Not sure I can do this again

[Phatmanandy]

I don’t know about you guys but i’m honestly starting to lose my fandom. I’ve been a die hard Ute my entire life, worked with the team, I have an entire basement man-cave dedicated to Utah Utes. But as the 2023 season wore on and the idea of Rising being a game time decision for 6 straight weeks after what could have been a special season I started to become dejected and not care, to the point where I was angry about talking Utah Football.
With the 2024 season full of excitement, Cam, Kuthie, Bernard all coming back, plus a plethora of transfers to make immediate impacts I was renewed, excited for what was a pretty generous schedule and what could lead to a very special season.
Honestly I have been happy with Isaac, he’s the future and has the tools and ability to do it all. IMO I believe the play calling has been horrific, not giving him or the team the opportunity to succeed. Now comes in the Cam news again, GTD, GTD, GTD for 3 weeks now. All during that time Cam has been getting reps as the 1st string while hindering any progression for Isaac. Now we are talking about possibly turning it over to Isaac? Fine, but the coaches should have figured that out weeks ago. If Cam was never medically cleared Isaac should have been getting all the reps, not the other way around.
The hush hush on injuries has always drove me crazy, coaches aren’t stupid. Arizona obviously game planned for Isaac not Cam, so that didn’t work. I would rather mentally prepare for a 9-3 season than wondering what could have been.
I’m so beyond frustrated right now. thanks for listening to me vent

[Larry B]

I think a lot of fans are in the same boat. I know I am. Last year was the first time I’ve ever not enjoyed Utah football and this year is starting to feel the same. I’m ready to move on from Cam and I’ve lowered my expectations to a 8-4 or 7-5 type season. Honestly, the only game I really want Utah to win is the game on November 9th. Everything else is just getting Wilson more game time reps.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Andy you’re not alone. I think we all are frustrated. I really thought this might be our best team and chance to make the playoffs. Cam is the key to our success and the additions of Singer and Kuithe made the offense dangerous. A freak accident (why couldn’t be the left hand) has put serious doubt on Cams ability to be 100% the rest of the year.

Nobody feels worse than Cam. His injury likely has derailed any NFL hopes he had. If you can’t throw you can’t throw simple. Obviously the injury was worse than we all speculated. Which is why injuries should be reported so we all can be more rational with our expectations.

[Phatmanandy]

Yeah I love Cam, he has given his heart and sole to this team and love that he stayed to have what could have been a huge year for him and the program. I wish Cam would have thrown the ball away sooner, kneeled down, slid, anything besides putting himself in that position to be shoved into the gatorade cooler. I feel for him, he was excited for this year and the opportunity.
I’m just so exhausted by the mismanagement of the coaching staff, it is driving me crazy. Like typing this out is giving me anxiety.
Truly at this point I just want it to be Isaac’s team, that way everyone knows where we stand, the players, the coaches, the fans. We can start building to next season.
Man what could have been…. sad.

[Tony (admin)]

Appreciate your candidness. The last 2 seasons have been challenging. Cam or not I roll with the Utes.

[thewiz]

Are we sure that Cam has been getting the majority of the first team reps for each of the last four, full weeks since the injury?

[pedro]

No offense, but this is literally the definition of fair weathered fan. Go Utes!

FWIW, I get the frustration. But I will always be there with my butt in the seat.

[Phatmanandy]

Lol, fair weather fan? GTFO with that nonsense. I’ve been a fan for 38 years, born and raised a Ute. Went to school there, met my wife there, worked with the team for a few years. I have a dedicated basement with memorabilia of Utah athletics. So get out of here with that bs.
I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars, time, etc., with Utah athletics. I have season tickets to both football and basketball. I’m the biggest Ute fan that people know everywhere I go, church, school, work, etc., My wardrobe is Utah gear.
Please forgive me for being p**sed off that the coaching staff has p**sed away a good opportunity two years in a row now.

