A TOUGH EVENING

[press-on]

It’s tough to watch a once dominant football program falling flat on its face!
It’s tough to watch a once amazing QB return (injured) as a shadow of his former self.
It’s tough to watch a once superior Coaching staff stumble around with calls and decisions like Keystone Cops.
It’s tough to watch a once proud defense give up plays like a sieve.
It’s tough to watch an offense that’s lucky to score a touchdown a game.

It’s tough to watch, sensing and feeling that this program has seen it’s day in the sun.

Look, Ute fans, I know there are many of you who will say “it’s only one game. And you’re such a downer!”
But take off your Ute googles for a minute and look around. The writing, sadly, is on the wall.

One last thought. One day, Scalley will be a good head coach. But, bluntly speaking, Jay Hill will be ‘All World’.

[EagleMountainUte]

Yeah I don’t know about that last statement. I don’t get fans fascination with Hill. You have zero evidence to suggest that he will be all world. I still think we roll with Scalley.

My biggest problem with Scalley is he really is still young and doesn’t have connections outside of Utah at all. I wonder where he gets the offensive coaches.

[The Miami Ute]

Well Eagle, Scalley is 11 years older than Dillingham…if he hadn’t stayed in Utah, he would have been a HC somewhere already.

[EagleMountainUte]

I know ASU won but damn if I was a fan of that team I wouldn’t think it means you are going to roll forward into destiny. Dillingham is a horrible head coach.

[Rick Walker]

According to what? Dillingham is young and inherited an absolute dumpster fire left by Herm Edwards and in two years has turned them into a respectable team. Are they great? No but they just handed us our own asses.

[UM4G]

This is why I’m a fan of Harlan looking at Brian Johnson – he’s been around the league and had a hand in developing Prescott, Hurts, and now Daniels.

[highlandute7]

I don’t get all the hate on Scalley. The defense is not our problem right now. Could they be better, sure. But our offense hasn’t scored more than 23 points against any conference opponent. Our defense is keeping us in games. The offense is a complete mess and I think much of that is on the coaches. Playing an injured CR and not even giving IW chance? Red zone issues, turnovers, analytics, etc.

2 touchdowns in 2 games will win you nothing.

[admiralute]

Defense is a problem right now. They haven’t looked great in any game so far and we have yet played a team that has a strong offense. Once they do, they will be exposed more unfortunately. Defense needs a shake-up in approach and scheme.

[highlandute7]

Didn’t say the defense is perfect and do admit it has taken a step back this year but the offense is in a much worse place than the defense. Both games we have lost were winnable because the defense kept us in it. We can’t win if we don’t score touchdowns. Something we aren’t doing.

[Red Rhino]

Our defense has kept us in games but here’s why I’m concerned about Scalley:

1. Defense has been pretty good but has regressed quite a bit the last two years.

2. We have been having major problems tackling 3 of the last four years. Remember Florida in Gainesville + last year + this year.

3. Major problems with over pursuing on rush defense. Better to affect the throw and contain the quarterback than to only get one sack out of four times we get to the qb while letting the quarterback break contain. This is exacerbated by playing man defense because by the time the quarterback escapes the pressure, his receivers have had enough time to escape the man coverage.

4. Play calls come in late and players are often struggling to get into position as the ball is being snapped.

5. He’s seems like Whittingham 2.0. Though I appreciate Whittingham, I don’t know if I can take a boring offense for another 20 years. I could be wrong on this. Perhaps he would develop quarterbacks well and open up the offense like it was under Urban. I hope I’m wrong about that, but he seems to be a Whittingham clone.

[The Miami Ute]

It’s a risky move but, if I was in charge, I would go in a completely different direction as far as a head coach is concerned. Most importantly, if the team craters the next couple of seasons, what do you think the fan excitement is going to be having a HC who was part and parcel of such a disaster? It would be madness to ascend to the HC job someone who has had his fingerprints all over what’s starting to look as a failing scheme.

[admiralute]

This ^

[UteNamedOg]

Yeah that sucked. A lot. The failed fourth down knowing Cam couldn’t plant and throw past the sticks was a big coaching blunder. Linebackers are also making uncharacteristically poor decisions; injuries have hurt the position but Lander made a few odd mistakes that hurt us. Jonathan Hall has the physical talents, but he looks to still be getting used to coverage and that led to open receivers.

Stop reading now if you need some time to ponder the season in a state of strict realism, but I’m going to focus on the silver linings and excuses. Not quite to the point of blowing smoke up the programs a**… but maybe in that same ballpark.

– Micah Bernard is an absolute animal. Runs hard and pass blocks harder. ASU knew we had a statue of a QB and he did an excellent job of picking up pressure.

– Secondary played well. Refs aren’t throwing a flag unless the morgue requests a second look, and that resulted in some broken up passes and solid coverage overall downfield.

