A little sunshine on this snowy Smarch day.

Everyone expects Utah to take this big step back this year, but why?

So we lose our starting QB, so what. As much as I liked Travis Wilson he was never a world beater and was never the reason we won games. Troy Williams, at worst, will probably be able to replace what production Travis produced.

We lose Devontae Booker you say. We won’t be able to replace what Booker did for us, that is for sure. He was a unique player, but Joe Williams avg 133 yds/gm. That isn’t small change. I have faith he would fix the fumble issues (its really an easy issue to fix) and will be able to provide a good rushing attack for this team. Add Troy McCormick, a player who everyone expected to be one of our primary weapons last year, and we will be just fine at the running back positions. All this without even mentioning some of the other running backs who could get valuable time at the position as well.

Our defense could arguably be even better this year. Our defensive line & secondary is more experienced and deeper than it was last year. The only question mark on defense is our LB corp which we have to replace all 3 starters from last year, but we got some great JC talent that I feel will be great given some time to adjust to the Ute defense.

Probably the player this team will miss the most is Tom Hackett. From what I’ve heard of Mitch he will be a great replacement from Tom. No he won’t be Tom and he probably won’t be a two time ray guy award winner, but I’ve heard some really great things about him. I’m not concerned in the least.

My only concern is our WR corp. We lose our top 4 WRs and really don’t know what to expect form any of the potential replacements. We have size & speed, but how is that going to translate into the game? I have no idea.

I’m saying it now. Utah wins no less than 8 games this year and has the potential to win 10 & play for the pac-12 championship.

Go look at our schedule and point to a single game that Utah has no shot at winning.

Last year Williams passed for 38 TDs against just 4 INTs. Nowhere in Travis Wilson’s career, including High School, did he produce a TD to INT ratio like that. Sorry, but JC level play is better than HS.

We’ll see what happens, but I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised with Williams.

According to stats (past four years conference record) and recruiting (past four years) averaged together Utah will finish 5-7. However, Utah just had that breakout season in the PAC12 that teams have when then prove they belong in a league. Now the question is can Utah sustain as Baylor has proven then can do. I think Utah can sustain and the stats are a little off. Winning eight games would be sustaining, in IMO, and 5-4 in conference play.

So you are saying that because Utah returns the bulk of their starters on defense, a defense that was the primary reason we won 10 games last year, that this is should be a reason for concern?