Fish or cut bait!

[UTE98]

I don’t know this to be fact, but from what I’ve gathered it is the story I believe. If you can prove me wrong bring facts. But for now this is the story I’m sticking with…

1. Utah was lucky to bring in Wilson this past year. With Cam coming back for the 7th season. What QB wants to be put in the situation NJ, Rose, Barnes were put in last year? Not knowing if you’ll start, and not getting 1st team reps when you do. That has been the case the majority of these past two seasons. How you gonna recruit a QB with that mess?

2. JJ left because of mishandling of the NIL situation. I said it before and I’ll say it again, JJ won more games for Utah last year than Cam, yet Cam got rewarded yet again. Imagine if we had JJ and Wilson, I don’t know that we would have lost this game. With four prior games to prep and MB and JJ it would be hard to not believe we would be better off than our current situation.

3. KW’s comment at the end of the 1st quarter the other night was arrogant. That’s what the analytics say, and it “was the right decision.” That rings pretty hollow looking back. You’ve got a Freshman QB, you think you have a good D, play Kyle Ball, win the war of attrition. But nope, you go for the jugular, lose momentum and profess it was the right thing. Sure I’m Monday morning QBing, but looking at the result, it “may” have been tied at 16 late in the game. Instead KW and Lud continue to chase points from the first quarter, that is not playing the odds for a whole game. With nearly 50 minutes left you take the points, gamble in the 4th quarter if you need to, not from the opening drive.

4. KW got outcoached, Jedd Fisch is having growing pains in Seattle, but somehow his replacement in Tucson is lighting Utah up at home? Come on man, it doesn’t pass the smell test. Arrogance has resulted in most of the losses these past couple years. Oregon last year, the past several bowl games, Arizona this year. I can’t remember all the losses, but some certainly were games KW got outcoached.

5. All in or in the way? Apparently that doesn’t mean all are in, just those not named Cam have to be all in. CR is in the way, and has been since the beginning of last year. Robo, Eagle and I have been anti-Cam’s return since last year. And nothing I’ve seen has changed my mind. CR’s failure to throw the ball away earlier directly resulted in the Gatorade case catastrophe. Was it a fluke play? Sure! Does that fluke even happen if Cam throws it away earlier? NO! Definitely NO! Cut your losses, and live to play another down. Cam can’t get out of his own way, and it’s hurting this team.

I really wanted to be proven wrong this year with Cam’s return. But I was not wrong based on the current situation. Fact is this team is not where it could be, and Cam and KW are not currently looking like the solution.

[Roy Rangum]

Good gravy. I normally love a little controversy, but how many posts can we have with this same take?

None of us know the future, and maybe it will come to pass that at the end of this year we will all say “wish we would have moved on from Cam sooner”.

But right now, Cam is still the best QB on this team, Kyle is among the best coaches in the country, JQJ left so he could make more money while Cam left money on the table to stay with Utah, and we have a lot of season left to play. There’s still an opportunity to do something great this season.

Bag on Cam and Whitt all you want now, but if this ship turns around, don’t celebrate with us when these same dudes are the ones to lead us to victory.

[Charlie]

I agree. I have watched a lot of kids in HS and Little League football move thru a season with ups and downs. It was tough for them to lose games, get pushed around, get hurt, and hear smack. Undefeated season were simply rare. It was always awesome to see kids come back from adversity and win again. It seems all the best seasons even state championships, included a loss along the way that was hard to take. The Utah players, no doubt, took the loss hard which only gets worse when the expectations are the highest. But oh my goodness, it is hard for me to see fans get down on a loss so much. Sadly, there are no coaches to give them a pep talk to help them reset. I really don’t know who helps them.

I learned a long time ago to love the game, love the process and enjoy the ride, entertainment and team dynamics. Of course you want to win each game, do well, and pull so hard for first place. However, if you let a loss ruin your weekend, make you yell at your dog, and lay a bad mood on others around you – you may be in need of a new pastime. If you remain attached get interested in what things need to improve, watch for those improvements, roll with the process. I see a difference between being a football fan and being a fan of winning. It can be entertainment if you insist that it is.

Yeah, I feel bad the Utes lost. Now I am interested in what can/will change to get back on track.

[Rick]

Amen Charlie. Thank you for the post.

[Anfernee]

*yawn*

[UTE98]

Yes, yawn! Refute my story with facts.

Has Cam being here this year had no negative impacts in the locker room?

Would we have lost against Baylor or SUU with Wilson at QB?

Why is Wilson being given so much leash to throw deep? He has shown an amazing ability to forget interceptions and make plays. He has moxie.

Do you really think Cam would be hitting Singer and Parks this much? I do not. Would Cam locking in on a hurt Kuithe have won last week? I don’t believe so.

