Throwback

This is a piece that I wrote when I had just gotten home from my mission about Utah Football and the state that it was in. Kind of interesting to see what has transpired since that time, and also interesting how much of this is still true.

A True Utah Man

The Utes lost last night.

Welcome to Utah Football.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that is Utah Football. Not losing, mind you. The Utes are definitely going to be title contenders every year in the Mountain West Conference, and no doubt will win many championships in the years to come, but let’s be realistic. Urban Meyer did a great job of hyping a program that 2 years ago underachieved so badly that even the New York Yankees would have been jealous. I enjoyed riding Renewal as much as the next guy, but Man Down South has moved on to sandy beaches and mai tais and power football programs. Urban Meyer is not Utah Football. Utah Football is what it is because 45,000 people paid $35 a ticket so that he could get a paycheck every month, and while he did a lot to build the program, the heart of it is in the fans. Kyle Wittingham is a great coach, one who is fully capable of duplicating the success that Meyer enjoyed in his two years here, but it will take time. He has a sophomore quarterback, who last year spent more time signaling plays than calling them in the huddle. Besides, Remember last year in the third or fourth quarter when we would put the second team in and every team made a charge against us and the starters had to come back in? Well, guess what? Those guys are now the starters. Perhaps we are still riding the wave of love that the “Biggest Show on Turf” (aka Urban Meyer) brought last year. We should only be so grateful that the Football Gods smiled on Utah Fans long enough to give us some sort of a comeback to all those stupid BYU fans who always say “We won a National Championship in 1984.” Straight up, I am proud to say that I am a Utah Man. When I hear the fight song, no matter where I am, I want to stand up and start to clap my hands. I don’t really know what we expect, considering that the student sections knows two lines to the fight song, and we have a real struggle just trying to keep our clapping in rhythm. My point is this, if you jumped on to the Utah bandwagon last year, don’t jump off just yet. Will Utah ever become a Michigan or Notre Dame or Texas? I surely hope not, because I love it when stupid talking heads like Trev Alberts (by the way, I hope the unemployment checks are giving you enough respect, Trevie) and the BCS disrespect us and we end up forcing them to give us what we deserve and reward them by filling the Fiesta Bowl with Red and dominating what really was a pathetic Pitt team. This isn’t a rant about Utah Football, or calling for Andy Ludwig’s head, this is a call to arms for every person who has a red sweater in their closet, for every person who prayed for Chris Yergensen to make that field goal, for every fan who cried when Ryan Kaneshiro missed wide right, and for every Runnin’ Ute who laughed for three years straight as Ron McBride beat the Team Down South 34-31, 34-31, 34-17. Next week when Air Force flies into town, I hope that the stands will be full and rocking, that as soon as Brian Johnson leads the team out of that goofy little tent, his heart will skip a beat because he will feel it. Utah Football needs the Fans. The defense needs the MUSS on third and long, Quinton Ganther needs that extra burst of screaming from the north stands, and we need to show these Utes that we haven’t given up on them, and we never will. Don’t give up on these Utes, they still have a lot to show us, and I think now they have something to prove not only to themselves, but everyone else as well, and that may be the best thing of all.