(BLUE) Thats all folks

We won our bowl game, yay!. It was UTEP, they were bad, but hey, at least we got a cool hand made pot out of the sorry season.
I doubt Utah will win their game. Hope so, but doubt it.
Here's to next year

(Blue) Red! Put that razor down...

This week was great for me and anyone in Blue, again. We defeated CSU soundly at their place. What I consider to be the first of the big tests in whether or not there is solid improvement.
It was awesome. There were a few errors a better team could have capitalized on, sure. But what was most important about this game is that it was on the road and we won, and won big. That speaks to me as a good indication that things are on the up and up for the program.
Here are some things that I loved about the game:
A flea flicker play that resulted in a TD pass to Ashworth that was poetic. Even better were the three other TC passes to Ashworth in the first half. The interception by Rich, and another by Logan, and a fumble return by Van Noy, and another turnover were, how can I say this?- Tasty? How about the running by Di Luigi, Kariya, and Quezada? Oh, and my fav part was probably the much deserved fullback score by fullback Mendenhall.That poor guy does a lot of work for little credit. All and all a splendid day. Heaps doing WELL. Over 500 yards total offense.
Next week: New Mexico at home. Should be a win, they suck.

University of Utah... Where to begin? Nevermind, it's too sad. Suffice it to say that there are some issues to be addressed. We'll see how things go against SDSU, who almost beat TCU today.

(Red) The Pac 12 is real! Here's the schedule for Utah next season!

mmmmm.... soooo goooood!

2011 Utah Football Schedule

Sept. 1                            Montana State                                  Salt Lake City

Sept. 10                          at USC*                                                Los Angeles, Calif.

Sept. 17                          at Brigham Young                             Provo, Utah

Sept. 24                          open

Oct. 1                              Washington*                                     Salt Lake City

Oct. 8                              Arizona State*                                  Salt Lake City

Oct. 15                            at Pittsburgh                                      Pittsburgh, Pa.

Oct. 22                            at California*                                     San Francisco, Calif.

Oct. 29                            Oregon State*                                  Salt Lake City

Nov. 5                             at Arizona*                                         Tucson, Ariz.

Nov. 12                           UCLA*                                                  Salt Lake City

Nov. 19                           at Washington State*                    Pullman, Wash.

Nov 26                            Colorado*                                           Salt Lake City

*conference game

(Red) Oh ... I am here...

Oh I am here! Unfortunately I have been working on other projects that have kept me away from this bi-partisian blog. Check out the other project at The U Fan Cast. As for what is going on right now? Well... yes the Utes lost to TCU. Yes it stung. Yes it was embarrassing. But the worst part about it... Utah played themselves as much as they played TCU. Dropped passes that would have kept drives moving, missed tackles, changed defensive assignments! Yes Utah basically changed their defensive personality for the biggest game in Utah history, from a 4-3 base defense to a 3-4 and ran way to much zone! Utah is a press man coverage team that runs a 4-3 scheme... and changed it! That was what hurt so bad. It was not the Utah team that we have seen over the last 36+ months. However, I believe this loss can be used as what I like to call a football enema. It cleaned out any ego and was a reality check for this program. It is something that can be grown from. 

As for byU. This week will be a challenge for them. I think Colorado St has some guys on offense that may test BYU's d this week. No only that, overall, BYU's offense is just pathetic. Yes they got points against UNLV... but Duchesne high school could do that. The key for them is to keep the ball moving and try to get to 24 points. I think CSU will put up around 20 at home, and BYU has struggled with CSU the last couple years. I think BYU squeaks it out, but am not sure what to think this game... it's a pillow fight, let's be honest. 

It is setting up to be an interesting conclusion to the final season in the Mountain West for both programs - the question now is, will both teams see the post season?

--- and I expect to have my hat back within 3 weeks.

(Blue) Where o where has red gone?

