If and when we have the full 2020 season..

[ALUF]

What do you think our record will be? I am thinking 9-3 losing to UW, USC, and ASU. Just wanted to get a feel for everyone’s opinion on the outlook for next year. 

I think we relload on defense, secondary will be suspect but will improve throughout the year. Offense will be dependednt on our x-factor which I believe to be Jordan Wilmore and whoever the QB is. If we are good in both RB and QB we should expect good things.

[MDUte]

The schedule is favorable. I think the biggest difference going in to next season is Ludwig. Whit has proven the ability to reload defensively. But having Ludwig and the right offense to complement Whit gives me much more confidence we can stay at the top of the conference. I think we get USC back this year since it’s at RES. But I think we lose to ASU on the road, Washington at home and either Cal or UCLA. 9-3 would be great in my eyes and set us up well for 2021.

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

Utah is not going to lose to Washington at home. They have even more question marks than we do. Remember, they ALSO lost their starting quarterback. That’s also a mid-season game. I think Utah goes 10-2 (7-2). Their only likely losses to me are @ Cal and @ ASU.

[MDUte]

Love your optimism and hope you’re right. But with only 2 returning starters on defense and having to replace our star QB and RB on offense…I wouldn’t be comfortable predicting a 10 win season. I know we’ve recruited well and have a lot of talent replacing last year’s starters but they will lack experience and likely have to work through a lot of mistakes, which often times cost games. Plus there’s always a WTF loss in there…last year it was USC. No matter how much talent USC has we never should’ve lost that game. I definitely believe anything is possible and it would be AMAZING if we got 10 wins. But I’d honestly be happy with 8 or more wins going into this season. IMO, 9 wins would answer the question of whether we have the ability to reload or not…or if we need to rebuild. Go Utes!

[Onlyu]

I’m not gonna predict wins and losses…too chicken to do that right now! Ha. Too many unknown variables for my mind to come up with a number at this point. Anywhere between 7-10 which is a pretty weak statement!

I don’t think the wildcard is at RB at all. We have a ton of talent in the backfield. Depth galore and an O-line that should be markedly improved. We also have depth on the OL so I expect we will run it well with whomever wins that job.

WR’s and TE’s (who also help in the run game) are a year older, smarter and theoretically better so our throw game will be improved.

It comes down to QB play in my mind. Mix of arm talent and experience between the 3 so I’m pretty optimistic but have to see them with the lights on.

As far as the D is concerned you can’t underestimate the return of Tupai. Starter or not he adds depth and experience and helps seal an edge. With Lloyd in the middle , Tufua on one end and a combination of Van, Miki Maxs on the other we’re really strong against the run. Plenty of options inside. Bullish on the d-line!! Have to find another backer and we’re really tough to run against AGAIN!

Question is gonna be do we speed up the clock with pressure to help the young DB’s or make the opponent one dimensional by shutting down the run and trusting the backfield. I don’t know which way to go or which way Whitt will lean.

I think you’ll see more up tempo stuff in the offense this year (provided the QB’s play well) and we’ll throw it a bit more.

Finding those DB’s is gonna be huge and a big battle in camp. RB will be a battle too but whoever wins that is 100% ready to be the guy and if he doesn’t show up in games we have 2-3 more options who will.

[Dresden_Stormblessed]

Those are exactly my expectations going into the season as well.

I think this year is the year we pull in >5 4* recruits though. That is where my expectations are higher than last year. We landed several high profile guys but I am hoping this year we take another step forward to being an elite program, not just an underdog anymore.

I read an interesting article today about the Blue-Chip ratio teams. In essence, it is the teams that recruit more 4/5* guys than 2-3* guys have a shot at winning the national title. It’s a terrible gauge for who will win which games, but it’s a fantastic gauge to know if you will actually compete for a national title, or you won’t. Blue chip ratio

I couldn’t agree more with the article.

[Stone]

I think everyone agrees with the notion that the odds of a successful team go up with better recruiting classes. If the U could sign all 5 star guys, it would.