[Anfernee]

This is 100 percent not a fair weather fan situation. The most die hard of fans have expressed a similar sentiment (in one way or the other) about the last 2 seasons. The way it’s been handled is draining. It’s been mismanaged and very tone deaf to be doing it the same why Whitt is AGAIN. So much of this angst and anger could be quelled with some transparency and a common sense injury report. Then we could be talking football and not this bulls**t guessing game. It’s a unique, not in a good way, situation fans have been put in. Donors as well. I just pray Friday night is the Utes I know we can be and the momentum gets rolling again. Go Utes!

[Utegator]

Exactly this, Anfernee. I almost felt like we were purposefully trolled, especially last year. Cam would be out there in pads with a knee brace doing pre game warm ups like he was a game time decision. Then we found out near the end of the season that they knew he wouldn’t be playing last year. Maybe it was some more of Whitts attempt at gaining an “advantage”.

So now we are all jaded when we see him out there warming up and then not playing again.

[pedro]

You’re the one saying that you are dejected, do not care and is losing your fandom, not me.

Per dictionary.com: A fair weather fan is a sports fan who only supports a team when they are winning and loses interest when they are losing.

It’s one thing to be frustrated, it’s only to “lose fandom”. That’s a choice you made.

[Phatmanandy]

Thanks for the dictionary reference. I guess my Utah degree didn’t teach me that.
Here’s something you can look up in the dictionary, “obtuse”

Losing fandom because of how things are being handled by the coaching staff. As a paying season ticket holder, NIL donor, fan who travels to 2-3 away games every year I feel I have a right to complain when the staff refuses to be transparent to gain a competitive advantage that just isn’t there.

But thank you for telling me i’m a fair weather fan, when I’m not even close to it.

[Utah]

It’s the whole sport. There has always been haves and have nots. But the difference between today and the 80’s and 90’s is that the have nots still had things to work for.

Think back to those days. Especially the 90’s through about 2010.

Bowl games mattered. Conference championships mattered. You had rivals you cared about and wanted to beat. You lived around people who went to schools that wasn’t your school and could have friendly banter about the sport.

Compare that to today:

Bowl games don’t matter. At all. Like, no one cares. And that sucks. Even if you get to play a team you’ve never played before (like Northwestern), both teams are sitting half their players and the game just sucks.

Conference championships don’t matter. Maybe this will change with the expanded playoffs, but the two PAC-12 titles…they didn’t seem like they were as big of a deal as MWC championships were. Maybe it was the losses in the Rose Bowl, but we won those and then…over. No one cared by Tuesday.

Rivals…Even in the PAC-12, I’m not sure we had any rivals. There was never games that felt like the BYU or Wyoming or even TCU. There was just games that felt like checklists. I don’t live by anyone in the Big 12. I’ve never met a Kansas St fan or Oklahoma St fan in real life. I just don’t care. Hell, I’ve never met a KSU, OkSU, Baylor, Kansas, Texas Tech, UCF, Houston, Cincinnati (and I grew up in Ohio), etc.

These games are just “meh”.

Then finally, you used to be able to go to practice. You’d see players over and over and over again. You’d see them get better. I remember watching Huntley at the beginning of spring ball and thinking “hey, he has potential but looks like we are going with Williams again.” And then by the spring game it was 100% clear that Huntley was the guy.

Hell, I came on here and told you guys that Jordan would be our best RB ever and was downvoted to oblivion. You don’t get that anymore. You don’t know who any of the players are. You haven’t watched them. They transferred in and out. You can’t go to practices. You can’t connect.

There is zero reason to watch college football anymore other than “that is what I do on Saturdays”. It’s too bad.

[Phatmanandy]

Exactly how I feel about the whole situation.

[Anfernee]

There’s absolutely stuff I don’t like about the landscape but to go as far to say no need or reason to watch is very extreme. I listened to Bernard and Kuithe after practice. Micah’s attitude is awesome and contagious. They both got me pumped for Friday. There’s a lot of mess in college football but there’s also still a lot of good. Much of this has to do with attitude. Wherever your focus is that’s what your enjoyment will be. There’s a lot of spoiled brats but there’s even more guys like Bernard, the Boise RB and tons of great stories to root for. I’ll still enjoy my football. Go Utes!

