Two things I don’t understand about the Ute Fan base (at least online)

[AlohaUte]

1. What is with hating Boise State? I don’t get it. I’d think we’d stand in solidarity with them considering they took the mantle from us in fighting the man.

2. Why do so many of you hate Mark Harlan? Putting aside his childish behavior after the BYU game, why is there so much hate towards him. It seems that the Utah Athletics department has been doing really well over the last decade with Volleyball, WBB, Skiing, Football, Gymnastics all thriving (perhaps among others).

[UteThunder]

1. I’m indifferent towards BSU, but they have had our number (I believe we are 0-4 against them) and their fans are something else.

2. I don’t hate Harlan, but what has he done to improve Utah athletics, specifically football and basketball? The new South Endzone at RES was already in the works before he was hired. Harlan just put the finishing touches on it, something any AD was going to be able to do.

[meetmeinthemuss]

I like Harlan met him a few times seems like I nice guy so I also have this question

As far as bosie state hate I cheer for USU in the mountain west and have heard how awful the bosie state fans can be so I just don’t like them

[AlohaUte]

Totally understand hating on Boise if you are a USU fan too. That makes sense.

[Yergensen]

What has Harlan done in his time at Utah? Name one positive transformation Harlan has made while at Utah?

All he’s shown to date is he’s a sustainer. He took what he inherited from Hill and hasn’t screwed it up and even then he’s had some misses.

But this shouldn’t be the measure of success in what is the most transformational era of college sports. You have to be strategic and ahead of the curve whatever the opportunity is…conference realignment, progressive hires, etc. and Harlan hasn’t shown this.

BTW Aloha, if you look back at Harlan’s body of work it actually gets worse. He was a dumpster fire at USF. Can’t believe you can promote after that, but that’s the world we live in.

[Hellhound152]

The BSU hate is simple. Utah, not Donkey State was the Original BCS buster. Utah, not Donkey State had the biggest and most decisive wins as non AQ BCS participants. Every media outlet outright pushed the narrative that Donkey State was “the BCS buster” because they were on ESPN and Utah was not. And that fanbase, I will just leave that one alone.

My favorite thing about Donkey State right now is that they are the example on the hill as exactly how far this move to the BigXII has put our program back. The BigXII champion will be seeded below a once beaten mid major. Let that rattle around for a second. Can you say Whales**t, Busch league garbage?

Harlan? Whatever…

[AlohaUte]

So let me get this straight, you think we should hate Boise State because they got media coverage despite the fact we reaped way more benefits from being the OG BCS buster while they got screwed and left behind and really reaped no benefit from it?

[Hellhound152]

I would never presume to tell you how to feel about anything. You asked a question, I gave you an answer. Not a sales pitch.

[Red Rhino]

I respect Boise State for what they have been able to consistently accomplish but their fans are annoying! I will say this though, most fans seem annoying when you’re losing and we’ve lost a lot to them.

[AlohaUte]

I mean, all teams’ fans are annoying. We have a subset of fans who are gawd awful and worse than anything Boise produces. Hating a team because of some of their fans is stupid, else you should hate the Utes.

[Red Rhino]

I think that it is interesting that you usually revert to name calling when someone has a different opinion than you. It’s not a very Ned Flanders like thing to do. Why can’t you handle people having different opinions than you?

[AlohaUte]

Did I call you a name?

I think it’s stupid to hate a team because of their fan base when ours is awful too. Doesn’t mean I think you are stupid. I have a lot of really stupid opinions.

[AlohaUte]

Did I call you a name?

I think it’s stupid to hate a team because of their fan base when ours is awful too. Doesn’t mean I think you are stupid. I have a lot of really stupid opinions.

[Red Rhino]

Do you like BYU and their fanbase then?

[EagleMountainUte]

This is incredibly ironic to me. “Don’t hate on BSU fans but I can hate on Utah fans for reasons that are more valid than your reasons.”@AlohaUte
Humans regardless of what they may like or not are annoying and idiotic. Truly an innovative thought!