Dear Red,

It has been several weeks since you last spoke to me, and I have to know, was it something I did? We used to have such good times. The laughs, the tears? Is it because we no longer will be in the Mountain West Conference? Is it because you are no longer in the BCS run? (Is it because TCU is mean?) I know they are, I understand. But c'mon red, get back in the game. Talk to me. You complete me!, you are the Yin to my Yang! You are the Country to my Rock n Roll!
I hearby dedicate this song to you, come back to us Red. There is life after TCU.

Love,
Blue

To the matter at hand. Saturdays game was as good as BYU has looked all season. Granted, it was just against those oh-so-poor Rebels, but still. Defense has gotten considerably stout under the care of Coach Mendenhall and it's good to see the retarded 'bend but don't break' philosophy scrapped. Blitzing, pressure, aggression... these are the things that warm my heart. Offense also came through for a first time. Heaps finally had the game we've all been hoping he could have. There was running, there was passing, there were touchdowns and 3rd down conversions and controlling of the clock. Good good good. Problem is that we haven't won on the road this year and the next game is in cold Colorado. We're favored to be better, but the teams look even. Freshman QB's on both sides, more success at home than away, and other such similarities. This game should be a good indication of whether or not we're growing in the right direction on all fronts (I'm looking at you offense). We'll see Saturday.

As for the U... it's probably still too soon.

(Blue) Feeling blue....

Well, we lost, now I have to gouge out my eye.

That's all I was going to say about our latest debacle, but Joe requested that I go into further detail and since this is about as good as the Aggies have ever felt and Joe is practically glowing, I feel like I need to indulge him.

There are many excuses that one could make regarding the current state of the cougars. I'm just going to pick 4.

1)Jake Heaps is GREEN!!!! Poor kid is throwing a million passes and half of the time, his people drop them (more on that in excuse # two). He's doing well for a kid who is on his 2nd start ever at any universe and who was in Jr High a mere four years ago. In the history of BYU, there have been VERY few true freshman starters and if I'm not mistaken, it may have been about a decade since the last one. (Consequently, the same amount of time it's been since USU last pulled off a victory- maybe it was even the same year, not sure).

2) Our receivers SUCK!!! I'd like to say things would have been better if Chambers was playing, but in my heart I know that's not true. The tight ends? Also nod good. In their defense, they are all in the Heap's green boat, but still. Somebody should rise to the top already.

3) We have no Unga. When we need a smash and dash from a running back, who do we have to turn to? Quezada? Kariya? Di Luigi? None big enough, first two too slow. It's a bad deal. Makes 3rd and short a pitiful thing to watch. (or 4th in short for that matter).

4) Defense.... Wow. All pretty much negative. The few good players with a smidge of experience are all hurt now. Pendelton? Hurt. Rich? Hurt. Fuga? Hurt.I seem to recall some guy named Fraiser? Hurt. The list goes on, and those who aren't somehow maimed are new and inexperienced.


So there are the issues, and the coaches seem to be as confused and perplexed as anyone. They are conservative when they should be risky, risky when they should be conservative and generally as predictable as usual. Dark days indeed. The plus side is that I still believe that things will develop an that there will be an awesome future ahead.

Only problem is that it may take longer than I thought.

(Blue) My apologies

My apologies first for my lapse, second for the team.
Right to the heart of the matter:
2 QB a method to protect Heaps until he was ready to take the reins, now he must do what he has to do what he has to do because Nelson is down.
We lost against AFA, FSU, and Nevada. But hey, we have youth a plenty and coaches that seem to think they can play conservative with players that don't quite grasp everything yet. I have faith it will come together, but the growing pains are... well.. painful.

The U hasn't played anybody who matters, but I am still impressed by how thoroughly they whipped on those nobodies. They should do OK for the rest of the season.

The rest of the Mountain West... well. We have the Lobos, who suck beyond all reason. UNLV is a close second in suckiness. CSU is trying to break out of that category... good luck. TCU still remains strong. AFA in my opinion is as good as they've ever been. Wyoming, where they usually are. SDSU is looking better than they have for a while, so that's a perk. HMMM... I still believe BYU will win a good deal of their games, but it all depends on how fast a bunch of players can grow up.

