Where do we go from here?

[redeye]

Brutal ending Saturday night. It’s taken a few days to recover. So many chances to put the game away (landing on recoverable fumbles, Calhoun’s near pick, any second half points). But still very proud the way they fought and our fans.

The program seems to be at a critical crossroad right now. Five game losing streak aside, Harlan’s post game rant, few arrogant “we will run the Big 12” fans, and social media smear campaign by our friends down south, we may have hit rock bottom in terms of our national perception.

How do we right the ship? Some thoughts:

1. Harlan: Not sure how we recover from a PR standpoint with Harlan still in his position.

2. Coaching: I love Whit. At 65 and three years left on his contract, I hope he commits to staying long enough to turn things around or step down sooner rather than later to let Scalley hire the new OC. Hard to imagine going back to the rotating OCs of the past.

3. Embrace the Big 12: No question this has been a gut punch landing. Consolation prize. But in reality, this conference will provide us with the best path forward to CFP appearances. It would have become harder to compete in the NIL space with the likes of Oregon and USC going forward. We have gotten off to a terrible start in so many ways.

4. Deal with TDS: This to me has been the biggest negative of the last two years- landing in the same conference. The rivalry is not fun anymore. Winning the game is more of a relief rather than an accomplishment. The Pac 12 era landed us key Utah county recruits (Chase Hansen, Covey, Fano brothers etc) that we may be harder to get going forward. We have to now spend a lot of energy making sure we regain our edge.

[Rick]

I got a cure to all of the issues discussed on this board today. WIN. You win, this conference looks a lot better. You win, BYU fans shut the hell up. This program has gone 12-10 or a 54% winning percentage the past two seasons. That is really not much better than we have done back in the 70’s and 80’s.

How do you win? You win with talent, coaching, and a little luck. During most of Kyle’s tenure we have had decent talent, good coaching, and some seasons (2008), some really good luck. This BYU team we just saw is relying almost exclusively on luck. It will catch up to them. As I watched this game Saturday, I felt that position by position we had better overall talent. I am not sure sure about the coaching direction of this program and it has been an issue the past two seasons.

Maybe it is Kyle’s age or what but this team just feels different to me and maybe we just died a little by losing two Rose Bowls in a row and then moving into a conference that was not our choice. I don’t know but I am just not feeling it. That vibe is lost. It was there last Saturday but was plucked from us with a really inconsistent call. But really, who did it get to that point? We have been literally playing not to lose for two seasons and it showed up again in the second half last Saturday. A younger Kyle would have never coached a team like that. Just my two cents. I think we are at a juncture where we need to make a change. Eerily similar to when we said farewell to Ronnie Mac.

[RoboUte]

Nothing matters if you win, we can’t. A few years ago it started with bowl games, now in 2024 it’s games against Houston. The program can’t continue in the same direction as Whittingham any longer and the way forward is plain as day.

[Anfernee]

Lots of hyperbole here. Which is understandable after that game, that ending and how our season has gone. But we still need to keep perspective. The same people that picked us to win the Big12 with a healthy Cam aren’t going to suddenly bottom barrel us because of this season. We are still a very respected football program. That doesn’t change.

1. Other than us involved in the Holy War, no one will remember his rant. It was a momentary blip on espn during the meat of college football season. This kinda stuff occasionally happens in bitter rivalries. It’ll be in rivalry lore but that’s the extent of it. I like that he cares so much.

2. I’d really like Scalley to just take over in ‘25. He’s intense and can motivate. The sooner he can get an actual aggressive OC the better our skill position recruiting will be. And maybe less guys transferring out as well.

3. We have no choice but to embrace it. The Crimson Collective is still healthy. And we will have ample NIL next year with some big names gone.

4. Don’t forget that they ended last season on 5 game losing streak and only won 5 games total. Part of this day and age of college football is things can change quickly. You’ll be surprised how many recruits still prefer us over TDS. Even after their good year.

5. Go Utes!

[UteFrancais]

I agree with you. I’m looking at big 12 pages along with TDS and other XII school pages and they all collectively hate our guts and explicitly want us to leave. I worry this mess will affect our program perception beyond repair. That leads to my biggest concern: do we recover from this seasons debacle and the holy war post game embarrassment? It seems like our fans and program are on an unstoppable spiral downward. In today’s college football with the constant shifting and consolidation, do we get left out/dropped out? How much time do we have to right the ship?

[Anfernee]

This is a very social media driven take, my friend. Deep breaths. Again, so much hyperbole. Stay away from facebook and twitter fan pages. Utah football doesn’t fall off the map because of this season. It happens to even blue bloods. Years like this. JFC I didn’t realize our fanbase was so dramatic.

[The Miami Ute]

Blue Bloods (And others like them) Record This Season:

1. USC: 4-5/2-5 in CONF
2. Michigan: 5-5/3-4 in CONF
3. Washington: 5-5/3-4 in CONF
4. FSU: 1-9/1-7 in CONF
5. Nebraska: 5-4/2-4 in CONF

Looks like a few other bigtime programs with more massive investments are doing just as bad or worse than Utah.

[RoboUte]

There are some terminally online people who actually replaced the images of their abusive father (texas and oklahoma) with us. But generally people don’t actually care that much. The anti Utah sentiment with subside because it’s not really based on reality

[Utah#1]

This will be an unpopular take, but Whitt needs to move on with his life and retire at end of season. He is the reason why the offense has been inept for years with the exception of the good Rising years. If he stays until his contract ends, next year will be a repeat of this year, if not worse! The program has been brought back down to earth in horrible way.

Who knew how much of an impact Rising had on the program? That impact was massive and since he’s been out, Utah has been a sub-par football team. I agree no doubt the Pac12 gave Utah top notch recruits we wouldn’t have otherwise received. Now a horrible first year in the Big12 and BYU is 9-0 and on their way to an undefeated season, Utah has a lot of work to do to make up for this years loss and to compete against BYU for top in-state recruits will be an uphill battle. Whitt did not make any adjustments minus Rising and it has significantly hurt the program.

IMO, Whitt cannot right the ship and needs to retire end of season or Utah will be a Big12 celler dweller for years to come. Go UTES!

[Author]

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