I’m leery of p**sing off the Sports Gods…

[Ute Dub]

The Sport Gods value humility and doing things the right way, and I think we’ve done ourselves in, according to my superstitious fanatical thinking.

1) The “10 is coming” hype might have jinxed us. Now, we’re facing the prospect of back-to-back losses to TDS. Remember the curse of Max Hall? We can’t let our arrogance turn this into a reverse situation.

2) Mocking the Big 12 with truck stop references has been not only insulting but also embarrassing for our fan base. Now that we’re uncertain about bowl eligibility, what can we say? Apologies for belittling your way of life and hometown while we thought we had a superior football team.

3) Having multiple strong running backs has always been key for Utah. We’ve typically performed at a B+ or A- level with a solid defense and a couple of standout running backs. While we’ve aimed for A-level performance through our quarterback, we seem to have overlooked the importance of the running game. Currently, Utah ranks 10th in passing, 11th in rushing, and 14th in scoring in the BIG 12, with just 15 passing touchdowns and 5 rushing touchdowns. UCF has 26 rushing TD’s to Utah’ 5 Rushing TD’s. Before joining the Big 12, Utah was first in rushing in the Pac 12 in 2021 (thanks to Tavion Thomas and his 21 TDs), first again in 2022 (also Tavion Thomas), and third in rushing in 2023 (with Ja’Quindon Jackson). I don’t understand why we thought we could deviate from our successful formula, but it’s clear we need to get back on track! We need to get back to the spread to open up the running lanes. The 3, and 4 TE set has clearly failed!

4) Skipping the running back step and putting all the money into a single player must significantly wear on the team who has watched one player make all the money across several seasons while not playing.

These are my thoughts. The Sports God’s will have a humble fan base. We can choose to be humble, or they will compel us.

[utefansince79]

I’m just glad I didn’t go on any of the Big12 boards a few months ago boasting and bragging that we would dominate. Some of us that did (yes some were allegedly BYU fans, but some of it was our own fans) are having to eat some humble pie the last few weeks.

[Ute Dub]

Agree. But how did we go so astray?!?!?!?! We’re last in the BIG 12 in rushing TD’s. LAST!

In fact, every team in the BIG 12 has double digit rushing TD’s except for us and Houston (7), with the average being 14.0. We are barely above 1/3rd of the average amount of rushing TD’s.

https://big12sports.com/stats.aspx?path=football&year=2024

[Utah]

Eh. We should have dominated. The Big 12 is not good. Iowa St and BYU are the best two teams.

This is 100% a league we should have absolutely rolled through.

No one fumbles a great opportunity like Kyle Whittingham.

[2008 National Champ]

If you’ll go with “could have dominated”, I’ll join your chorus. There aren’t any truly great teams in the league this year so it was open to anyone who could limit their mistakes, as evidenced by the parochial school.

For anyone willing to look at Utah realistically, there were some positional concerns going into the season. And it seems like those have all been as bad or worse than the most skeptical imagined. Which is really what has to happen for a team to fall this far below expectations. At the same time, for as bad as it has looked at times this year, the team isn’t that far from doing enough to at least be winning ugly. But it’s pretty damned hard to stop an avalanche and that’s what it’s felt like for the last month.

[Rick Walker]

I’ve also had the thought since the 2021 game against byu that we might have the “they so poo poo” curse.

I’m gonna spend all week throwing salt over my shoulder and doing special dances and sending burnt offerings to do my part in pleasing the sports gods.

[SteelUte]

I’ve never knocked the football in this conference- just the destinations. Sorry Waco, Stillwater, Provo, I’m just not interested in traveling to your towns as much as the Bay Area or La area or Washington. But yes, we maybe were due some humility.

[Ute Dub]

It’s one thing to knock them in your home, or on the home team board…but it’s another thing to go onto Twitter and make it known to the whole world and their fan bases.

[radioUte]

Apparently, Glover didn’t get the memo.

[Anfernee]

If the sports gods are punishing the entire team and fan base because of some blowhards on Twitter, those gods can 🖕
But I’d like to think it’s more about the ebbs and flows of sports and not Zeus worrying about Cheese Fries and Pig Bus.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

With Rising returning the focus shifted to the “throw game”. Paying Qb WRs and tight ends instead of JJ. Can’t replace a big back like JJ without $$. If we have more NIL we get JJ back and suddenly a Bernard JJ backfield looks pretty good. NIL is destroying under financed programs. If it weren’t for bad luck we’d have no luck at all.

[Ute Dub]

I’m right there with you. In hindsight, you can’t give one player more than 40% to 50% of NIL. Cam at 70% with his injury history is dumb. But he likely had offers elsewhere.

[thewiz]

Last fall, Cam likely had NIL agreement offers from other schools’ NIL collectives that were double the amount of the NIL offer the U of U collective presented to him. However, it appears that Cam stayed loyal to the UTE football program, his Utes’ teammates, and the Utes fan base and was was fully rehabbed and prepared to play this season.

[lgt4141]

I am sure the NIL collective for Utah will approach their NIL payouts differently after the Cam NIL debacle. As I read on another thread Cam’s NIL is like a reward for job well done for the two Pac 12 conference championships.

We are feeling a down year of football after having a lot of up years. Utah will be back.

[Author]

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