[OmahaOmaha]

Why do you spend so much time and/or money — attend games, watch on television, follow the teams, post on message boards etc…. about something you care little about? Makes no sense.

[Red Son]

What are you talking about? Read the post again. He cares too much.

[OmahaOmaha]

Understood. Was supposed to go under Utah’s post.

[Ute-yankee]

I hear exactly what you are saying, Andy. Last year I stopped doing my midweek obsessing and just tuning in to the games to enjoy watching Utah play. It was a less enjoyable season for me and I was really looking forward to being your typical obsessed fan again this year. This bye week has felt like last season to me.

Part of me thinks that the recency of the loss to Arizona is still affecting my attitude and that a win at ASU will make it all better so I can get hyped again. The other part of me is battening down the hatches to prepare for another throwaway season. I guess well see on Friday night which part of me is right.

[Uteanooga]

Expectations will get you man- in this life or any other.

Keep them low and be happy when reality exceeds your expectations.

[Phatmanandy]

Yeah in most of my life I usually have low expectations because you are then never too upset.

I guess I just fell into the media hype, the Dr.Pepper hype train commercial really hits hard right now. haha.

[admiralute]

I jumped off of the hype train last week and it hurt bad. Spat out the kool-aid as well as it didn’t age well. Time to just expect a mediocre season and if they exceed, then marvelous. I’m tired of hyping this team up to my wife year after year upon “hearing”how talented and deep they are, to 4 games into the season explaining ad nauseam how it was injuries and Pac12 refs why they are falling apart and losing.

[RoboUte]

I’m still a huge fan of Utah football. Months ago I was over here wondering why it seems like everyone else was just a fan of Cam Rising. Huntley was better and Wilson will be better. I think everybody would feel better and see thing clearer if they got the past out of their heads. Lets work from now going forward.

[Tednab]

Kinda done with both cam and whit at this point

[HeyyyUguyyys]

Whether it’s justified or not, I don’t remember a time where the perception of a Utah team changed more in the course of seven days than Oklahoma State to Arizona. It’s actually been kind of amazing to watch. We were in Stillwater, completely owning the team that we thought would be our biggest competition with a 17 year old QB. Then with 7 min left in the fourth quarter Kuithe walked into the end zone and the hype train officially derailed. I don’t know if it was the atrocious prevent defense, the constant Cam tease, the completely uninspired performance against Arizona, watching BYU rapidly ascend, the fact that all of our wins look like dogs**t at this point, or the extra week to think about the whole thing. All I know is that it feels BAD right now. Probably way worse than it should. I’m going to laugh my a** off if we go on to win the conference.

[EagleMountainUte]

Utah was only dominating on one side of the ball until after Kuithe walked in against Ok state. The offense is obviously terrible.

[GameForAnyFuss]

To anyone who is losing their fandom and wants to unload your remaining tickets at a discount, DM me.

[EagleMountainUte]

Last few years in general I have cooled to all of the College athletics. I think NLI is a good thing. I never understood why an adult was not allowed to basically make money off of their work while they play for a school.

The mishandling of the QB position has just been a theme at Utah for some time now. Whitt has had a lot of bad luck but he is very much a you make your own luck type of guy.

I can understand your frustrations for sure but for the past five years I have become less and less invested. Could be my career as well but life has been busy for me.

One other thing I think it was like 2 or 3 years ago I sort of calculated the odds of Utah ever winning a Championship. It just doesn’t seem feasible with the current entrenched powers. I think chances will go up if Utah makes it to the Big10. I am like a broken record but the Big12 sucks. The revenue is good and the fact that Utah has an exit are about the only positives. I also have been able to watch the games easily. Which is the first time in forever.

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