How did your weekend go?

[Jim McMahon]

Yikes, that got ugly fast. I kept trying to tell all my BYU friends that their speed was going to destroy us. Speed kills BYU every. single. time. Saw a stat on Cougarbard that Oregon has something like 52 (4 and 5 star) recruits on their team. BYU has 3 lol. There are so many examples of us being ranked, playing a team with athletes, and just getting boat raced. Got punched in the mouth and never punched back.

Anyway, as much as some BYU fans like to crap on the P12, your conference is looking pretty stout with Washington’s dismantling of Michigan State. BYU fans like to laugh and say that Utah can’t make the CFP after the Florida loss, but with the rankings where they are now, if you guys win out, you’re in, and you would deserve it if you can go undefeated agains the PAC this year. That will be a tall order. 

Good luck the rest of the way. We still have a chance to regroup against Wyoming and Utah State before Notre Dame and Arkansas at home. That Arkansas game could be a lot of fun if we go 3-0 next few weeks (big IF).

[ProudUte]

After watching the BYU/Baylor game – I thought BYU would beat Oregon.  I am honestly surprised by the outcome of the Oregon game.  It appears that the new coach has his offense rolling which is scary.

IMO, BYU’s biggest weakness may be its lack of a consistent running game.  Hall has looked good in every game.  He would be unstoppable if he had a running game and could use the play-action pass more effectively.

 

[Jim McMahon]

Yep. If we had Allgeier this season we’d be so much better. He hit holes with a purpose. Brooks is okay. Run game is killing us. Holes are there, just can’t crack any big runs.

We still would have lost that game, but I think we would have been competitive. 

[SalUteopia]

Thanks for stopping by. That Oregon game got ugly for you guys real fast. I expected Oregon to win, but not so handily. Re Utah – it was a sound win, but yet another slow start. Personally, I still don’t know what to make of our team – we *could* win out, but we could also drop 2-3 games if we keep playing at the current level. Excited it to see how the season unfolds. One game at a time.

PS: I enjoy your takes, and what you bring to this board. Thanks!

[Jim McMahon]

Thanks for putting up with me.

[chinngiskhaan]

As far as BYU’s performance goes… I’ll just say that it was nice to see given how many BYU fans have tried to downplay our two dominating performances against Oregon last year… Also, I got a chuckle out of BYU fans thinking a Cal running back was going to be the savior of your running game. I admit that Brooks looks like a good running back, but he doesn’t play like one. TA was a very underrated player, even BYU fans underestimated just how good he is.

Concerning the state of Pac12 football… I’ll say that calling the pac12 stout is a bit on the generous side. Better than last year maybe, but still not great. There are more solid teams this year, but a few teams have gone from bad to worse.

It is going to be a fun season for both of our fanbases… Hope BYU does well the rest of the way.

[Extra Medium]

The worst part about playing Oregon and USC is knowing that 80-90% of the players lining up on the other side of the ball are better athletes. At any point in time if they put it together they will beat you. It can happen on any play. The only hope is to punch them in the mouth hard and fast hoping they quit. BYU should win the next 2 for sure. Notre Dame is a very winnable game if they are healthy. They key for BYU will be to stay and get healthy. I don’t think they have P5 depth yet and the 2nd-3rd guys won’t be able to keep up with ND or Arkansas.

Best of luck in the coming weeks. I’m sure we’ll all be watching. Even the haters will be watching!

[UteBacker]

You’re finding out what Ute fans found out when we joined the Pac12.  We would get KILLED on the edges with our lack of speed at that time.  We’ve solved that for the most part but there are obviously still times that our overall athleticism doesn’t quite stack up against elite teams (Ohio St), but there’s no shame, almost no one matches up against those guys.  

The Pac is looking MUCH better.  Sadly, I think we blew our chance at getting killed by Georgia in the playoffs with that loss against Florida.  With the improved league, there’s no way we get through the rest of our schedule without at least one more loss.  But, we still have an awesome shot at the Rose Bowl again so we have a lot to play for (unlike BYU, but that’ll change next year).  

 

[EagleMountainUte]

In what way did Utah not stack up to Ohio state? It literally went down the wire and Utah was playing Bernard both ways in the game due to injuries. 

Everyone has excuses and Ohio st lost plenty of their guys to the NFL. So if that is what you mean. Utah was pretty much right there with them and scored a bundle. 

