It’s officially the offseason! Lots of stuff to think about over the next 7 months with a lot of changes still to be made including draft decisions, another round of recruiting, and new coaches.
First absolutely abominable way to go out for the seniors but all in all, this one meant nothing and I will treat it as such. Measuring stick game? Sure, but missing our top four talented players/leaders played a major role in how this could have gone. Concerning things? Relying on other things to happen for us to succeed combined with a lot of nail biting and coming up short in the biggest games. (See: ASU and UW both times)
Only three bowl games ‘mean’ anything anymore in this age of the College Football Playoff. So, where does Utah stand in relation to that? Ambitious topic? Until CFB reforms itself again, that’s the ultimate goal. For better for worse, Larry Scott rules with an iron fist and it’s becoming a really unfortunate case that we had to enter the PAC-12 under his ‘leadership’. I don’t like where this conference is heading. At all. All 12 schools suffer and are quickly falling behind, including the perennial brand names USC and Oregon. What can be done about that? Absolutely nothing. Is it playing a role in what we do? It certainly isn’t helping.
Coach Whitt will be here until he chooses not to be. Absolutely nothing anyone can or will do about that including the boosters. His OC problems continue and his coaches keep leaving for better opportunities. This isn’t a bad thing as it means they’re doing great things. But Whitt has to give them a reason to return and he hasn’t done that consistently. He wants his coaches to better themselves, yes, but the best programs seem to be able to entice their coaches to return due to success on the field. Unfortunately, Utah feels like a ‘farm’ program when it comes to coaches, much like G5 and FCS schools have become for rising coaches.
Unfortunately, I see next year being very similar to this year: Hope the rest of the division falters while also hoping the offense doesn’t revert to what it was before with red zone challenges and everything else that we’ve come to expect.