Ending up 8-4 with all of our injuries ain’t that bad.

[ProudUte]

But, I do think we could have done better. We were killed by Oregon and they are a much better team. We could have beat UW and showed much better against AZ and OSU.

We won today, playing the Whitt style of playing not to lose. I suppose he felt that any turnovers would be too costly. I love Whitt as our head coach, but today’s game was frustrating for me. We simply wanted to win by running the ball and not making any stupid mistakes. I am very happy we won, but I would like to see our offense a bit more aggressive doing it.

I think there are reasons to be optimistic about next season, especially with Rising returning. There are a bunch of key players who need to make a decision on their future. If most come back, especially Reid, Bishop, Tafuna, and Vele – I think the 2024 team could be very good. I would love Kuithe to come back too, but I do not expect it.

I am not terribly concerned about winning the bowl game. I am most interested in getting three weeks of player development.

Oh, one last thing. We need to find some corners in the portal or get a good one recruiting.

[Utesbyfive]

No, it isn’t bad. I thought this was about a 9-3 season if we had Cam & Brant. This Kyle Whittingham team has shown us its quality. We have depth like any good P5 team.

[DrJazzy]

Not bad at all. Every game we lost, we were expected to lose. If we had won the AZ game, I would say it was a really good season.

We beat FL – who turned out to be decent (winning against FSU as we speak). We beat a bad Baylor team, but those are still solid OOC wins. We beat a highly ranked USC at the time. All our wins were with our 3rd/4th string qb’s.

Whole year was defined by major injuries. And, in spite of all that, to finish 8-4 is pretty good IMO.

We really need a good QB. If Cam can stay clean next year…we’ll be contenders in the B12.

Most importantly, need our def/off playmakers to stay. Need low transfer attrition. And need to develop/find that next QB. Hopefully it is Wilson.

[Onlyu]

Proud I’m highly optimistic about next year. Most of the guys deciding what to do will be back. I also expect Kuithe to come back as of right now. Bishop, Vele and Vaughn are the ones that are 50/50 or worse in my mind.

We also have more NIL this cycle to spend than we’ve ever had. We’re going to make some noise in a few key spots in the portal.

In my opinion the program is going all in on the 24’ season and it’s gonna be fun to watch.

[The Miami Ute]

You have to believe that Jonah Elliss is gone based on his current draft projection. Am I right? Right now PFF has him as the 40th best player in the 2024 NFL draft, though he might work himself into the 1st RD with a good workout and because he plays a premium position (Edge) in the NFL. Even if he was drafted as the 40th player, that’s a $12M rookie contract. I don’t know how you turn down that kind of guaranteed money.

[Utah]

It’s f**king incredible.

Let’s go win a bowl game.

[Utah5410]

Ellis isn’t leaving. He’s only 3 years out. His dad coaches and he would benefit from one more year of getting bigger and stronger. Especially with so many guys coming back.

[The Miami Ute]

That would be great if true. However, regardless of what I want, I have a hard time coming up with a logical reason as to how Elliss would turn down a projected low first round/high 2nd RD draft grade for the possibility of having a worse year or picking up an injury that affects his draft standing.

That strategy proved disastrous for Kuithe, who went from a projected 4th/5th RD pick in the 2022 NFL Draft to currently being undraftable due to the severity of his injury. Kuithe cost himself a lot of money and years off his NFL career by coming back to school.

[pedro]

I don’t get why people get frustrated when we lose playing Whit style. I really dislike CU. So to me, you win any way you need to win. We dominated the TOP and kept their O off the field with precision. I’m not sure why that is frustrating. Do we want to go back to the 80’s and rather than win Whit style, lose Fassel style?

[2008 National Champ]

Part of the frustrating thing for me is that I don’t believe it needs to be a binary choice. The programs that I want Utah to be compared with have both a good defense and a good offense. When your offense is as one-dimensional as Utah’s, it only takes an injury at a key position or running into a defense good enough to shut that dimension down.

We just watched an unheralded 3 star go 17-24 with open receivers all day and was an overturned TD (I thought the ball moved but it wouldn’t have been out of character for Pac-12 ref to confirm that TD) from having the lead at halftime. At the same time, we’ve also seen a Utah passing attack that routinely puts multiple receivers in the same spot, route trees that do not provide any help to the QB when the OLine breaks down, and rarely puts defenders in conflict.

I’d love to see a Utah offense that was capable of winning the game itself when the D has an off day.

[Charlie]

The skill players at CU were very athletic and extremely quick. They have some players that are as good or better than Oregon or Washington. What they don’t have is the whole package starting with linemen. They are a very unusual 4 and 8 team.

I think we will see the offense present more passing threats with the return of better QBs. Whitted has only been with us in ’23 and as yet has not had the opportunity to repeat the success he had in the B1G. I am hoping we have the pieces in place and need luck no better than usual. But I do agree, as the offense gears up for next year, receivers need to display better separation.

[pedro]

I don’t disagree with you. I just don’t think having your 5th string walk=on QB is the time to open the game plan up. Which is what I thought Proud was saying. CU threw more bc they had to. Otherwise their gameplan was exactly like ours. If they would have jumped out to a lead, I think you would have seen more passing from Luke

[chinngiskhaan]

I’m happy with how this season went record was, but the on field product was tough to watch for much of the season. That IS NOT anyone’s fault though. We just caught the injury bug big time, and that decimated our offense.

I’m proud of what the team accomplished this year. Everyone on that team deserves to hold their head up high. It was a total team effort.

[X723]

I love the way that this team just worked so hard to do there best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a year thanks ………..

[Author]

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