The debate I see on here (if we want to call it that) is over what is reasonable to expect in terms of recruiting. Some (or at least one person, that is) thinks if we only had a new head coach, we would be landing top 10 classes every year. Most seem to think that there are inherent challenges with the U of U, such that Whit’s steady, improvement in recruiting classes is laudable.

It would be fantastic to see the recruiting rankings improve. It will certainly put the team in a better position to succeeed. Continued success should help make that possible.

 

[Tony (admin)]

9-3 seems exceptional considering all of the positions we are replacing. I think we will probably have some rust and mistakes made early in the season.  We will probably take some time to gel.  But I hope we come out of the gate on fire of course.

[UteBacker]

Here’s my way-too-early prediction:

Wins 6 (Montana St, @Wyoming, @UCLA, Arizona, Oregon St, @Colorado)

Tosses 3 (BYU-Provo, @Wazzou, Washingon) 

Losses 3 (@Cal, USC, @Az St)

We get 1 of the 3 tossups to finish 7-5.  

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

Utah’s going to beat USC this year. The game is at Rice-Eccles. We have beaten them 3 straight times in the friendly confines. Washington State and Washington are likely wins this year too I think because Washington is also replacing a lot and Washington State lost Mike Leach.

[concerned]

Nobody has mentioned the biggest X-factor: Morgan Scalley.

Who is going to be our d-coordinator, and how will all of this affect the team psyche?

[Tony (admin)]

Elephant in the room.

[UteThunder]

Morgan Scalley will still be our defensive coordinator.

The affect on team psyche will be that our players all know, respect, and love Morgan. Because of that, they will rally around him.

Assuming we have the talent to replace the starters we lost, the defense will be just fine.

[UtesRock]

He has a lot of apologizing to do. He needs to call each and every player.

[EagleMountainUte]

I would say I am 99.9999% certain Scalley will be fired. Nothing can be known for certain but I say Utah acts like he is fired. 

[UteThunder]

If they were going to fire him, they could have easily done so long before now. With current and former players all coming to his defense, including the player he sent the text to and the few other former players who have made accusations . . . all of them, without exception, think he should NOT be fired over any of this.

Obviously, he could still be fired, but I don’t see it happening.

[EagleMountainUte]

They got rid of a “racist” card in Magic the Gathering today. Aunt Jemima, Uncle Bens and Mrs Butterworth all on the axe. 
Scalley is done. 

[Duhwayne]

All of those marketing symbols should have disappeared a long time ago. They are shockingly racist leftovers from a time when black people were thought of as the help rather than as consumers or equals. One of my close classmates in school was the daughter of an engineer mother whose parents pushed her to study to make sure she wasn’t a maid. It was a rape prevention strategy. It really sucked to be black in America even 100 years after slavery ended. People who feel personally offended by the reaction to George Floyd’s casual murder have no idea. 

That said, I am guessing Scalley stays. Even if he doesn’t, it’s always been Whitt’s defense and he is very replaceable. Gary was the D coordinator with pretty good success. Pease still hangs around. Shah could do it. Maybe Sitake would come back if you gave him Scalley’s salary, lol. 

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

My record is 10-2 (7-2)
Utah vs. BYU: W 1-0

Utah vs. Montana State: Win 2-0

Utah @ Wyoming: Win 3-0

Utah @ Cal: L 3-1 (0-1)

Utah vs. USC: Win 4-1 (1-1)

Utah @ Washington State: Win 5-1 (2-1)

Utah vs. Washington: Win 6-1 (3-1)

Utah @ UCLA: Win 7-1 (4-1)

Utah vs. Arizona: Win 8-1 (5-1)

Utah vs. Oregon State: Win 9-1 (6-1)

Utah @ ASU: Loss 9-2 (6-2)

Utah @ Colorado: Win 10-2 (7-2)

A 10-2 (7-2) record should be good enough to get them back to the Pac-12 Championship Game via winning the head-to-head tiebreaker over USC, who I also predict to go 7-2 in conference play (losses @ Utah and @ Oregon).

[Author]

Posts