A few numbers to mull over

Posted By: ColoUte <everutes@hotmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, 20 September 2000, at 4:59 p.m.

In my frustration, I took a closer look at the Utes over the past couple of years, and I'm seeing a disturbing trend. The program needs a serious kick in the butt. It may very well be better than it was 15 years ago, but it's still not very good.

I only went back to 1995 because I think 5 years is a decent sample size, and because I didn't want to include the 1994 year for 2 reasons. 1) It was an obvious aberration not only for the Utes but for the conference. I don't think we'll see 3 MWC teams ranked in the top 20 at the same time any time soon. As such, this year alone tends to skew the numbers (for example, the Utes played and beat 5 nationally ranked teams in 94 alone) 2) 1994 is when Rasnick left the program, and the offense has never been the same.

Here goes:

Record in OOC games: 10-11 (including the 3 losses this year)
OOC games against teams from BCS conferences: 10
OOC games against teams from BCS conferences that aren't the PAC-10: 2
Wins against teams from BCS conferences: 3 (96 Stanford, Kansas, 99 WSU)
Wins against teams that finished in the top half of their BCS conference: 0
Losses to Big West teams: 4
Number of Starting QB's who have been walk-ons: 3 (that's 60% for those who don't care to do the math)
Number of 400+ yard passing games: 2 (Both Fouts - 96 vs Kansas and Wisconsin. In contrast, McCoy had 11 400+ yard games in 93 and 94)
Number of sub 200 yard passing games: 35
Number of sub 100 yard passing games: 4
Number of Starting Kickers who have been walk-on's - 2 (50%)
Number of games lost by a missed FG/PAT in the final 2 minutes: 5
Average FG% - 73%
Average FG% not counting Pulsipher - 48%
Number of 200+ yard games by a single RB: 11 (not bad, but...)
Number of 100+ yard games by a single RB against BCS conference teams: 4 (no 200 yarders, 1 150+ yarder - Ma'afala against Stanford 96)
Longest single season winning streak - 4
Longest single season losing streak - 3
Number of times the Utes have finished with fewer than 2 conf. losses: 0 (actually, this extends throughout Mac's career)
Number of wins over teams that were ranked when they played the Utes: 3
Number of wins over teams that ended the year ranked: 0
Number of weeks that the Utes were ranked: 7
Number of seasons the Utes ended nationally ranked: 0 (though 3 times in the others receiving votes...that's encouraging)

I could probably go on, but this is depressing. It shows that our OOC schedule sucks, but that's probably a good thing because we're losing more games to teams we should beat than winning games agains teams we should lose to.

Offensively, I don't expect 400+ yard passing games every week. I think the days of that type of offensive production in this conference is long gone, but I don't think it's out of line to expect 225-250 week in week out. To go under 200 35 times and only over 400 twice is pathetic. As for the kicking game, no one would dispute that it has sucked for quite some time.

The program needs a real shot in the arm, and I don't know what it'll take. A new offensive scheme wouldn't suck. Beating inferior teams all of the time would help, and beating a couple of superior teams...who am I kidding. Until these numbers change drastically, the proverbial "next level" is about as likely as Chris Hill's willingness to eat Mac's contract extension.

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