[EagleMountainUte]

BSU has the most annoying field. Eastern Washington second most annoying. It makes my eyes bleed on my quality television or highlights on my phone.
I don’t go out of my way to hate on them online but I just don’t care for their team. I am close to my relatives from BSU and get along fine with them. I don’t talk football with anyone who is a TSPP fan in comparison.

I have talked about Harlan many times. It really feels like he has done nothing. I also felt disgusted with most of the administration during the fall of the P12. I don’t like the current situation but understand they did the best with what they got. I could be wrong on all of my notions. But how he acted after the TSPP doesn’t help my opinion of him.

Harlan also talked about the broadcast responsibilities which is why OReilly got hired. I don’t know who is responsible for all of that but I haven’t seen any growth in that regard yet. Utah is still underutilizing social media exposure imo. Also if you listen to the broadcast on 700 they still can’t get Sly’s audio figured out for some reason. Which is annoying. I want to hear from Sly the most if I am being honest. When they try sideline interviews it doesn’t work.
On 700 they live stream OC and that ass clown alcoholic. But I can’t get a Sly sideline interview for the broadcast?

Now I am ranting. I blame Harlan for a lot of that. He said in an interview he was working on getting that started though.

[ProudUte]

I do not dislike Harlan. I have never posted anything bad about him. (I hope he is working with Whitt to get an exit package ASAP!!!)

BSU kind of annoys me. I have been around a lot of their fans. However, I do not hate Boise and I don’t think I have ever posted anything bad about them. If you want to see Boise-hate – go to the Cougar Board. They may hate them as bad as us. However, I understand that ASU is now on the top of the BYU-hate list.

[WasatchRanger]

I like Boise State. BCS Busters should stick together, and admittedly I have a friend who attended BSU and follows them closely.

[Utah]

1 – I’ve been very honest about my Boise hate. I hate them, because we did all the work and they got all the credit. Boise St’s MO is to play one tough team a year, try to win that game, then roll through a s**tty WAC/MWC and get all the glory. We would schedule 2-3 P5 games a year. Boise shoots for one.

Did you know that in 2004 Boise St was undefeated as well? No one cared, because back then SOS was the most important thing. And their SOS was god awful. It always is. We busted the BCS, they changed the rules making it easier for a G5 to get in, Boise scheduled down and got in. We got Pitt. Boise St got Oklahoma. They are remembered.

I’d bet if you asked your common college football fan who the BCS buster was, they’d say Boise St.

That’s why I hate them. They do f**k all and get all the credit that should go to us.

2 – Mark Harlan. The only people who hate him are keyboard warriors that hang around BYU fans too much. He hasn’t been great, but he hasn’t been bad. All of Utah sports are doing great outside of football and basketball. Every other sport is a top 25 team and very impressive.

[jshame17]

Not to mention, the only reason we got Pitt on ‘04 and not Auburn, SC or Oklahoma is they were too chicken 💩 and knew that Utah would beat them all, (except SC maybe).

They gave us Pitt to avoid the championship conversation because when we beat OU or AU, they couldn’t deny us the vote we would have received..

Cowards…

[AlohaUte]

Regarding your #1, just something to think about. We did all the work, they got the attention, we reaped all the benefits.

I’d much rather be in Utah’s place than Boise’s (especially when we were in the Pac12). Boise got all that attention but they got screwed and left behind while us and TCU (and now BYU, Cinci, Houston, and UCF) all moved up.

Honestly, I think we should have some sympathy for them.

[EagleMountainUte]

Why should we have sympathy for a school that did nothing other than be good at football? Utah did A LOT of things to get into the Pac12 other than just bust the BCS.
I guess not getting into the Big12 is a shame? But I don’t see why I should care? Just like I didn’t care about those other teams.

