Better know a fanbase: The Utah Utes

Utes: Optimists, living in a bubble, Righteous!, and don't really party.

(Disclaimer!: Yes, all of these quotes are from real-life Utes...No, i'm not kidding)

Let's start off with these tasty morsels:
"One of the most optimistic predictions for the Utes comes from College Football Poll.com. They have Utah going undefeated and easily winning the Mountain West. "

compared that to this

"The only seasons they've been extremely off were 2000, 2002 and 2003"
and
"In the former two, they picked Utah to do better than they actually did and in the latter, worse."
For those of you keeping score at home, in the last 9 years collegefootballpoll.com has been extremely off in 3 season, partially off in 3 other seasons, so what they are accurate 1/3rd of the time??? I'd really hang your hat on that prediction my feather-decorated friends. Just an intro into the mind of the UTE nation.

They have the Holy War. "BYU vs. Utah is THE greatest rivalry in college football. You should se the swagger in that game 2006" Say no more, its got "swagger." The WLOCP and Iron Bowl just can't compete with this yearly clash of the titans.

Fortunately, they carry the banner for all the oppressed. Thank you bringers of light! "We’ve been complaining about the BCS from the beginning" We all just been def since the beginning I guess. Hey, the program deserves respect says some fans. "It’s had 115 seasons now!!!" Well for crying out loud, get these guys a major award. My only question is what does it say about a fanbase who has bene around for that long and is still with the bottom feeders of college football? Some fan support.

But how dare you call us whiners. No, spamming AP voters is NOT whining in the least. We's standin' up fo' ar' riites!

As those of soverign Fandom have now cleary seen, the UTEs need to be shows what football snobbery is all about. At least they have the motivational words of the immortal Lou Holtz on their side. "Utah has the best non-BCS talent in the country" I hope you find solace in that statement of brillance. (wait, is this the same guy that said Notre Dame would win the National Championship this season?) I'm just waiting for them to start using quotes from Mark May next.
And now you know,
The Utah Utes: Clawing and Scratching for respect for over 115 seasons!!

Running Back Coommiittee

I found this post by Mr. Robinson to be very interesting compared to what I found in Steele's SEC preview. I picked up his preview, which looked far too similar to the college football preview issue, and found his top unit by list of running backs and found UGA ranked pretty near the bottom. No way we are near the bottom of the SEC in running backs. Of our 5 or so potential RB's, at least one or two of them has to be pretty darn good. I would compare Carlton Thomas to Barry Sanders quite yet. Honestly, I don't think its really going to matter with our new and improved OL retunring 134 starts at least. In Stacy We Trust.

THE Master Playoff Solution

Move over March-Madness, Its time for September-October-Novemeber Madness!!! OH THE INHUMANITY!!! take the 118 FBS schools, add 10 random teams, it doesn't even matter who, and get a pool of 128 teams. Then, draft up a gigantic bracket and draw names out of a hat to determine the seeds. (Afterall, polls mean absolutely nothing).
The result would be the most fair, exciting, settle-it-on-the-field format ever proposed.
I plead you Senator Hatch! Please carry the torch of freedom, justice, and the American way for us lowly fans. Madness does not even begin to describe this playoff format. How about "End of year Insanity!," or "September/October/Novemeber Psychoness!" or "Autumn-OutofControlness!" ???
Imagine, finally UAB will get a shot at Southen Cal, FAU gets to play Flroida, again!, Plus we'll probably see purdue win a few games and be a Cinderella!!! How exciting! We deserve a cinderella! Seeing as how an 8 team playoff will soon lead to a 16 team and so on, why not skip to the fair and logical conclusion to this travesty that is the College Football postseason. Join me oh loyal inhabitants of Fandom in our crusade to bring about fairness and equality to all!!!

Input/Output

Interesting story here about the Rose Bowl.
So now if the Big 10 or the Pac 10 has a national champion contender, and a non-BCS conference team qualifies for a BCS bowl, they must play in the Rose Bowl. Doesn't make any sense at all. Why should a non-BCS team automatically get a bid to the Rose bowl just because they qualify for a BCS bowl? The good senator points out correctly that the Rose Bowl gives the biggest payout. Why does a Utah, BYU, or TCU deserve to share in the wealth created by the BCS conferences?? They deserves to get back what it put in.
In the next few years its highly likely that this will actually happen.
I guess a lot of complaining can pay off for the small time conferences. Since when did everyone become entitled to things. Orrin Hatch is a typical politician. Way to please the constituency. The only thing that I hate more than this is wondering what other kinds of shenanigans could be in our near future.

Top 5 games i'm looking forward to this year

#5-Arizona State- This is a personal pick that most will disagree with, but I sure am ready for some Gweeds to roll into Athens with a medicore team. I may talk more crap this saturday than any game of the year. My only concern here is that they just won't bring a lot of people for us to abuse. They've got a long trip to make, they don't really care much about their team, and they're not that good. I can't wait to give hell to whatever pool souls show up in Athens after they pulled out their keys follow a touchdown on their part. We were all very confused based on the score of the game and the fact that no one actually took their car out to Arizona. This is just going to be fun for the fans.