My predictions:
The UofU v Bye week: about as difficult as their past three weeks, BAZING. But I think that they will have an interesting time. Ohio should be harder than they've had for a while, but I am pretty sure they will do well.


BYU v Utah State. I think we'll win. Not certain, but they've got lots of injuries. The big concern is that it's in Logan. Who gives a crap about Logan (sorry Joe). So lets hope that we pull a W finally.

(Red) U-Fan Cast

I helped to host a podcast this last week for a Ute fan group. It was fun and I thought it was pretty good. Listen here....
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
The topics were Pitt in review, UNLV preview, an interview w/ a former Ute and conference predictions.

(Red) Week 1 review / Week 2 preview

Pitt - 24

Utah - 27

The opener for the Utes went really the way I expected it to go in most cases. Pitt was not able to run the ball on the defensive line of the U. Brandon Burton shut down on of the best wide outs in the country. The Ute defense was dominate. Sure they missed a few assignments but that is correctable stuff so I'm not worried about the production of the defense. It could possibly be the best in years. 

The offense was sharp, for the most part. Turnovers and dumb penalties killed any other scoring opportunities. With Wynn, Wide, and Asiata in the backfield this offense is going to be potent and the wide outs have some fire power as well. As long as the Utes don't beat themselves they will be in a good position. And Jordan Wynn put them in many of those against Pitt. Pitt had a hard time defending the wide outs because they were constantly matched up on linebackers and was open. The offensive game plan was solid and it attached Pitt where they were weak, the secondary. 

Special teams have a lot work to do. A blocked punt and a muffed punt. Mistakes like that will cost you a game. And lucky for the U they made a lot of mistakes and still won. They really dominated the game the score just didn't show it. Good win the first week to propel the U into the season.

Week 2 v UNLV

This game is simple. Run the ball. Asiata and Wide should get over 100 yards a piece in this game. UNLV showed a weak run D against Wisconsin last week and they should take advantage of this. Once the run gets established Wynn/Cain will be able to pick them apart in the secondary. Wynn is a game time decision to play because of a strained thumb he sustained in the Pitt game. So hopefully the last 9 days have been enough to get it healed. If not Terrance Cain is more than capable to step in and be able to produce. 

Defensively they just need to stick Brandon Burton on Phillip Payne and then get penetration on the defensive line. Vegas has 2 weapons, Phillip Payne at wide receiver and their scrambling QB Omar Clayton. They shut down that combo it should be a cake walk. 

Utah 45

UNLV 17

BYU 23

Wash 17

 Very good win for BYU to start the season. I was surprised by how well the young guys played for BYU. However the 2 QB system will not work week in and out. They need to find the guy soon. BYUs offense, as of now, is mediocre at best. The WR and RB cores are weak and they did not wow me at all. They just don't have many weapons on the field right now. However they did make enough plays to beat an overrated Washington team. I kinda figured BYU would score about 20ish points against them because Washington's D is just not very good. But Washington's offense struggled all day. I would say mostly because of BYU special teams pinning them within their own 10 on 3+ occasions. Of course this was helped out by Washington's really bad special teams decisions. Overall BYU still has a long way to go but they got off on the right foot.

BYU v Air Force

To be honest with you this is the year Air Force should win vs BYU. It's at AFA, BYU is rebuilding, and AFA is tough to play early. But BYU has their number. Bronco Mendenhall is undefeated against AFA. I think BYU can score some points on them but AFA is a very opportunistic defense and likes to force turnovers. I think BYU turns it over a time or two. I think BYU could struggle with the option attack because they have so many young defenders and this is will be the first time they see it in live action, so I think AFA will put points on the board. However with that said until AFA beats BYU I have to pick BYU. I have picked AFA for about 3 or 4 years now. I think as of now AFA is a better 'team' since they have experience, but BYU has their number.

BYU 21

AFA 20

... sorry for the brief post... I'm tired.

(Blue) Wins for everyone.

