Reminder that Utah’s future is SECURE!

[MDUte]

Sorry Zoobs, the Utah train will continue to roll after Whitt retires!!

Elite development 🙌 #RSNB @RSNBUtes pic.twitter.com/ttCt7cMEt7

— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) April 30, 2024

[MDUte]

pic.twitter.com/8YP97IlHq0

— Sharrieff Shah Sr. (@UteReef33) April 30, 2024

[Central Coast Ute]

I can’t believe Marcus Williams fell to the second round

[Stone]

I enjoy the rivalries of college football – including Utah and BYU. So this is not to denigrate the original post. But to the extent there are those that think the rivalry is dead and we should move on (I have seen many that take that position), I would present this post as evidence that it is not and never has been: Exhibit A: a post about Utah’s success in the draft that cannot help but incorporates a knock against the zoobs.

[MDUte]

I’ve always liked the Rivalry and appreciate that rivalries are one of the biggest reasons why CFB is so special. However, my outlook has waffled and changed over the past couple of years. I care way more about Utah playing at the highest level of CFB in whatever form the Super League ultimately takes than I do about maintaining the rivalry. Utah has come so far over the past decade and has been considered by all national media to be a perennial Top 20 program. That puts us in very good company and positioned to be part of the future Super League. BYU, on the other hand, is hovering in the 60 – 70 level with current recruiting and on-field performance. And I’m not confident they’ll be able to make the jump from where they are today to where Utah is. All that said, my concern is I don’t want to see Utah going backwards to get down to BYU’s level. But rather, if BYU were to somehow rise up to Utah’s level, then great…game on. I’m just not seeing how BYU gets there in time before the massive shift takes place. And everything I’ve seen/heard, Utah is definitely in the mix for being included in the future Super League whereas BYU is never mentioned. With that being the case, I’m perfectly fine letting the rivalry die if it means Utah secures its future in the Super League.

[2008 National Champ]

I’m one of those who felt the “rivalry” ended in 2010. From 2011 through 2023, it was just 2 schools that happened to be geographically close playing each other on a consistent basis. Since the two schools no longer had common goals, the need to constantly contrast Utah’s successes and failures in light of whatever the parochial school happened to be doing at the time felt like a tremendous waste of time and energy. And I certainly did not see the need to prioritize scheduling a private university that had chosen to go Independent over a fellow State school that was in more need of the boost playing a P5 brings.

[krindor]

The most impressive thing about this is that it could be much more impressive. This isn’t a list of players who were drafted under Scalley. It doesn’t include (for example) Jonah Elliss, a DE who had Scalley as his DC. It doesn’t even include someone like Jaylon Johnson.

It’s not defensive players under the DC. Or even DBs. This is purely safeties who have been drafted under him

[Ted Lasso]

How far you guys gonna make it this year? Looking at your schedule, I’d have to pick y’all as a favorite to make the playoffs, either as an autobid or at-large. Playing at Oklahoma St is really the only game I see that you may not be favored in simply because it’s on the road. Baylor can be tough depending on the year. Arizona won’t be the same team as last year. Rivalry games are always weird, but BYU is a hot mess right now.

[MDUte]

Not trying to sound arrogant, but it really is CFP or bust this year. This is Utah’s best opportunity in the history of the program. It will be a massive disappointment/face plant, or whatever you want to call it, if Utah doesn’t make the CFP given the schedule and team we have coming back.

[Dallas]

Gonna need a running back. A poor RB room is a pretty big weak link. Putting up a prayer the the portal gods.

[//r00t4Utes]

Poor? I wouldn’t say that. Unproven, sure. No clear one 25 carry work horse, sure. But they have some highly rated, unproven RBs and a couple of proven veteran RBs, along with a new veteran xfer who is injured but semi proven.

This RB room seems to have more speed than usual but with no power RB, and maybe that’s why some are worried since that is the usual traditional RB the Utes usually have.

[MDUte]

A couple of seasons ago when Utah moved away from the bell cow approach to more of a by-committee approach our rushing numbers improved. We had more total rushing yardage and higher yards/carry. We’ve got a stable of talented backs that I agree are simply unproven. But given Utah’s track record running the football, I’d be willing to bet we’re going to get similar production to what we’ve always had in the run game. I’d still love to see another high impact RB brought in from the portal. Why? Because I’m a greedy talent hog and who wouldn’t want more of a good thing?!

[Charlie]

Poor is not accurate. Bernard without a pitch count is a very talented RB1, so only health like anyone is the issue. As for the others, we only know JJ was preferred which is an adequately high bar. With a year of development others like Glover could be equal to that level, we just don’t know. Last, I believe the QB issue in ’23 had a negative impact on the entire offense, OL / WRs / RBs. Rising’s return will make every offensive group look improved. For me, ‘poor’ needs to be observed in reasonable circumstances. Unknown is a fair assessment until we see the Baylor game. A power back is great if found but is not a requirement since there are multiple ways to gain short yardage.

[Redblood]

If Ellis, Vaki, Bishop, and JQJ had stayed I would say we would be THEE favorites. Lots of talent left, still have a good amount but are going to need some injury good luck.

[Uteanooga]

I loved Utah being in the P12 and having somewhat moved on from the BYU rivalry. Utah’s program made big strides during this time and it sucked to see it die.

Utah has little choice other than embracing their current conference mates and that includes BYU. I expect the rivalry to have a resurgent presence in the program’s sphere of influence.

My opinion may not be popular but I think Utah should feel grateful to have found a good landing spot and be in a good position to compete for a conference title right away. It certainly could have worked out worse for us. It is impossible to predict what the future will bring so I want to see Utah support their conference mates on the way to a solid season.

If Utah can stay healthy they will be in the mix for the tourney. Knocking off BYU along the way would be a nice day. That is all good stuff!

[HATUman]

Our RB’s looked pretty bad last year, but why wouldn’t they? Everybody and their dog knew that the coaches didn’t have a lot of trust in the Pig Farmer throwing the ball, so they all just loaded the box and dared us to throw the ball, which worked a few times, but mostly resulted in incompletions. With Rising back, the throw game will improve drastically, which will also increase the RB production. I have complete faith that some combination of Bernard, Glover, Mitchell, Randle, Stanley, Vincent, Woods, and maybe even a little Oberhelman, will get the kind of production that this program is used to. But what I am really excited about is the WR room this year. This might be the best group of receivers that we have seen at Utah… like ever.

[MDUte]

This ^^ 100%!

[Dallas]

Never heard of Mitchel, Stanley, Vincent or Wood, so I’m assuming they ain’t better than Bernard. Bernard is probably our RB1 and will continue to be consistently mediocre. Glover will be RB2 and may have improved, but not beyond Bernard.

[Author]

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