Utah @ 
Baylor UU Football National Champions 2024
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D T.
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Kirk HerbstreetParticipantThe last two national champions (Georgia and Michigan) had 10 and 13 NFL draft picks the following spring. Unsurprisingly, the number of draft picks a team gets the following spring is a pretty good indicator of how well the team performed the season before.
Now do I think Utah is going to win the whole thing this upcoming season?
Maybe. But actually, no. But I can dream.
If we did however, it is because at least 10 of the following players had unbelievable years and got drafted:
Money Parks, Dorian Singer, Mycah Pittman, Tanoa Togiai, Johnny Maea, Jaren Kump, Michael Mokofisi, Brant Kuithe, Landon King, Carsen Ryan, Cameron Rising, Micah Bernard, Van Fillinger, Junior Tafuna, Keanu Tanuvasa, Connor O’Toole, Karene Reid, Lander Barton, Sione Fotu, Kenan Johnson, Nate Ritchie, Tao Johnson and Zemaiah Vaughn.
Looking at that list of 23 guys, I don’t think it is likely we would get to 10. But there also isn’t a single guy on that list (maybe outside of a few of the OL) that would surprise me if they were drafted. And keep in mind, of Michigan’s guys that were drafted this year, only 1 was taken in the first round.
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UtahParticipantSure. How do you win in football?
1- have an experienced OL. We have that. We have 3 NFL OL. That’s incredible. We don’t fully appreciate how hard it is to find 6’6 guys who are 300 lbs who can move like ballerinas. And we have a lot of those guys.
2- have a great QB. We have that.
3-have an easy schedule. There is a reason why Alabama never leaves the south and does everything they can to have a bye or FCS before they play LSU and Auburn. Easy is better. Football is violent. Smart teams do not schedule up. They schedule down. Alabama schedules down. Georgia schedules down.
Alabama plays 8 conference games. We play 9. That’s no good. What helps us is that we don’t play 9 P5 schools in conference. Those teams will be P5 level in a couple of years, but they aren’t right now.
P5 teams: Baylor, OSU, Arizona, ASU, TCU, Colorado, ISU.
That’s 7.
G5 teams: Utah State, Houston, BYU, UCF.
FCS: Southern Utah.
We went from 10 P5 schools with P5 depth to 7. That didn’t mean that a UCF and Houston are bad. But they don’t have depth yet. Remember our Novembers the first few years in the PAC-12? It’s hard. And we play UCF,BYU and Houston at the end on October or later.
Advantage us. Their depth will be tested by then. That makes those games easier than they initially appear.
Look at our QB depth: Rising, former 5 star Huard, great JC QB, Wilson, third year guy Rose. How many teams have that depth? Outside of a top 10 recruiting team…no one. Not UCF, not Houston, not BYU. If they get a key injury, they are done. We can withstand a couple injuries. The G5 teams can’t. That leads us to point 4:
4- Health. You gotta stay healthy. If we stay healthy, we are just better than everyone except maybe TCU. If we lose a couple players, we can compete with any other healthy team. If we lose 4+…see last year.
So, we can compete with anyone if healthy. Our schedule is easy enough to keep us healthy. Can we compete in the playoffs? If healthy, our coaches are vastly underrated. We can beat anyone. Can we beat anyone two weeks in a row and stay healthy?
That’s tough. Look at us vs Ohio St. When we were healthy, we took it to them. Once we had a couple of injuries, they came back from a big deficit and beat us.
So, what I’m saying is you aren’t completely wrong. With a little health and a little luck, we can win it all. Enjoy it.
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2008 National ChampParticipantIt’s pretty tough for Alabama to schedule “up” unless you think they should have scheduled a couple of NFL teams every year.
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UtahParticipant
This is silly. Alabama plays Georgia twice every six years. They only have 8 conference games and a lot of those vs s**tty teams. They play 2 G5 and one FCS every year.
And their one “big” OOC game? It’s in the southeast (so no travel) and it’s usually vs a team that isn’t as good as their name says.
Alabama is the king of saying all the right things then scheduling down. They’ve duped so many people.
They absolutely can schedule tougher. They can stop playing late season FCS games. They can travel. They can play 9 conference games or 2 OOC P5 games.
The SEC and ACC play the easiest schedules every year. And yet people argue they don’t. It’s crazy.
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2008 National ChampParticipant
Alabama plays 8 conference games against arguably the toughest conference year in, year out plus a (usually) high profile neutral-site P5 to start the season in non-con every year.
2 G5’s and an FCS? hmmm, what other schools do that? oh yeah, > 95% do that.
Put their FCS game late in the season instead of week 1, 2 or 3 like Utah so they can play that high profile game week 1? Oh, the horror. How could anyone plan their schedule to what they perceive to be their benefit. I’m sure Utah doesn’t do anything like that.
There are schools who definitely go out of their way to avoid playing anyone of substance but Alabama isn’t one of them. There’s no rule that says you have to play 9 conference games. And there’s no way to set up an 8 game schedule in a 14 team league with traditional crossover rivals that has you playing everyone in the other division more often than Alabama plays Georgia or Florida in the last decade.
But it was genius of Saban to know that Tennessee would go in the tank for a decade so Alabama could have an easy “rivalry” game.
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CharlieParticipantAlabama might not schedule up but they sure can schedule down. They also don’t often travel more than 2 hours away.
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FountainofUteParticipantI gotta admit. That UCF game is making me nervous. Sure, they may not have the depth today that they may have 2-5 years from now, but even as a G5, they were above average in talent and depth.
They live in the heart of FBS Talents-ville. Unless they’re super banged up by the end of the year (very possible, but even then…) that game is going to be a trap game with a capital T, R, A, and P.
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UtahParticipant
Anytime you travel across the country, you’ll probably lose. That why Alabama doesn’t leave the south.
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D TParticipantUCF’s 1st team offense will be formidable, but big questions regarding their D.
IMO, our third toughest game after OKST/U of A, primarily due to it being cross country on a short week & during a holiday weekend.
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