In the spirit of Ancient Ute I've decided to write some positives about this football team.

1. Defense - This goes without saying but I believe that if we had some offense this season, this group could have been stunning this year, a unit that would make some noise nationally.

2. Brandon Dart - How about that he in the 25 years hes been at the U will play an entire season and except for the crotch chop has played very well. Its almost tragic he couldn't have had a healthy career here.

3. Ryan Kaneshiro - Has come in and had a solid season. He apparantly had a bad miss at New Mexico but has been perfect on xtra points and has been solid.

4. Golden Whetman - Ok so the guy has a ten cent brain. His kickoffs have been very good and his punting has been great, he seems to have a real knack for putting the ball inside the 10. Plus that 55 yarder on the frozen dirt of Laramie Wyoming, I can see why if I was seeing that everyday in practice I might have kept running this guy out as my field goal kicker. That kick was stunning.

5. Darnell Arceneaux - So he can't play QB. I can't say I've ever been more impressed with a guys leadership and dedication to team. He stayed positive when Croshaw was the started, kept after it when he was, everytime he came out he supported the other guy. Now that Lance Rice is the starter he has been nothing but positive and helpful to him. It speaks volumes about a guy who handles a situation like this. To bad he can't complete an 8 yard pass.

6. Lance Rice - Put into a terrible situation playing with a team without hope has come in and played very well. I had assumed that next year's QB situation would be between Elliot and Breska but Rice will have a say in that. It'll be nice to have several capable QB's.

Anyone have any others.

Honestly, who cares? Regardless of what this team does against BYU, this season has been a failure ever since the CSU game. Wins against Wyoming, SDSU, USU, and UNLV are expected. Nothing done in those games have done anything to change my take on this season. Changes in the staff need to be made. This season, for me, is a reminder of good players doing bad things. Examples...Garrett Smith picking up 7 personal foul calls in 10 games. Steve Smith personal fouls against SDSU, UNLV, and Wyoming. Phillipe Wells geting into it with a Cal defender while the clock runs out. Golden not remembering that he is on the punt team. This teams lack of discipline will be what I remember from this team. Wait a minute, what I remember will be the way that Mac condones these acts. Did anyone see the Sunday coaches show on KJZZ? Mac explained in perfect detail why Smith was flagged and explained it like the WYO guy on the bench deserved to get slapped by Smith. Disagree with what I say, but no slant on Mac's ability to discipline will I understand. Simply put, Mac's players are in control and continue to do dumb things because Mac looks the other way.

Off my soap box...With that said, let me say something about the Wyo game. Wyo sucks plain and simple. You can get as much out of this game as watching the b-ball Utes play Team Reebok.

Defense- Shut out...What else could they have done. The Utes need to do something to hang on to Kyle and Fred Wittingham. My fear is that Kyle takes a head coaching job somewhere and Fred follows him.
DL- A...Great pressure 4 or 5 sacks. Shut down the run.
LB- A...I'm starting to believe that Tufunga can play on Sundays. Wes was all over. Oleveo also played well.
DB- A...Still the strenth of the D. I don't think WYO even threw against Andre until the pick for a TD. Andre is the real deal and is back to his 1999 form. Ray is a good corner on the other side.

Offense- Didn't see anything new, but they didn't need to either. I'd still like to hear why the offense with Rice uses qb mobility more then when Darnell was there?

QB- B...Lets not be to quick to give the 2001 job to Breska/Elliott. Rice will be the starter going into spring and Mac will show his loyalty by starting him in next years opener. Trust me.
RB- B+...Hunter/Tate combo very effective. Score would of been worse if they could of planted and cut on that turf.
OL- B+..Played well. Very tuff to block on ice.

Special Teams- A...Golden was Golden from 55. He may be the best punter the Utes have had at putting the ball inside the 10. Gotta love that altitude.

Lets not get to carried away with BYU coming up on the schedule. Their no good and neither are we. A win will mean very little for either side.

I think Wyoming might have the worst Division 1-A team in America. I actually stood in the blue gale for about a quarter. After Utah took the 17-0 lead, I told myself "I'm really stupid standing here when it's 5 below," and I left. Suffice it to say I did not regret the decision.
It's nights like these where I wish we would just kill our football program, give all the money to basketball, and turn the stadium into a parking garage. That's a bit rash, I guess, but, please, can they quit scheduling home games in November? At night!
The funniest thing I heard was UteInWyo saying that he regretted having to give up his tickets for the game. Believe me, you would not have enjoyed yourself, even if the Utes would have won by a hundred.

...almost as much as I love to use the phrase "Negative Nellie."

Anyway, I'm still not sold on the offense. I may get flamed for saying this because we've put up 72 points in the last two games. But the statistics still aren't overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, the offense has played better in the last two weeks, but it had nowhere to go but up--and I think it still has a long way to go.

What we have done is get the running game going against a couple of weaker defenses and convert some key turnovers into points. Admittedly, these are things we haven't really done all year, so this is an improvement. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I don't think we have had more than three touchdown drives in the last two weeks that have been longer than sixty yards and usually those are assisted by some sort of bomb to Steve Smith.

What I'm getting at is that I really hope the coaching staff doesn't get overly excited about this relatively meaningless late season success. I still haven't seen anything that makes me feel that Tommy Lee should be back next season. I like Lance Rice better than Arceneaux and Croshaw, but I wouldn't be ready to hand the reins over to him for the next three years. I remember at the end of Darnell's freshman year he came in and beat Rice and BYU and we all thought he was going to be the man here for the next three years, which apparantly prompted us to not recruit Josh Heupel out of Snow College. I hope we don't make that mistake again and if Breska or Elliott deserves the position next season they will get it.

And just because Whetman nailed a 55 yarder doesn't mean we shouldn't recruit a kicker.

Anyhow, I'm glad we've won some games, but it doesn't take the sting off of the season and I still think there are changes that need to be made with the offensive staff.

Go Utes!!!!!!!!!!

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