– Scheme is fine, in my humble opinion. Run game looks good enough to keep the defense honest. Receivers were open enough to stop and catch a ball thrown at their ankles.

– I think we should’ve pulled Cam, but I also don’t know what’s been going on behind the scenes. Before elaborating, I present a recap of the sh*t he’s been through: comes to Utah to sit with Lud in the booth for a year (while not an injury please keep in mind that this is the era of the transfer portal and instant playing time), wins the job from Bentley and is injured on the first drive in 2020 (big injury #1), loses by a hair to Brewer before winning the starting job and stomping to PAC12 before being knocked unconscious in a shootout with CJ Stroud, comes in to 2022 the clear starter and does clear starter things before his knee is injured and then Teddy Bridgewater’s (big injury #2) itself in what was then a 14-14 score where Utah was having success moving the ball against a very good PSU defense, 2023 he sits and waits with what looks like a velcro bear trap on his knee, and then 2024 he comes in and promptly throws 5 easy TDs to all three levels of the field before game two has the tendons in his hand react appropriately to being sandwiched between a Baylor players cleat and the ground (big injury #3). So we reach last night and his one pass with a little air under it can’t even be celebrated because Cams body is contorted so that he’s afforded the opportunity to be looking towards heaven while his ankle waves down at him. OK, maybe I lied and did blow a little smoke there.

– Everyone calm down. Season has been injured, but not dead. In each of the years winning the PAC12 Utah suffered losses early in the year which had us in a similar spot before miraculously Rasputin-ing itself down the stretch. Our next two games are to Houston on the 26th, a team who has been shut out twice and scored a season high 12 points before tallying 30 against TCU, and TCU next week. Following these games we have the two ranked teams in Rice Eccles. ISU makes me nervous so that’s probably a toss-up at the moment. Zoobs weren’t picked by Hinckley, Monson, or Nelson, so I’m picking the Utes here too.

[ReconUte]

…ain’t nobody reading that.
I’ve bought into the hype to many times with this team. I’ve stood up for this program, coaches and players for decades.
I’ve now taken off the Ute goggles and tralize this team hasn’t been dominant for years!! Yes it’s had some nice wins here and there. Yes they’ve beaten a few teams they weren’t supposed to.
BUT….
this team did back into a conference championship. (Some of you act like winning two PAC Championships is like 1984 for TDS)
This team did beat WEAK USC teams.
This team hasn’t won a bowl game since 2017.
(That needs to stop being down played because it does matter)
This team is always way over hyped.
These coaches continue to kill the QB room by not having game ready QBs.
This teams offenses are often more boring to watch and have zero consistency.
Ludwig is a terrible OC and we all complain about in every game.
Take off the Ute goggles and you’ll see this team really hasn’t been all that for a long time now.
Utah is a solid team but not dominant and elite like we pretend it to be. Its a fact I even hate to admit.

[UtesRock]

The only bright light is Micah Bernard, who is playing better than ever, and the O line has performed well.

[MFury]

Agree with a lot. It is nice that we get to say it is tough to watch an offense that is lucky to score a touchdown.

Without fact checking myself, I feel like we had a couple decades of watching that kind of football.

So maybe that’s more of a regression to the mean, with recent years being a string of positive outliers

[idahoute]

Shame on Whitt and Lud letting Cam dictate who plays. Of course he wants to play. Wilson, Rose, Huard all want to play as well. What a dumb comment by Whitt. “He has won a bunch of games for us”. I was at the game $1500 to fly my 2 boys down with me and every football illiterate fan could see Cam could not run or throw. What was unbelievable was Cam was allowed to keep coming out series after series, interceptions and missed throws everywhere. How does that reality make anyone think Cam gives the team the best chance to win the game?? AZST is not very good. Our O line looked 50 lbs and 4 inches bigger than anyone on their D. Let Wilson had it off to Micah then at least AZST would have to play honest. Can’t win a game with 10.5 on 11. Im still in shock how obvious a mistake that was and I think the world of Cam. That game was so winnable despite us not being a very good team. Players must be p**sed.

[jshame17]

Exactly Idaho.

Whitt saying it was Cam’s decision secured my position of leaving him on the tarmac.

It tells me what we all assumed. Cam, with all his golden NIL purse, has been calling the shots for 2 years now and deciding when he feels like playing. The “game time decision” is Cam’s and Cam’s alone.

Sunk cost fallacy reigns supreme. Hell, we’ve all seen great QBs get benched when they have off games or are not ready. Hell, Steve Young was benched in his prime for sucking in a game, which lead to a fight on the sidelines.

Whitt doesn’t have the courage to stand up to Cam for his team. Weak and incredibly telling.

[ORute]

He doesn’t have the courage, he’s had rising goggles for 2 years. Basically had no QB last year bc of Cam holding the team hostage. This is not the university of cam rising. They’re attached at the hip and it’s holding the team back.

[Author]

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