[UteBacker]

I guess this is what I mean:

If both teams were at full strength we lose handily

Just my opinion, with along with a $1.00 will buy me a refill on my coffee.

[Charlie]

Lack of full strength due to injury is a bit different than players opting out at the end of the year. One of the drawbacks of the 5 star players or players with high draft status is they are much more likely to not play in a bowl game. So it is simply a given that Ohio State will be missing players if they are not in the playoffs. Part of the cost of a 5 star player. With that in mind Utah had the more unexpected blow to the team. It is very unusual to have that many losses with a single position so I kind of feel Ohio State was at their expected team strength where Utah was less then expected or typical. After all that the two were about as even as it gets, maybe an edge to Utah if Cam does not leave the game.

[idahoute]

I wish more Utah and BYU fans took a page out of this person’s (JM) book.  Devestating loss for his/her team with so much on the line and yet gets on rival’s board and gives an insightful/classy post.  You represent well friend!  Keep posting.  

Question:  How do you think the Y will fare next year when they have to play week in/out a P5 conference team without having 3-5 patsies thrown in the scedule to rest up on?  Honestly, I think the Y has become used to having big games on the schedule early for which they are prepared and healthy and one late in the year to save the season.  No more.  They are coming at you one after the other after the other…. Add to that scheduling big name teams in preseason gives you an appreciation for what Whitt and The Utes have accomplished thus far.  Who knows how long it will last.  You will soon understand next year in a P5 conference why many Ute fans (myself included) don’t care about playing the Y.  Too much going on, lots to lose and nothing to gain.   

[THEeyepatch]

There was nothing to gain by playing the tds as an independent other than state bragging rights; that will change after next season.

[Jim McMahon]

This is something I clearly understood but many fellow BYU fans failed to see. If I were Utah, and I had already won so many games in a row too, why would I want to keep playing BYU. At that point it’s all downside. You risk losing recruits, you already have a tough conference schedule, etc.

But once we’re both in conferences (and maybe conference mates in the future) I would love to get this game back to the final game of the season. Rivalries are what make college football so magical. 

[Jim McMahon]

Next year is gonna be BRUTAL. Particularly if we lose Jaren. Our QB room looks pretty pedestrian right now. 

[RoboUte]

Honestly this is a sign of things to come for BYU. And it’s a bit of irony considering all of their favorite talking points about “winning the Pac 12”, (which UAB did). Any team can win on any day but winning week after week is tough. You just played two tough matchups two weeks in a row and your team wasn’t ready, they weren’t even close. And while it was a beating it’s not the beating itself that’s the issue.

 

The issue is that this is conference play, you have to play talented teams week in and week out now. Baylor is not good, Oregon is probably average to a bit below average by their standards. This wasn’t even a tough 2 game stretch, you’ll get months like this all the time in the Big 12. You don’t get to play:

Liberty

GA Southern

Boise

Idaho State

ECU

Utah Tech University

 

In November anymore.

You will be PRAYING for your current schedule in a few years. Even poor P5 teams will give you fits with talent that the above teams can never match and you don’t get a break. you do it every week. BYU had to do it for 2 weeks and imploded, that’s a bad bad sign of things to come. You aren’t as close as you think to being able to run at the level you think you’re on and a few years from now youd better hope you play Utah early in the season. Even in the comparitively weak PAC these schedules will wear a team down and your fanbase is going to face that fact knowing that they denied it could be true just a few short years ago. Prepare for a difficult 2020s.

[UteBacker]

Agreed, Robo, but I think Jim McMahon is actually one reasonable BYU-P fan that “gets it”.  I’m pretty sure that he understands that it takes time to build depth (hell, he watched Utah do it before his very eyes).  The $1m question is: can BYU-P build the kind of depth and talent needed to complete in the BigXII given their restrictions?  It’ll be an interesting thing to watch from our perspective.

[RoboUte]

I think a sizable portion of even the most rabid BYU fans know that their recruiting seituation is a “High Floor Low Ceiling” deal where they will benefit less from P5 affiliation than almost all other programs. College football will cease to be played before BYU entirely solves their depth issue.

 

I would actually love it if they relaxed their recruiting restrictions because it would be a tacit admission their religious beliefs are less sacred than their school’s football program. And I love a good fall from grace story.

