North Dakota

[nodak651]

Hey guys, anyone pumped for football season?!

I am thinking about flying out of Minneapolis to watch North Dakota play you guys.  Thinking it might be a great dual purpose trip for football and lift access mountain biking.  Anyone have travel tips for visiting Salt Lake City?  I think I’d be staying alone. 

Also, if you guys are interested, this is the early write-up on Utah from our best football blogger.

Feel free to visit our message board http://www.siouxsports.com.  I’m sure we will have a game thread set up soon enough.

 

We have a great D-Line and a stable of amazing running backs – I think UND has the potential to keep this game interesting!

[gUrthBrooks]

Good article. Let me help you out with some of the numbers.  On defense, Utah is returning 3 starters to it’s D-Line (Lotulelei, Mokofisi, Fitts) and 3 starters to its LB position (Laufatasaga, Tauteoli, and Barton). Fitts and Tauteoli were injured last season…Fitts played behind Taumoepenu as starter but received more reps and was the better player, but I think Politics were in the way with Taumoepnu threatening to leave if he wasn’t the man. Chase Hansen is returning at strong safety…so the front 8 is returning 7 guys. Utah recruited 5 4* db recruits. One recruit for each position FS, SS, CB, CB, Nickel. 3 of the 5 are JC transfers  Corion Ballard, Marquise Blair, Tareke Lewis. So they have some semi experience in the defensive backfield and we hope they can produce…but let’s not forget, Utah is a defensive team first with talented coaches. 

 

 

 

 

[Utah]

Fitts started until he was hurt. Actually, I think they did the five man front a lot early until Fitts was injured.

[Utah]

Nice write up. Very fair. 

Heres what I’d tell you:

I’m glad your DL is so good. As you know, our OL is  somewhat inexperienced and it will be nice to be tested early. 

Heres what I’d say about the OL. First, Harding may be the best OL coach in the country. What he has done with recruiting and development is outstanding. 4 guys to the NFL? Unheard of. 

Next, we bring back Faleamaka, who started a game at C before being hurt. We bring back Barton who has played a ton and started games. Finally, we have Uhatafe, who is a stud and will be drafted. 

With Harding and the experience we do have, I think our OL will be better than expected. I am more inclined to believe Taylor when he says the OL will be the offense’s strength. 

At QB, we will be fine. Hopefully the best we’ve been since 2008. We have a bonafide QB coach now and tons of talent. 

At RB, we will be fine. We are a RB factory. Our last three RB’s are playing professionally. We have Shyne and Moss who played a ton last year and were really good. Not Joe Williams good, but above average P5 good. Also, Devontae Henry Cole looked great in spring. Shyne is coming off a big injury though, so he may be limited at first. 

All of our backs are big hitters but still fast. 

WR – this is the question mark. We’ve always had talent (I think we have six WR’s in the NFL) but they haven’t produced. I’d assume we still have talent on the team. But we’ve always had a lot of drops. 

I worry because Taylor has said WR is the toughest position to learn in his offense and we’ve been so subpar there recently. 

DL – This is our strength. Lotulelei, Fitts and Mokofisi will all be drafted. Maybe even all three in the first three rounds. Anae is a true sophomore who was a stud as a freshman. And our four backups? They might be the third best DL in the PAC-12. We are stacked there. Your OL will have nightmares of them for the rest of their lives. 

LB – Kavika Kuafatasaga is a SR. he started slow but was a monster the last three games of the year. Our other LB’s are Tauteoli and Barton. But we run a lot of 5-1 fronts and 4-2 with safeties playing LB. Chase Hansen is a monster and will be a 1-2 round draft pick in 2018. Ballard and Blair will move up to LB as well at times. 

CB – we are replacing everyone. But Shareef Shah is an amazing coach. He’s had CB’s drafted every year as a position coach, I do believe. We have Smith, a huge WR converted to CB. Blackmon who looked really good in spring. We also have Johnson, maybe the best high school recruit to ever sign at Utah, Guidry and Lewis coming in, all 4 stars. 

We may not be amazing, but I’d bet at worst we are average. 

S – we are stacked here. Hansen is a potential first rounder. Ballard has been very good as well and looks to have an NFL future as well. 

P – best in the country.

K – along with WR, our biggest question mark. Right now, we have nothing. A kid just joined the team but we will see.

If WR and kicker pans out, we will win 9+ games and end up ranked top 15. If they don’t, we probably end up with 7-8 wins.

I’d expect this game to be a 35-10 type game.

