Discussion Topic: Big 12 Foes

[Whitty]

As we enter into a new era for our Utes, curious to hear perspectives from fans on Big 12 teams (particularly for football). Excluding Pac 12 teams coming in (AZ, ASU, CU), what new Big 12 teams do you think:
1. will be rivals for Utah (think USC)
2. will be mutually-respected, back and forth matchups (think Oregon)
3. will be frisky, thorns in the side (think Wazzu)
4. have potential to be Utah’s Achilles heel (think Washington)

I’ll go first:
1. Rivals: BYU, maybe TCU?
2. Back and forth: Oklahoma State, Kansas
3. Frisky: UCF, Texas Tech
4. Achilles heel: Kansas State?

[Tony (admin)]

In order for me to answer this, I would need to know what teams are actually in the Big12. I’m sure I can find a list somewhere.

[The Miami Ute]

Just go to your nearest truck stop Tony. I’m sure that they’ll be able to help you out.

[stbone]

Since we are in the truck stop conference, can we get naked lady mud flaps with the drum and feather? Or maybe drum and feather truck nuts?

[utefansince79]

Next year BIG 12 will be (working somewhat from west to east)

Utah
BYU
Arizona
ASU
Colorado
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
Texas Tech
TCU
Baylor
Houston
Iowa State
Cincinnati
West Virginia
UCF

Bit of a geographically jumbled mess

[Brettski]

I’ll take the bait:

1. Rivals: Everyone will hate us. It’s fine.
2. Back and forth: The conference won’t last long enough to have back and forth games :O
3. Frisky: Iowa State & UCF Twitter
4. Achilles heel: Sea Bass at the Truck Stop Diners

[DataUte]

1. BYU, CU – others will rotate too much to be there, but agree TCU might become one just because of MWC history
2. KSU – similar styles, OK St. – have always been solid
3. Texas Tech for sure. Road games to Cinci, WVU, UCF
4. UCF. Great recruiting grounds, so they’ll have talent. We won’t play them as much, but when we do, hope we play later in season (cooler in FL, cold in UT)

[Utah]

Rivals: BYU, Arizona, ASU. You’d think Colorado would be here as well…but they suck. They went 1-8 in the PAC-12 last year. They will be better this year because the Big 12 is a worse conference, but not that much better. They might get to 6 wins, Sanders will go pro and I bet Deion bails and Colorao goes back to sucking. If we haven’t created a rivalry yet…I don’t know how it will happen.

Mutually respected: Honestly…I don’t know if there is an answer. We won’t play anyone enough. How many years will the Big 12 even last? 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, maybe 2029/2030…5-7 years? Will we even play everyone?

Maybe TCU, because we’ve played them before. But online Big 12 fans hate us already, and their backwoods radio stations will get their fans to hate us leading up to the games. We will play them, win and then probably never play them again.

Frisky? Maybe UCF. Just because they are actually on the rise as a program. Maybe Arizona?

Achilles heel? No one. We won’t play anyone enough. Sure, someone could beat us. But I’m not sure we’d ever get the chance to pay them back. This conference just won’t last long enough.

In 2029 we are either headed to the B1G or SEC…or back to a regional western conference. The Big 12 won’t exist in 2030.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Rivals BYU and Arizona ( payback).
Respected rivals TCU and Oklahoma state.
Thorns West Virginia and UCF (travel)
Achilles heel BYU ( Provo) Texas tech (Lubbock)

[D T]

The zoobs? Lol

[Extra Medium]

Football

1. Rivals: Zoobs, CU, ASU, U of pAy
2. Mutual Respect: TCU, Texas Tech, Baylor
3. Frisky: Oklahoma State
4. Achilles Heel: TCU

[UteNamedOg]

Rivals: Bagpipe-Y-U and ASU.

Mutual Respect: Arizona, KSU, and Colorado.

Frisky: Tough one. Utes have had issues with teams who have a freak manchild on their roster: Juju Smith-Schuster, Hercules Mata’Afa, N’Keal Harry, and most recently Anthony “dammit there he goes again” Richardson. I lean UCF. Their program just signed a large and talented class, so between that and their recent history of Schrodinger-esque “is the cat 0-12 or 12-0”, I’ll go with them.

Achilles: Nobody speculate on this until we have eyes on Chris Petersen.

[The Miami Ute]

I agree. UCF. As a native Floridian, I’m sure it won’t be long before there’s static between UCF and Utah. A couple of “What’s an Utah?’ comments at away games should get things going. Are you hearing rumors of Chris Petersen coming back to the coaching ranks?

[Central Coast Ute]

Josh Pate hinted at coaches that have left might return once the mess CFB is in right now gets sorted out. He mentioned Peterson but did not outright say he had heard he would be back. Dan Mullen was another name he put out there.

[The Miami Ute]

Petersen left because he was burnt out and he turns 60 this year. I’m sure that some team would like to have him but, given his age and the fact that he’s already stepped away from the game once, for how long? Mullen is a different story. What would you think of him as a hypothetical replacement for Whitt in a couple of years?

[Phatmanandy]

I also feel that with the world of NIL now and how much of a pain it is for coaches I can’t imagine some of these “old” coaches sticking around much longer. It has to be exhausting for all

[The Miami Ute]

I think that, unless something changes in the way college football is going, pretty soon here 60+ year old head coaches are going to be pretty rare. I have to imagine that all of the extraneous stuff around the game today really takes a lot of the fun out of it.

[Central Coast Ute]

I didn’t follow Mullen much at Florida. His teams were ok but I guess he didn’t like recruiting. Unless there is a change in the portal and NIL, I don’t see that changing, so I’d have to say no as a Whitt replacement for now. Personally, I like Scalley.

Rumors were Peterson didn’t like the portal. It was more than he wanted to deal with. If that were the case, I could see him coming back once players are contracted employees and the portal becomes a thing of the past.

[Utah]

I don’t think Petersen comes back to college football. That being said, when Whitt retires, Petersen should be our first call.

I’d take him over Scalley. I don’t care how loyal Scalley has been. If Petersen isn’t interested, then I’m ok with Scalley.

But we are the perfect program for Petersen. If he was to return anywhere, we would be the best fit for him.

[MDUte]

Personally, I hate the fact that we’re stuck in this wasteland of a conference. And I don’t really care if Utah develops any heated rivalries or not in the B12. Because I hope that what Whitt has continued to allude to happens sooner than later, and a more seismic shift happens to the upper tier of CFB that brings Utah along with it.

All that said, I hope Utah is a complete anomaly for the time we are stuck in the B12. That Utah simply doesn’t ever look like we belong or fit into the B12. The idea of Utah being seen as the villain of the B12 would be a great way to accomplish this IMO. The team that everyone else hates and wants to beat. And the team that wins the conference YoY and makes noise in the CFP. That would be ideal IMO. Go Utes!

[Trailgoat]

1. Rivals: BYU. B12 in it’s current form won’t exist long enough to build a rival with another team.
2. Back and forth: Oklahoma State, CU, TCU
3. Frisky: UCF, Texas Tech, maybe ASU
4. Achilles heel: Utah. KW as head coach struggles coaching as a winner, it’s a plain fact. Interested to see if the WTF loss pattern continues in the B12. Next 3-4 years are critical for Utah’s future prospect in a super league. Utah has everything in place to win the B12 next season, anything short is a failure.

[Author]

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