starters that have been largely responsible for 7-3 this season.

Of the “out for season” crew, Barton is definitely back but unless someone tells me the extent of his injury I’m going to assume a full year recovery so half season seems safe. Bernard can come back if he wants. Maea should have another year. Pittman can get another year but I don’t know if he’ll want to come back to Utah – seems like he cut bait on that.

That leaves the 3 “super covid seniors” who 2023 was going to be their last year. Yassmin’s only option if he wants to play is to come back, but he was rumored to be wanting to go home before this season so he’s up in the air. Rising and Kuithe probably have as many options to play elsewhere as they do at Utah so for this analysis I’m going to assume they are done.

I’m not seeing anyone on the roster (underclassmen) currently who “needs to go pro now”. Bishop will take a peek, Vaki needs another year and needs to decide on a position, Bills will get a grade but I don’t know how high after this year.,, So you’ve got a team that had to fight to get where they are now and give the majority an offseason to learn from their mistakes? I’m actually pretty bullish on 2024 Utah and would probably commit to 9-2 (don’t know game 12 yet) based on just the above. If that is the baseline, then anyone who comes in and beats out the incumbents should do nothing but raise the bar.

there’s that pesky “we” again. there was a vocal minority who felt that the projections for CR and BK were extremely on the optimistic side given the nature of their injuries.