[nodak651]

I can’t seem to find the quote button, so @hammer, I did not write that article. I think the guy who did played for UND when we were DII. I posted the article, because I wanted to get more input from people more familiar with the team – you guys. It’s a long off season, and football talk can never start early enough. That’s why I included that link. The article was written on May 25th, and I registered an hour ago, yes.

Thanks for the responses so far everyone.

[gUrthBrooks]

My bad. Sorry about jumping on you like that. 

[UNDColorado]

I live in Colorado and SLC is about a 6.5 hour drive from where I live so I a definitely coming out for the game and I am looking forward to it. I certainly don’t expect a win for us but I do expect this to be closer than many expect. I am also looking forward to doing some tailgating so if anyone has any input on a certain parking lot or place to go please let me know. I will happily share some full strength beer with you all!

[Utah]

The thing about Whitt, is he doesn’t blow out FCS like you think he would. That’s why I have it a 35-14 game. 

 

[ladyinred]

Utah doesn’t tend to blow anyone out, so I think most of us are expecting a closer than necessary game and some nailbiting.

I am not an expert on the best location for tailgating, but I can tell you that you’ll be pleasantly surprised by our tailgating scene here in general. I personally tend to hang around the Guardsman Way side which is south of the stadium. I hope others will chime in with their recommendations. Bringing good beer with you will certainly earn you some instant friends.

As for SLC in general, stay downtown near a TRAX line and take the red line straight to the stadium. You shouldn’t endure too much heckling from fans unless you are in BYU gear.

[UNDColorado]

Thanks for the input @ladyinred

I am staying downtown so that part is good to go. My initial plan was to get to the lots early around 1 PM and park and tailgate. Or does it make more sense to fill a backpack with beer and take the train?

[ladyinred]

For you UND I would bring the car since you will have it here with you anyway, and you will not be wanting to carry a heavy backpack in August when it will likely still be hot AF. Although finding parking is likely to suck no matter how early you arrive, so just be prepared for that likelihood.

For the other guy (or gal) who is flying out I would suggest taking the train.

[Tony (admin)]

You can join our tailgate as my guest, but you’re bringing the adult beer.  Hell you can probably stay at my place too, if you bring enough.

[ladyinred]

Tony where do you tailgate out of curiosity? Does anyone ever give you a hard time for bringing wine instead of beer? 🙂

[Tony (admin)]

How do you know I’m a wine vs beer guy?  Public knowledge I guess LOL.  We are right by where the band plays, and best of all by the dumpster.  Stop on by.

[UNDColorado]

Thanks for the invite and there is a 100% chance I will have some really nice beers from Colorado that will be well over 5%. When I was on the Ute athletic site I was looking at the Guradsman lot. If I get there early enough will I be able to park there? Thanks!

[Tony (admin)]

Maybe.  Just go to the neighborhood south of the tailgate lot, south of 8th south.  It’s a 5 minute walk.  Early in the day you should be able to park there no problem.

[GameForAnyFuss]

For lift-served MTB, give Deer Valley a try. Your hotel’s concierge can hire you a shuttle to Park City where there are copious places to rent bikes. Deer Valley has (IMO) the best lift-served riding in Utah. When your hunger overcomes your will to ride, they also have really good eats, though it tends to run pricey.

I second the idea of staying near a Trax line. Your game ticket is also an all-day Trax ticket, so you can ride for free. Be prepared to be crammed in with thousands of sweaty Utah fans though.

[ladyinred]

There was a booze thread on here once and I thought you mentioned having a glass of red a day or something similar. The location by the dumpster is indeed convenient.

[Tony (admin)]

Two glasses… 🙂

[utefansince79]

As for mountain biking, Moab (about 4 hours away from Salt Lake) is of course world renownded.  But locally a few of the ski resorts let you pay to ride the lift to the top (then hike or ride a bike back down).   Believe that Solitude and Snowbird (possibly others) offer that service and they are less than a hour away.

 

 

 

 

 

[UNDColorado]

Only 10 days everyone! After some discussion with my group we will not set up our own tailgate. Instead we will hop the light rail from our hotel and bring a cooler bag full of beers then discard the cheep cooler bag before the game. I will make it a point to stop by the Ute Hub tailgate mentioned above. Let’s have some fun!

[Puget Ute]

Good move. Skip the hassle of setting up your own tailgate, and make a few hundred new friends. We Utah fans pride ourselves in the love we show fans of opposing teams, and we will do our best to take good care of you as well. We are very happy to have fans from other schools travel to our stadium, and will treat you like family. (note this only applies to fans of every school not named byu…)

Welcome to football season!

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