Utah won, BYU won, USU... almost one. Pretty good for Utah. Quick points:

* The youth on BYU and Utah (especially on defense) are looking better than we could have hoped.

* Two Quarter Backs didn't prove to undo BYU, between Heaps and Nelson, there were many capable hands to move the offense.

* There is work to be done for both teams. BYU could polish it's defense against the run, and generally be crisper on offense. Utah could try not to fumble and whatnot.

* High five to BYU special teams for winning the field position battle in a big way. UW mistakes were key, but lets give credit where credit is due.

*Good job on no turnovers. There were only 2 fumbles all game and

* All of the old great QB's (even MacMahon) were back in town and everyone felt warm and fuzzy inside.

* I was particularly impressed with JJ DiLuigi. Unga who?

Enough of that, the past is past. This week we play Air Force in Colorado... scary. According to Jeff Call of Deseret News, BYU has a much better record against AF in games later than September (14-2) as opposed to games in September (2-2). Granted, it hasn't happened very often, but BYU is still working out kinks and AF is extremely disciplined, tricky, fast, and dirty. (Not always dirty, but sometimes). It will be interesting to see how this plays out. My prediction is BYU 27, AF 21. This is based on the hope that the defense can pull it in and stop the option. There are a lot of new guys on the front line, so that's far from a certainty, but I have faith.

Utah and UNLV... Hmmm. Nobody really knows what to expect out of the new UNLV coach. They lost their first game but the coach had a pretty good record from Montana so who knows. Also, Wynn seems to have a boo boo. Something about his thumb. I don't really think it's serious enough to stop him from playing but lets not forget Cain is still around if they need him, and he is nothing to sneer at QB wise. Asiata should be even more balanced out this game, it's in SLC, and etc so I don't expect Utah to struggle too much. I predict Utah wins, 34 to 13.

(Red) It's official... BYU is a loner...

Well today BYU made the 'leap of faith' as it has been called to go independent in football and join the WCC in other sports (minus a few others which sounds like they got screwed). My immediate reaction to the move was that in the short term I think it works pretty well, exposure and scheduling anyways. I would say that it is step up over the MWC for exposure, but how hard is that? All home games on ESPN is very good, but now they are at the will of ESPN. When ESPN says play a game they have to play. I'd be a little concerned about when the games may be played. Scheduling they do have Notre Dame on the docket as well as Texas. But they still have the WAC for about 6 games. That is a big step down over MWC competition. So they are going to be around 10 games already for the 2011 and 2012 seasons it looks like, but when the WAC tie in ends in the next few years things could get tricky. Now the thing I would be most worried about is that, say for example, BYU loses 2 out of their first 3 or 4 games. Normally those are reserved for non conference games and you could come back and win your conference. Now without a conference and losing those games you have no championship to look forward to, at that point BCS consideration is long gone. Motivation for a team can be shot. And the problem with independent scheduling I don't know if it will be easy to find a middle ground in strength of the schedule. You need to try and find a medium between what Navy does and what Notre Dame does. Because you could play yourself out of a season pretty quickly with a tough schedule that you made. At the same time you don't want to schedule a bunch of cream puffs and screw yourself out of a good ranking. The problem I could see is that you may not have to much of a say in which way that works itself out. Because you are playing to the availability of other teams and when they can play. Depending on how the cards fall you could be hating life. Overall I think it was an ok move. The MWC due to it's exposure didn't give BYU to much of a choice, but competitively I think staying in the MWC was a better solution. But I understand the move. After all I'm in the Pac 12 so life is all good at the U, uncertain days lie ahead for the Y.

(Blue)Strange things afoot...

Well it's happened: just like Utah a few weeks ago, BYU has 'cut the cord' with the beloved (or behated depending on your outlook) Mountain West Athletic Conference. After some deep soul searching and meditation as to my feelings on this move, I have arrived at the following conclusion:


Onward and upwards.


The MWC was good and fun, but the best things had already been changed when Utah bolted and we started taking on WAC ilk. Boise and the rest would have changed things too much for it really to be the same, so sports were going to be different regardless. Just a note about the move, it was necessitated by $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
... and exposure.