Definitely hope to see some of this




#4-LSU-Probably the second best team we play all year, but they're number 4 for a couple of reasons. They're not in the East. Its just hard to hate a team you don't see every year, and I love to hate teams. I may be underestimating their desire for vengence, but with the slate LSU has this year and the many losses they had last year, I don't think we are anything special on their radar. I think they are the best team in the West, but their lack of consistency and tough schedule will give them problems winning the west. Its always fun when the LSU fans come to town with their unique brand of fan. If we can survive this mid-point test at home, big things may be in our future.


Mmm, classssy


#3-South Carolina- Off-the wall pick here for a #3 game here, but hear me out. First of all, its a night game. Secondly, its our opening SEC game. Finally, I think this is going to be our closest thing to a statement game all year. Although we'll have already taken on Oklahoma State, that is our first game of the season and everyone is going to be watching to see what we really are made of. The opening game of the year is not enough to get a good feel what this team is all about. If we beat Ok State and then come out "guns-blazing" against USC and absolutely drop the hammer, I will feel much better about the season ahead. Plus, I think this is the year we finally get sick of South Carolina playing us tight and we try to demolish them this year under the lights. Sure they won't be very good, but it doesn't mean this game won't be fun and a possible indicator of the team we have for 2009. Oh yeah, its Spurrier.




Looking Forward to lots of this




#2-Okie State- I've already been told by Oklahoma people that "no-one uses Okie-state" to refer to Oklahoma State. I'm now going to use it. Plus, I'm glad to know I've found a possible chink in the armor of cowboy fans which will come in very handy when the smack-talk starts to fly in Stillwater. Part of the excitement for this game is due to the quality of opponent. Okie State will be ranked in the top 10 to start the season. They score points and have some studs at the skill positions. That does kind of sound like UGA of '08 which we all know didn't turn out so well. Couple our opponent's talent with a road trip to a college town, and we've got an A+ game on-hand. Not to mention I have a great feeling about going on the road behind our 30-6 recond this decade.


I hate orange, especially orange jumpsuits


#1-Florida- No brainer here for me. Sure they're billed as one of the best teams in the history of the universe with the second coming of Christ as their fearless (but not tearless) leader at the helm. But how sweet would a win in Jacksonville be this year? If the beginning of the season goes well, this will be a match-up between two very highly ranked teams. And there is just something about this Florida team that I have a funny feeling about. First of all, no one in college football wins 3 national championships in 4 years. Just doesn't happen. Secondly, they returned 2 deep everywhere on defense. That also, never happens. I have to wonder that if they all are really that good, then why did no one go to the NFL? There has got to be something to this. Reminds me of an Ohio State team who returned nearly everyone from its defense a few years ago. Remember that team? ya, I don't really remember them either.
Best part about this game though, I will have a great time regardless of the result.


Love/Hate relationship, but mostly Hate

Grading Offensive Units-O-Line

The O-line gets its own post. For one, the O-line may be the most important unit on the field. And for georgia, this is our most interesting unit by far. Most have speculated that this group will be good. And make no mistake, this is a group with tons of talent and experience, yet still very young.
A-, because they don't deserve anything better. Speculation and poptential can only get you so far. They simply have no had the time or opportunity to show they are the best in the country. If anything, they are a reflection of coach Searles who is the BMOC, no questions asked. He knows what he's doing and did an excellent job with his make-shift line last year. We all hope the line continues to develop this year and will become what many are saying will be one of the best lines in college football. Until then, i've got my fingers crossed.

Grading Our Units-Offense

QB-I'm going with a B+ for this which is probably a little higher than most. However, I think that a 5th year senior has to count for something. Cox hasn't proved himself, but based on the little we've seen he has looked competent. I'm banking on his experience to pay off.

RB-Probably a bit lower than most on this one, but B-. None of the guys (and we have a bunch) have shown they can do a whole lot. Caleb couldn't block last time we saw him, nor did he have break away speed. Samuel can't hold on to the ball, and some even thought he may be more suited to play on the other side of the ball. In Carlton Thomas we know we've got a small, fast and smart runner. But hes small. If we can somehow get these three to fit into the puzzle that is our offense, I think we could easily have some of the best RB's in the nation. We've also got a few highly touted young guys who may or may not make contributions. I wouldn't be surprised to see washaun or someone else have a break-out preformace.

WR-A, solid A, with A+ potential. A.J. Green is the real deal, second to none. Moore had a great end of the season. Marlon Brown has unbelievable potential as a freshman. Tavarres King who had an injury filled season last year should have a big bounce back year. I love this group.

TE-B+ We're got a good mix of blockers and receivers in this group. A bit thin on experience, but promising future to say the least. This group also had some big catches during the year that we're overshadowed by larger issues being discussed. TE's are usually good in this Georgia, semi-pro style offense as some like to call us.