There is one reality in college football that BYU fans need to come to terms with. As a head coach, you don't lose 4 consecutive games to your biggest rival and expect to keep your job. True, BYU does not live in the real world, anyone who has been to that campus in Provo can tell you that. Where else would you suspend one of your best players the week before the biggest game of the season on very little solid evidence he did anything wrong? But I digress. I am very amazed considering how thing have been so far this season, and how things have been since 2010 that Bronco's carcus is not firmly in the hot seat. It should be.
Utah will be celebrating this week, but even though they leave Provo's fantasyland a victor this weekend, it will not be so rosy once they are firmly in confernce play. Utah this year has 3 wins, 1 against a team that has a great quarterback but no running game, 2 an FCS team with no defense and 3 a once mighty program that has forgotten their true offensive legacy. Yes, the Utes are 3-1 right now, but getting to .500 is still an iffy prospect. Just as a reminder, Utah has UCLA, USC, Stanford, Oregon, Arizona State and Arizona coming up before they will be favored again. And by the way, Washington State no longer looks like a given for Utah, either. Same for Colorado. The PAC-12 is realityland. Utah has to win 3 of those games just to get to .500 this year and become bowl eligible. That's a tall order for this team. But I suspect that even at 3-9, Kyle will be back next season, after all he's won 4 straight against their biggest rival, and that kind of a record will save your job in college football, most of the time.
Things have to get better on The Hill because in 2014 and 2015, there will be no victories against BYU for Kyle Whittingham to fall back on. They don't play. But I suspect that small maket reality has hit the U just like it has the Jazz and just now RSL (with rumors that Jason Kreis has received an offer from the expansion NYCFC). There are four markets smaller than Salt Lake in the PAC-12, and guess how many combined Rose Bowl appearances Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State and Arizona have between them since 1978 when Arizona and Arizona State joined the PAC-10? If you guessed 5, you were right. Oregon 3 times, Washington State twice. Oregon State last played in the Rose Bowl in 1965 and Arizona has never been there. And yes, even with all of the recent success of Oregon, they have had only 3 Rose Bowl appearances since the PAC-8 became the PAC-10. The odds for Utah's success in the PAC-12 aren't good, and you simply have to look at what the other small market programs have done in recent seasons. Eventually, the Utes will smell roses, but not anytime soon, and not very often. If Utah fails to get to .500 in either 2013 or 2014, Whit will not be around for 2015.
I don't know who will be coaching either school in 2016 when BYU and Utah play again. I will probably address both situations when the other shoe gets close to falling. Right now, I am certain that Andy Reid will not be on the BYU sidelines, and I don't expect that Ty Detmer or Steve Young will be there either, even though that's what many BYU will fans wish for. Many of those same fans think that Bronco should keep his job. I suspect that BYU may get someone like Darel Bevel (Seahawks), Ken Nuimatalolo (Navy) or even Kalani Sitake (Utah). Utah probably won't get Gary Anderson or Chris Peterson to coach in Salt Lake. They don't have the money. There is a pretty good chance that Dennis Ericson will take over. If not Ericson, perhaps Noel Mazzone (UCLA) or Mike Bloomgren (Stanford) or a coordinator from one of the other PAC-12 schools will come to Salt Lake.
In the end of Bronco vs. Whittingham, Kyle won out. Good job Kyle. Enjoy this, Utah fans. It's not going to get any easier this season. Here's to hoping for the best for Utah and for the better for BYU.
Utah 20 BYU 13
BYU MVP: LB Kyle Van Noy
Utah MVP: QB Travis Wilson
USC 17 Utah State 14
USU MVP: RB Joey DeMartino
Southern Utah 24 Sacramento State 21
SUU MVP: RB Raysean Martin
McNeese State 43 Weber State 6
WSU MVP: RB Bo Bolen
PAC-12 Player of the Week: Oregon State QB Sean Mannion
FBS Indy Player of the Week: BYU LB Kyle Van Noy
MWC Player of the Week: Fresno State QB Derek Carr
Big Sky Player of the Week: Southern Utah RB Raysean Martin
PAC 12 Power Rankings
1. Oregon
2. Stanford
3. UCLA
4. Washington
5. Oregon State
6. Washington State
7. USC
8. Arizona State
9. Arizona
10. Utah
11. Colorado
12. California
FCS Indy Power Rankings
1. Notre Dame
2. Navy
3. BYU
4. Army
5. Old Dominion
6. New Mexico State
7. Idaho
MWC Power Rankings
1. Fresno State
2. Utah State
3. Boise State
4. San Diego State
5. Air Force
6. San Jose State
7. Nevada
8. Wyoming
9. Colorado State
10. New Mexico
11. UNLV
12. Hawaii
Big Sky Power Rankings
1. Eastern Washington
2. Montana
3. Southern Utah
4. Montana State
5. Cal Poly
6. Portland State
7. Northern Arizona
8. North Dakota
9. Northern Colorado
10. Weber State
11. Sacramento State
12. Idaho State
13. UC Davis
Beehive State QB Power Rankings
1. Chuckie Keeton, Utah State
2. Travis Wilson, Utah
3. Aaron Kantu, Southern Utah
4. Taysom Hill, BYU
5. Chippowetti/Adamczyk, Weber State
No comments:
Post a Comment