The way things sit now, BYU has to scramble around to get people to play them, but Notre Dame, Hawaii, and others have made this less worrisome. Granted, there will be some weaker opponents, namely, the WAC tie in's. But hey, we have some Oklahoma, Florida State etc games to come and I am not too stressed. Things will work themselves out. Seems like ESPN is supportive and that's always a plus. I'm glad that I can flip the Mountain, CBSC, and Versus the proverbial bird in a few and that I'll be able to watch the games.

Two things I'll miss: playing for a conference championship and the Deseret First Duel. Now the latter should be effectively be impossible with BYU landing in the WCC with the other churchy schools with all of it's other sports except track swimming and softball. I feel for those guys and wonder where they'll end up. But like I said, onwards and upward.

As for the rest of the days blogging about stuff, it'll be more tricky now that the Utes have gone Pac 10 and we've 'independencitized' ourselves. BUT WE SHALL PREVAIL!!! Red and I will continue to bring you the finest hearsay and opinion to be had on the subject. And on that thread, to the games:

Utah VS Pitt: ... See Red's post :)
Seriously though- Pitt has historically been tough and I think that they will give the Utes a good indication of where their team sits. My prediction is a close game, with Utah coming out on top, under 24 points for the winner.

BYU VS Washington: Hmmm.. Well, I'm not gonna lie, I love good ol' S. Sarkisian as much as anybody, but I really hope for repeat of last years opener. The QB against us is as good as they come, but that hasn't ALWAYS killed us (just frequently). I have been checking the roster for the fresh blood on the squad and there is some hope there. The good thing about this week is that everyone is healthy. I predict a victory for BYU by a narrow margin or a loss. If we do win, I think it will be less then 4 points or so and probably under 30, but I'm optimistic.
I hope that our QB 'competition' is resolved soon and that we can shake the silly notion of dual QB action. In my opinion, you need a foundation based on "the guy" so that you can really form your offense. That's not what Bronco wants right now and hey, hope it works. But I suspect that one or the other needs to come to the forefront and stay there. There are more things I could say, but the only way to really see is to hide and watch. That goes for Independence as well as the team this year.

(Red) Expansion-polooza!!

What a crazy off season we just went through. It actually seemed like there has been some kind of college football news since the bowl season ended. Locally two stories have dominated the land scape in the off season. The first one may be the biggest. In June of this past summer the University of Utah officially accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10 conference, deciding to leave the Mountain West Conference, a conference the U helped build. There were two people I talked to that did not believe me when I said this would happen months and months ago, one of them was my partner Blue. Everyone saw the smoke, I, of course believed, there was fire. For the U this was a no brainer move and one that had to be done. This raises the Ute athletic programs to unthought of heights. The funding alone is going to go through the roof. Last year the U brought in almost $1.5 million in TV revenue from the MWC. In what is going to be the Pac 12 the Utes could receive up to $15-20 million  annually from a reworked TV deal that could include a Pac 12 TV network. Not only that the Pac 12 is an equal revenue sharing league. So that means access to more BCS money now that the Utes are in a BCS league. Facilities are going to get nicer, coaches are going to get paid more, recruiting budgets are going to explode. Now the Utes will not going in full financial members in the 2011 season, they will start to receive full payouts in 2013. Not only that but exposure for the program is so much better now. They are now out of the TV deal with the Mtn. (except this one last year) and they will start to be on ESPN and Fox more. Not to mention the pending Pac 12 Network. Moving to the on the field stuff everything is going to improve as well. The first is recruiting. Within hours of announcing the Pac 10 move the Ute football coaching staff got calls from dozens of recruits, many of which they would have never heard from while in the MWC. Utah has missed on so many recruits, many of which went to the Pac 10, mostly because of not being in a BCS league. I mentioned the coaches would be paid more. I believe this could make our coaching staff even more stable. 'Bigger' programs have come after our coaches and thrown piles of money at them. Now with this BCS money we can keep our coaching staff easier and be on a more even playing field. And the bowl ties ins change dramatically. In the MWC the bowls were the Las Vegas Bowl (1st pick), The Poinsettia Bowl (2nd pick), the Independence Bowl in Shreveport LA (3rd pick), the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, ID (4th pick), and the Armed Forces bowl in Fort Worth, TX as well as the New Mexico Bowl. The Bowls in the Pac 10 are: The Rose Bowl, The Alamo Bowl, The Holiday Bowl, The Sun Bowl, The Maaco Bowl, and some other weird named bowl. The bowl locations are better across the board and the bowl payouts are double to triple if not more across the board. And of course the Utes now have easier access to the BCS Championship Game. The announcement of the move has caused season ticket sale outs, the first time in history. This is easily the biggest move in Utah athletics history -- not to forget a lot of this money can trickle into the academics and improve the school as a whole. 