[bopahull]

To be honest, BSU didn’t qualify academically for inclusion in the PAC.

[2008 National Champ]

@Utah: I also didn’t have an opinion on Harlan until the Tom Farden debacle. To keep a coach in his position after women athletes were claiming abuse in this day and age is unacceptable. And yet he made it worse by running an investigation which allowed Farden to keep his position and then had to fire him right before the season after more claims of abuse came out. That stink should follow Harlan everywhere and is cause for dismissal in my opinion.

Interjecting himself on the field of play before the end of a game to throw a tantrum just shows that he’s lost the narrative.

There are also my pet peeves about football scheduling: 1) why keep playing the parochial school most every year when you don’t have to?, 2) why only schedule 6 home games every year when your peers are doing 7 or 8?, 3) why set up home/home with G5’s where the first game is always on the road which doesn’t allow you flexibility if a better opportunity comes along in the 7 years between signing and playing?, 4) if you’re going to play a G5 on the road make it somewhere your fans would want to go which also has good recruits. Laramie and DeKalb, Il do not fit that bill.

[Yergensen]

And Farden wasn’t Harlan’s first scandal.

[2008 National Champ]

What was the first (others)? I haven’t lived in Utah for over 30 years so if it doesn’t make national news like Perriman I probably missed it.

[Utah]

Damn. Great points. Great points.

The football/basketball scheduling thing is such a no brainer. Again, look at Boise St. Schedule down, schedule home games.

It’s so simple.

[2008 National Champ]

When your team wins ~ 90% of it’s home games (even counting 2024) and maybe fitty percent on the road.,,

And that doesn’t even account for the revenue bump an extra home game gives over playing in front of family and friends somewhere else

[Tony (admin)]

Boise State fans are almost as bad as zoobs. That’s where it comes from. They’re like TSPP northern division.

I prefer to call their fans “Tater Zoobs”

[AlohaUte]

I guess? I haven’t seen that. But I argue that we have some awful fans who are worse than anything Boise has. I don’t see them on here much thankfully.

But maybe I’m still traumatized by UF.N and the terrible fan I sat next to at the Rose Bowl.

[The Miami Ute]

They were pretty bad in their last visit to SLC in 2006. Of all the games I’ve been to, the only opponent fan base that beats them is BYU.

[RustyShackleford]

BSU fans are BYU lite. There’s a reason they are called potato zoobs

[ORute]

Hard to put aside the ‘childish behavior after the BYU game.’ It made national news and re-enforced negative stereotypes of Utes fans (and by extension the University)–we’re entitled, hate our league etc.–which may be true–but not something your AD should want to reinforce as a major representative of the University.

Ive always seen him as an empty suit, never had much opinion until his charade after the game, I lost all respect for the dude. Half his job is to represent the U in a positive light nationally–he didn’t even give an apology and try to change the narrative.

He and Randall were the ones behind the $50M valuation–hard to know to what extent that had an effect on things collapsing, but certainly didn’t help.

Just don’t see much growth in the gameday experience or media stuff like im seeing at other major programs. Cant really give him credit or blame for how teams do on the field, he’s really more big picture, representing the U and major hires–C. Smith TBD. Give him a B for his admin work, and F for his being a rep of the U.

[The Miami Ute]

Boise State is a glorified community college. It’s UVU teleported into Idaho. Their academics suck, which is the reason they will never enter any P4 conference not called the Big XII. The name “Boise State” is radioactive to any university that values academic prestige.

I don’t hate Boise State, the football team, but I did find the attitude of their fans off-putting when they visited Utah in 2006. I mean, for a team that’s never won anything, they were acting like they were his lordship visiting the peasantry.

[CityCreekUte]

I don’t really care one way or the other about Boise St. Given that they are willing to play and get games against blue chip teams I respect them for that.

Harlan is not making the program better. He’s done nothing remarkable. He’s lost ground rather than gained it. Not a fan.

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