Strengths and weaknesses going into our 2024 football season

[ProudUte]

Fellow Utes, we are less than 90 days until our first game. I am excited for this season.
What do you think our strengths and weaknesses will be in 2024? Below are a few of my thoughts.

Strengths

QB – We have an experienced QB who can pass, run and knows how to read defenses.
WR – This may be our best WR group in a long time.
TE – We have 4 experienced tight ends, including a potential All-American.
Dline – We have experience and depth, especially if Fano returns.
LB – Our starting three LBs all have experience and if we stay healthy we should be great.
Kicking and punting – We should be solid here.

Neither Strength or weakness

RB – We do have some guys with experience back, but do we have a true RB1?
CB – We have some talent at corner, but do we have enough to call this group a strength?

Weaknesses

Oline – I really can’t say this is a weakness but a concern. We lost our two best linemen. Can the other guys step up?
Safety — No matter what, we will be starting two safeties who were not starters at safety in 2023. Johnson is supposed to be great, but he lacks experience at safety. We have three guys battling for the other safety position. All of this being said, I think Scalley will have these guys playing solid football by mid-season.
Depth at LB, CB, and possibly QB.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

[Tednab]

Great post. For me weakness is the schedule, unfamiliar opponents and atmospheres, regardless of playing down the b12, adjusting could be an
issue.

[Tony (admin)]

The good news is that our opponents are also unfamiliar with us and our atmosphere. 🙂

[AZUTE]

The days of playing in front of 10k on the road against Pac12 schools are over.

Big12 fans show up.

[MDUte]

IMO this gets played up too much. I believe the kids would much rather play in front of a raucous crowd on the road than empty stadiums as well. We’ve performed just fine in the Swamp in front of 95K fans. That was about as loud and hostile as it gets. But the Utes have also performed well at Autzen, at Husky Stadium, SC had a good crowd last year we won on the walk-off FG. The program has gone into the Big House twice and won.

Winning on the road is never easy. But I don’t think Utah is going to be overwhelmed by any raucous B12 venue.

[Utah]

This is such a silly point. UW is rowdier than any Big 12 stadium. As is Oregon. Hell, does BYU have a bigger stadium than any Big 12 team? Yup. BYU has a bigger stadium.

As does Florida and Michigan and USC.

Big 12 fans act like we haven’t played in a hostile environment because no one cares about Stanford.

It’s a joke. There is no stadium that we will play in this fall that is rowdier than UW. And the year before we played at Florida and Oregon.

We will be just fine.

[ProudUte]

That’s an interesting point. We are not familiar with these teams and sites.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Good post proud Ute. I would call weaknesses “unknown”. I agree with Ted that the schedule and playing in different environments are also “unknowns”. On the positive side half our conference games are at home where we are a “unknown”.

[MDUte]

Great post Proud! For me, everything hinges on the OL. The talent is definitely there, they just need to come together and play great as a unit. If that happens, it’s lights out! And I believe it’s going to happen!

[EmersonUte]

I have similar thoughts on the weaknesses. However, I seem to always give our defense the benefit of the doubt. So I feel like we should be fine there. Heard some things on a podcast from Shah talking about the two transfer portal corners and I feel like we’ll be good by the end of fall camp. I think Tao will be great, so I’m down to really worrying about strong safety.

On offense the combination of offensive line concerns and no true lead dog at RB is my biggest issue. We need someone to step up and fill that role (and quickly) at running back. The O-line has SUU, Baylor, and then @ Utah State. If we aren’t jelling by then, I think we could be looking at 0-1 in conference the following week.

[Yergensen]

IMO – Edge rush is a question mark. I think we tend to overrate edge rush, we tend to think it’s always a position of strength or at least never a weakness.

For us to take the next step, our DL and OL as well have to be able to hold their own and even get the edge on top 20 teams. We seem to be outmatched in the trenches against top competition.

Last year’s pass rush was largely keyed by Jonah. The year prior Scalley had to bring extra bodies to get pressure.

Fillinger in 3 yrs hasn’t lived up to the hype. O’Toole is still an unknown. Fano showed out last year, but is coming off a 2nd ACL.

Jonah rose to the occasion last year and we can see this happen again, we just don’t know.

[Rick]

Filinger is an interesting one. The body and athleticism are there. Injuries seem to be the excuse. I hope he’ll stay healthy and perform like he did against Washington State against Big 12 opponents. I do think the talent is in the room to give us more consistency on the edges and the tackles are good to great. I don’t agree with those that are critical of that position group. We will be outstanding at the tackle spot this year.

Ultimately, it’s the offensive line this season. I like us everywhere esle; but we need the O’line to rise this season. Having an experienced quarterback immediately makes them better but they must play with better technique and aggression this season – and less stupid mistakes.

My two cents.

[Utah]

Huh? What top 20 team will we face this year?

So many fans think the Big 12 is some powerhouse league here. It’s a solid league. Not as good as the P12, but still tough.

Our DL did just fine in the P12, where USC, UCLA, UW, Oregon all have better OL’s than any we will face this fall.

[concerned]

For me, weakness on the d line and especially the o line has kept us from getting over the hump in post season. Got dominated by Oregon in the 2019 championship game and by Ohio state and Penn State in the Rose bowl.

[ProudUte]

Whitt is all about winning the game in the trenches.

I think our offensive line is the key to our team being great (not just good). We have the other components. As MD posted above, if these guys can come together, it will be lights-out!

Go Utes!!!

[Utah]

Dominated by Penn St and Ohio St? Jesus you guys. Get out of the pity party.

It was 14-14 at halftime vs PennSt. We were up by 2 TD’s vs Ohio St at halftime. We f**king dominated Ohio St.

Both games were lost when Rising went down. S**t.

[Author]

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