VS

Now over the last 3 weeks another story has broke. BYU was looking at going independent in football and move the 18 sports in the WAC. This move got leaked to the MWC offices by someone, one report said by a Conference USA official, and Craig Thompson of the MWC promptly raided the WAC of Nevada and Fresno State making the WAC a 6 team league. Quite a coincidence if you ask me. It was a very strategic move to A: stick it to BYU for thinking about moving and B: put a blow in BYUs plans altogether. Now as of now, BYU is kind of in limbo of what to do. Some reports have them stayin the MWC others have them moving still to the WAC as well as independence in football, others say the West Coast Conference is an option. Personally I think it is a bad move by BYU to go independent in football. First of all they want exposure, sure they may get some more games on ESPN, but they will be at the mercy of ESPN for days and times, they could play wednesday afternoon for all they know. Also they have talked about BYUTV as an option. Your average sports fan, or person in general, have no idea BYUTV exists. It's not exactly in the sports section of the local cable or satellite guide. I know I don't cruise around on saturday afternoons looking for BYUTV for my college football. Secondly I think scheduling would be very tough. If the WAC agrees to play them in 1/2 the games through out the season that helps, but competitively thats a step down in playing field. The MWC has some very good teams in it with TCU and now Boise coming into the league. And without Fresno and Nevada the WAC is now behind Conference USA. So if they go to true independence in football - which only 3 teams do, Navy, Army, and Notre Dame (altho ND has a loose tie w/ the Big 10 in football) - I believe scheduling will be grooling. Sure the first 4-6 games may be easy to get some games. But the last half of the season is the trick. You figure most teams have conference schedules the last half of the season so their schedules are tied up. That eliminates a lot of possible match ups at the end of the year for BYU because other teams just can't fit them in. And not to mention other sports like basketball will be put at a huge disadvantage because moving them into a league like the WAC or WCC their credibility gets hit big time. Overall I think it is just to big of risk to make this move. I would stay in the MWC and see if the Big 12 comes calling to get back to 12 teams. BYU is on that list for sure if they do come calling. At worst you are in a pretty good MWC - sure the money sucks a little bit but BYU doesn't have to worry about it all that much. I think BYU may have over reacted to Utah's move to the Pac 10 a little to much. I think they need to wait and see what happens, because expansion is not over...

(Red) Week 1 - Washington vs BYU

Alright I will keep this rather simple. Washington has possibly the best QB in the country in Jake Locker coming into Provo. He brings with him a good running back and a really good wide receiver. BYU is replacing some where along the lines of 7 or 8 defensive starters. I think Washington may be running up and down the field all day lighting up the score board. Locker is the kind of QB that BYU has a hard time with as well, he is very mobile. Think Christian Ponder from Florida St last year (and this year for that matter). But I think the biggest factor for BYU is on the offensive side of the ball. Now Washington is not known for their defensive prowess. But BYU will be starting a new QB (2 of them to be precise). A new RB (or 3). New tight ends (2 of them). And their wide receiving core is, well, McKay Jacobsen... and that's it, and he is not a #1 receiver for most other teams. I see BYU struggling this first game, now I know they have the talent there. But the growing pains could be immense. Washington is a dark horse in the Pac 10 race and they will have speed on offense and that will cause problems for BYU, as always. I don't think BYU gets blown out at home, mainly because I just don't think Washington's D is there just yet but I just don't see that BYU offense being ready for the bright lights and having turnover issues. Timing and continuity could be a big problem for BYU out of the gates.