What we do know for a fact is Cam has taken first team reps which hamstrings Wilson’s progress. Can Cam win every game remaining? If Wilson improves reading defenses pre-snap his upside is better than Cam. Wilson could win every remaining game.

This Cam mania is like saying the 72 dolphins are the best team ever because they went undefeated. Cam should be the past, I appreciate what he did but he’s the past. He’s held the program back long enough. Recruiting, QB development, NIL tax, he’s dead weight right now.

[RedUte14]

Cam won two Pac12 championships. where was JJ for that?

[Xanthis]

JJ was pounding the rock. Guy had a pretty memorable celebration in the PAC 12 championship game against USC.

[RedUte14]

you are just filling in the parts you truly don’t know with your own feelings.

[EagleMountainUte]

Going for it on fourth decisions isn’t Monday morning quarterbacking. We all said don’t go for it live. The entire situation still doesn’t make sense to me.
Utah is awful in the RedZone. Has been so fairly consistently for awhile now without Rising. Third down short plays have been going for little to no yards. So why would fourth do any better?

Taking some pressure off of a young quarterbacks shoulders by taking the points is a better decision.

[RoboUte]

One thing to note about my position on rising since I’m mentioned here, I think having Rising on the team is a good thing. He’s quite obviously much better than current Wilson. It’d be silly to not want him. But What needs to be managed is his distraction factor. He needs to be handled in such a way that his treatment is fair and appeals to the values of the team as a whole.

Perhaps the most dangerous part of this saga is the damage it can do to the team atmosphere. Our players need to feel that their leader and mvp ($$$) is living up to his end of the bargain. If he can’t then he needs to be relegated in some way. If he’s putting in the effort and work then the players will see that in respond, if he isn’t well then they’ll do the same.

It doesn’t much matter to me what secrets Whittingham keeps from me, but it became clear at some point last season that the team felt in the dark as well. That’s a disaster. Maintaining trust allows for some fudging on transparency when needed, but if the trust erodes then lack of transparency begins to feel like subterfuge. Whitt and rising lost the team some time last year. I feel like the relationship was repaired during the offseason but we’re now at that point again. These young men pour their entire lives into this group effort. If they see something they don’t agree with on a values level or someone not being treated the same we could lose them and tank the season. Newsflash: for anyone that wants to know, this is what happened to Jaquiden. You called me stupid a year ago for saying this then Onlyu flat out corroborated it.

On your points:

1. I actually don’t think we were lucky I think he was ours to lose, just like his big brother, who we idiotically passed up. This was a bad call from the coaching staff. But by and large, yes, good quarterbacks don’t want to come to Utah. Why would they?

2. Yep. We lost a good one by mishandling the team. This is a failure in coaching

3. Analytics in football is often a weak argument imo. The sample size and confounding factors on a play by play level make calls like that tough to defend. I don’t believe you can moneyball football like you can baseball, a game whose nature lends itself to a being translated to data. Yes, in large number your model might tell you to go for it there. But does your model know that the refs are calling it soft on PI and your QB went down on his hand last play or is out of breath? Take the points. We honestly may have been able to win if those points were taken. Everybody knew it in real time.

4. Whitt got outcoached, a point that is pretty unilaterally accepted on here. But the narrative last year was that Jedd was a star so it wasn’t so bad. Then Zona brings in a relative nobody, the exact same thing happens. MEANWHILE (batman transition sound) Jedd Fisch’s Washington suffers quite possibly the worst loss in college football this week. So the narrative of Whitt’s legendary prowess suddenly isn’t holding a lot of water and our fanbase is concerningly comfortable ignoring that.

5. I addressed this one up top. I’m sure when Cam comes back he’s going to play well. But it’s october now and we don’t have s**t to should for the cost of tanking our team’s spirit. I hope he comes in and plays the rest of the season out, he may given how short it is at this point. But I’m going to call attention to something else I said last winter and spring as was called an idiot for. Cam Rising has never played a whole season/finished a season of football in his career. Knowing that we’re Utah and will not have a serviceable backup isn’t it kind of stupid to hitch our wagon to a guy like that? Well… it took until week two (with him handling a limited gametime load) for me to be vindicated. This bulls**t of not having a QB room but a QB broom closet isn’t forgivable any longer. Any individual (ANY) responsible for our inability to field the most important position in the sport by a country mile needs to be dismissed. This isn’t an option in football. No individual should be prioritized over the good of the program, it doesn’t matter who they are. We are fans of UTAH FOOTBALL, the obsequious hero worship around here makes me gag.

[Rick]

Thumbs way up for the use of obsequious in a post. Wow.

[Author]

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