[Jim McMahon]

I agree that conference play will be a big adjustment and take some time. We will be lucky to have a winning record the first few years. Most rational BYU fans know this. We know that our depth is lacking (although it is improving) and we hope that we’ll get a bump in recruiting. 

“You aren’t as close as you think to being able to run at the level you think you’re on…” And what level is that? Please do tell me. I haven’t run my mouth about BYU at all. I’m pretty realistic about what BYU is.

The rest of your post is pretty hilarious, frankly. Baylor is just “good”. Baylor won the B12 and finished 5th in the country last year and brought back a ton of talent. They may win the B12 and another NY6 game this year. We just played at Oregon, and we have top 10 Arkansas at home. Now sure, we didn’t know that Notre Dame would be this bad but they looked really good coming into this season too. We still also have Liberty (laugh all you want, they almost just beat 21st ranked Wake Forest 36-37 and would be undefeated, and Boise on the road). Boise and Liberty are at least as tough as Colorado and Arizona and maybe ASU this season, we’ll see. Our current S.O.S. is 13, yours is 95th. So I doubt that we’ll be begging for THIS schedule in years to come. Maybe some of our previous Indy schedules, but not this one. We also went on the road and boat raced South Forida to start the season who was up on Florida in the swamp 28-24 in 4Q and barely lost 31-28. So maybe slow your roll a bit and stop pretending like our schedule this year is trash. It may very well end up being better than Utah’s. I’m not saying BYU is better than Utah, but do some research before posting a bunch of nonsense. 

 

[RoboUte]

Aaand there’s the unhinged mental gymnasics. At least I know you’re an actualy BYU fan and not just LARPing now.

 

What I love most about this post is the admission that conference pay will be hard but also the half baked argument against that very assertion.

 

“Baylor is just “good””. I said they were bad. Whatever they end up being by the end of the season is anyones guess but make sure to quote me correctly if you want to have an opinion on the matter or you’re just talking into thin air. They may win a NY6 bowl, true. I might win the lottery. Shapen is a joke, that team will always be hamstrung by that fact.

“We just played at Oregon”, I’ve been told that isn’t impressive even when you win. By who you might ask? I’ll give you one guess :). And not only did you not win you got embarassed, they put in 2nd teamers on you in the 3rd, that’s insulting. The game was a joke. So if winning at Autzen isn’t impressive I’ll let you come up with a few adjectives for what getting monumentally outclassed at Autzen is. Impress me for once.

“We still also have Liberty laugh all you want”. No worries there, I was already on it. I am glad that Liberty gets points for almost winning though. Just like USF. I’m sure Utah got a lot of credit for “almost winning” their season opener over on cougarboard didn’t they? Seems to me like theres another word for “almost winning” that escapes me at the moment. If you get credit for almost winning we’re 3-0, chief. Pick your poison.

You come in with a bunch of napkin matchup math like that has ever meant anything in any sport ever. And tell me to do research in the same breath. A common event in college football is when you can complete a “circle of suck”, a term for when a pool of teams, often a conference or sometimes most of CFB have have a record of wins and loses that allows you to draw a circle from one team to the next until you have an ourobouros of teams that have all beaten each other on paper. Say team A beats Team B and Team B beats Team C and Team C beats Team D and Team D beats Team A. Team A>Team B>Team C>Team D>TeamA>TeamB>Team C… and so on and so forth. This happens every year. Here’s a post about your new conference doing it last year https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/qti16t/with_losses_by_oklahoma_and_texas_the_big_12_has/

If anything in your post has any logical merit then no team is really better than any other team at any point in time. I’ll let you decide if you want to die on that hill. I’m sure your strength of schedule is fine. But timing matters too and theres a reason I meantioned only the cupcakes you play in November, a fact you very overtly decided to ignore, cause trust me there are more. You’re going to find out why even playing a bad ASU isn’t like playing Liberty and you’re going to find out the hard way. The 2010s were rough for BYU, the 2020s will be worse. Hold on. At your heart of hearts you’re the same poisonous delusional BYU fan the rest of them are and getting you to show your true color was effortless. All it took was the truth.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim McMahon]

Haha. You sound pleasant. I haven’t talked trash or tried to pretend BYU is anything special. I’ve been respectful of your team. 

Have a good day and good luck the rest of the season. 

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