Sure it’s conjecture, but I think this team is 8-4 at worst with Barnes and JJ.

[UTE98]

I know it’s not popular, I’ve been on board to move on from Rising since the end of the Penn St. game.

If we had Barnes and JJ back this year, I think we’d have won most of the one score games, and maybe even blown a few teams out. Putting all the NIL money in the Rising/Wilson basket has been a bust. Good chance we’re playing for the Big XII championship with those two back. I love what MB’s done, but he needs some help.

When Bottari and Rose came in the team came alive. I don’t even think they were that pumped to play for Cam. Cam’s numbers looked good against bad competition. Cam’s ability to read defenses masked his inability to run, and the worst was his poor decision to not protect himself. Disagree if you want but the Gatorade cooler incident is on Cam. Just throw it away earlier and don’t hope to be a hero.

And can anyone tell my why we haven’t run the wheel route to our burner RB again? Have him as a decoy and run him on other routes, then pop one over the top. Crazy how the OCs went away from some big play potential. I’d even take Barnes first pass against UF last year. If Whitt allows Cam to come back next year, or he sticks with IW when it is apparent he isn’t a team leader, I’ll be done early. Save some money and spend it on a nice vacation instead of watching the train wreck that Whitt football has become. He isn’t running the team, NIL parents and holdovers are.

I didn’t think Prime was going to be successful with so many transfers, but you know what whether you like him or not his players have bought in. And they’ve picked up some really fast talented kids. I don’t like them, probably cause Whitt can’t reproduce it.

[The Miami Ute]

I don’t think you’re wrong and many other posters have sort of alluded to the same thing. JJ has rushed for over 700 yards this season for Arkansas. I think a tandem of JJ and Bernard, plus having Barnes as the starting QB, would have given defenses a lot more to think about and maybe flips all those one score losses (ASU, Houston, TCU, BYU, and ISU) this year. Having both Barnes and JJ certainly wouldn’t have made the team any worse.

[EagleMountainUte]

You kind of started out with some cope premise but then the truth kept hitting you in the face. It is coaching. Doesn’t matter who is on the field when the team is looking this bad. Playcalling and scheme is supposed to come from the coaches. That’s why Bottari is throwing it out of bounds for no reason at a critical point in the game. Which ended up being the dagger.

Which leads to Whitt having his kicker take a long attempt from the side of the field where he can’t make them. It’s all coaching. Doesn’t matter who you put in if you can’t think ahead two to three moves.

[22Ute22]

Agreed. I think in hindsight, we gave Barnes way too much slack last year. Last year was of course a ridiculously brutal schedule. Barnes had 5 bad games last year against Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona, and Baylor. He didn’t play against UCLA but he would have been bad in that game too. Of those teams, only Baylor was a ridiculously bad performance considering how bad Baylor was. Oregon and Arizona had pretty good defenses. Oregon state’s defense was solid. So his bad performance were against good defenses. The teams we played this year don’t have those good defenses. I think Barnes beats TCU and Houston for sure.

[Utah]

Whitt has shown he will actively fights against a QB centered offense.

I’ve said this all season: they should have given Rising’s money to Jackson.

If Whitt comes back, I hire Boise St’s OC (a run heavy offense), take the QB money and give it to two RB’s and try to keep Rose and Rising for as little money as possible.

Whitt is what he is and giving 1-2 million to a QB is dumb.

[UteBaron89]

We went 8-4 with them last year against the toughest schedule in program history. Safe to say 8-4 would be the floor with this schedule.

[RoboUte]

Idk what the record would’ve been for sure but either him or Bottari would’ve beaten BYU, and that’s enough

[GunthersRevenge]

Jackson was definitely a big loss. I think another big difference between last year and this year is Vaki. Once they put him the offense last year he became our big play weapon. No big play weapons this year.

[Author]

Posts