Washington - 31
BYU - 17

(Red) Week 1- #15 Pitt v #24 Utah

Finally!!! After 9 months of waiting college football is back. After a very extremely eventful off season for the U, one of the most anticipated home openers in the history of the program is this Thursday. The Utes welcome in the Pitt Panthers. It is a rematch of the 2005 Fiesta Bowl where Alex Smith and Urban Meyer said goodbye to the U by pummeling the Panthers and launched the program into an era of greatness. Both teams have some unknowns going into the season, which is rather common for a college football team. I would just say Pitt has more unknowns at this point. Don't get me wrong Pitt's defense is going to be stout. Their defensive ends are studs, namely the end Greg Romeus. Pitt was #1 in the country last year in sacks, the unusual thing about that stat is that they are not a blitzing team. They bring the heat with their front four. However, that does play into one of the strengths of the U. The O-Line for the U will be very solid once again this year. Anchored by Zane Taylor and Caleb Schlauderhoff this may be the best O-Line in the MWC. Pitt should have a harder to bringing pressure with just four guys. And Jordan Wynn is an assassin if given time. The Panthers do have a good secondary, but if they can't bring pressure Wynn will be finding the plethora of wide outs as well as getting the ball to the best running back tandem in the MWC, Matt Asiata and Eddie Wide. Now I don't predict 35-40 points for the Ute offense, especially in the first game, but I do expect them to move the ball well, they just need to put the ball in the end zone during their red zone trips. To many field goals last season while in the red zone.
Now the biggest match up I see is their O versus the U's D. Everybody is excited to see Pitt's heisman candidate in Dion Lewis. He ran for almost 1800 yards last season as a true freshman. They also have a stud wide out in Jon Baldwin. However there is a catch. They are replacing their QB as well as the interior of the offensive line. They have good tackles but the big thing here is the U is extremely deep on the D line. The could shuffle 8-10 guys in there and bring the heat. Their strength of running the ball plays into the Utes strength of the front four. And as always expect Kalani Sitake to mix in some very exotic blitz packages to confuse the young QB. I believe you have to respect the back and the wide out for Pitt but I just don't think in the first game of the season it is fair to expect a new QB and 60% of a new o-line to hold up for four quarters. Now the key is the U has to get in the backfield early and rattle the QB, but they need to watch for the screen because Lewis can bust one easy.
I also believe there are 2 other factors that play into this game. First is Pitt has to travel 2 time zones west and lose 2 hours. Now thats not a big deal over all but I think it can be a factor, mostly because it will disrupt their comfort zone. And the second is altitude. Come the middle of the first quarter and into the second Pitt should be huffin and puffin at the 5000 foot altitude of Rice-Eccles Stadium. This may also wear their legs out come the fourth as well. And not to mention the MUSS, they should play a big factor in this game.
Overall I just don't think in game 1 the Pitt offense can gel fast enough to challenge the Ute defense, and possibly the fastest Ute defense in history - while on the road. I believe the offense may sputter at times because Pitt's D is good but I see them wearing them down as the game goes along. If the U gets off to a fast start watch out it could get ugly.

Utes - 27
Pitt - 14

(Red) Back in action!

Ok so I disappeared after the horrible experience of what was the Holy War of 2009. I will go into details of what I thought about the game and the bowl game too soon. I will also be begin looking forward to the 2010 season for both byU and the U. But for this post I will post some stories and work I did in school regarding the U of U football team.
The first is the paper I did for Mass Comm History and it was on the first year of the Utah/byU rivalry - http://utahcommhistory.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/utah-vs-byu-year-one/ 


The next is the story I did on the BCS. 







More to come.