The state of the game

I’m as bummed out as anyone here I assure you. But I’m not wearing any crimson-colored glasses at this point.
we have a injured veteran who is likely to get more injured the more we push him. We have a freshman QB who is promising but every bit a freshman.

We have an offense with either QB that can’t seem to put up 25 points against any team with a pulse (MB can’t win it all by himself)
We have a defense that’s riddled with injuries that can’t stop another team from running the field in key moments.

We have 2 conference losses. We are not going to win the conference. We were over hyped to begin the season and have grossly underperformed and have no reason to think we’re going to have some miracle turn around. 8 wins is probably our ceiling. (go ahead and call me out if I’m wrong).

That being said. Cam is a gamer. Wilson has promise. Whitt has proven himself to be a great coach over decades. We won’t (honestly, we won’t) be getting a better-quality coach in my lifetime.

All that being said. This era of CFB is mutated beyond recognition. I’m not a deep football nerd. I don’t understand it all. But I can’t help but see a chain of events, covid, NIL, Transfer portal, conference re-alignment, and the normal evolution of the game turning CFB into a game that looks quite a bit different from what it was 20 years ago.

Despite making it to the Rose Bowl twice (2&3 years ago) …. has the game changed to the point where we need to look at our team differently? I hesitate to draw this parallel but when we were in the WAC we used to celebrate a 7-win season. We were thrilled in the WAC and MWC with a mid-bowl game win. And we seemed to understand we were actually (not just locker room fodder) the underdog when we played a Wisconsin, Nebraska, or Oregon because we knew and accepted that they had the 5-star players and the big money. Oh and it made us mean and hungry as a team. Now we seem to often think Utah is in the same game as those teams…but I got to wonder.

We are still Utah…a neat place in a sparsely populated state, not a destination school or culture for most in the country. We get more money than ever before (for us) but it’s still a fraction of what the big boys get. We are underdogs but we no longer seem to feel it the same way.

Is Whitt’s approach to the game a dinosaur (one I liked but the comet came)? Again, not saying that we are likely to get better (so not wanting him to retire) …but are we a mid-team in a mid-conference playing a mid-game at this point? And has the disparity caused by the economic changes of the game effectively cemented us into that spot? Of course, we want to win…but should we be looking at that as a Cinderella chance rather than an entitlement?

I’m not blaming Whitt or Cam for last night…I’m disappointed we aren’t better but that wasn’t a game that was lost by one person. Has the state of the game changed enough we need to step all the way back and do a base budget assessment of where we really are relative to the rest of the football world, so we have realistic (even if we’re fans) expectation for the kids and coaches who come here? I don’t know. But I feel like trying to see the team the way I did when we won all our bowl games or even when we got into the Pac12 Championship isn’t really aligned with reality at this point. I’m currently at the point where my wise mind is telling me that if we could win a Holiday or Vegas Bowl, I should celebrate like mad and ignore the shenanigans and dreams of a CFP spot.