Good read about current Ute news

[UtesRule]

This kind of surprised me…but it really shouldn’t have. Utah has the 18th best winning percentage amongst Power Five schools in the last 30 years. Very impressive list to be in.
Around The Hill

[2008 National Champ]

That stat is misleading. Utah spent the first 19 years of that 30 in the WAC/MWC and is only .632 as a member of a Power 5 conference.

[UtesRule]

Way to burst my bubble! Geez!!!

[2008 National Champ]

Sorry! I build narratives out of numbers for a living so I never am able to take someone else’s at face value.

The most interesting thing to me was that the time range essentially coincided with the beginning of the McBride era (1990 instead of 1992). I was there during Fassel so I’ll always have a little bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to Utah’s place in the national picture. Yet during this time period, Utah had two coaches for 28 of the 30 years. That stability is more meaningful to me than winning %. Because let’s face it, there really isn’t much relevant data when comparing 1992 to 2021.

How many schools can say they’ve only had 3 head coaches the last 30 years? Penn State and.,, maybe Iowa?

[Ute Dub]

I would counter with; don’t you have to discount the losses in first 4-5 years in the PAC 12 as you are building up your recruiting, depth, and facilities to be a P5 school?

[Ute2]

Truth. Those years were outliers where we had a set of circumstances that was extremely unique. But 3 of those 5 years were actually pretty good

[2008 National Champ]

Just to be clear: Utah said they were ready to compete at the P5 level which is why they accepted membership. But you want a grace period because Utah wasn’t ready to compete at the P5 level? Kinda blows those whole 2004 and 2008 “we were as good as anybody” narratives out of the water.

Cherry picking stats until you find the one’s you like isn’t necessarily a look that I would like the Utah fan base to be known for. I much prefer the “line ’em up and we’ll give you everything we’ve got” that Whit teams embody, even in defeat.

[Ute Dub]

Bull s**t. They were ready to compete, but it doesn’t mean they were on equal footing from the get go as far as depth and facilities. Kyle Whittingham is on record saying it would take 5 years to build up the program. 

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