2019 PAC 12 Championship Game Thread

[chrisrenrut]

Weather looks to be wet and breezy. We have had two games like that in RES this year.

Line is currently Utah -6.0.

I haven't seen any injury reports. Jaylon Johnson is my biggest worry, after he hurt his leg against Colorado.

We are driving there. Then my dad has to fly home for a Saturday evening commitment, and my brother and I will drive the rest of the way home after we drop him off at the airport. Anyone else going?

[Applejack]

Weather looks to be wet and breezy. We have had two games like that in RES this year.

Line is currently Utah -6.0.

I haven't seen any injury reports. Jaylon Johnson is my biggest worry, after he hurt his leg against Colorado.

We are driving there. Then my dad has to fly home for a Saturday evening commitment, and my brother and I will drive the rest of the way home after we drop him off at the airport. Anyone else going?

Jealous!

[concerned]

Jealous!

We have a group of 10 going

[SeattleUte]

We have a group of 10 going

I'll be there too!

[U-Ute]

Get hype!

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LOL @ Jayden Daniels getting whalloped.

[Sullyute]

Come on Utes!

[Irving Washington]

Kyle should have taken the field goal. Get us moving forward, a little momentum

[Mormon Red Death]

Alright let's get another stop on d

[Solon]

Alright let's get another stop on d

Well, that sucked.
Give Oregon credit. They looked great.
At least it wasn't a heartbreaker.
I had most of the game to get used to the loss.

[chrisrenrut]

What a steaming pile of feces of a game. Oregon dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides. Credit to Oregon, they thoroughly out-played us.

Lucky for me, I get to spend all day driving home tomorrow to reflect on the game.

[sancho]

What a steaming pile of feces of a game. Oregon dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides. Credit to Oregon, they thoroughly out-played us.


It was reminiscent of how USC dominated our line, but in that game Huntley was always able to evade the rush. These teams like us (or Wisconsin) that overachieve on tier 2 recruits...the talent gap catches up to us eventually. We didn't get to Herbert at all (like we didn't get to USC's QB at all), and they didn't even know our offensive line was there.

That said, there is no talent gap between their run game and our defensive line. We really just played a poor game there.

Ugh, 0-3 on 4th and short. The game would have felt very different with conversions on a couple of those.

Huntley, who was a rock all season, finally became rattled for the first time this year. Moss, who was a monster all season, seemed hesitant and uncertain on runs for the first time all season.

In the end, if we win the Alamo Bowl, I'll put this team among the all time best with 1994, a step below 2008 and 2004.

[mUUser]

It’s evident these conference championships are key to separate the contenders from the pretenders. Note Utah and Baylor (as of now). I mean it’s really really difficult to walk away with a CC in the P5 conferences......in any sport.

[LA Ute]

What a steaming pile of feces of a game. Oregon dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides. Credit to Oregon, they thoroughly out-played us.

Lucky for me, I get to spend all day driving home tomorrow to reflect on the game.

They scouted us well and gave us a taste of our own medicine: Stop the run, pressure the QB, establish their own running game, play physical football on the line of scrimmage. It seemed that our players were not mentally locked in at all.

All that aside, here's what I said on UF.net:


I already knew this but for diehard fans like me it’s easy to forget: It’s best just to enjoy the ride. I’ve become good at not drinking the pre-season Kool-Aid, but this time I let the team’s great success suck me in. Instead of just enjoying the wins and marveling at how well the team played — OSU, WSU, ASU, Cal, UCLA, Washington, Arizona, Colorado — I got stars in my eyes about the CFP and the Rose Bowl. This season has been the most fun I’ve had as a Ute football fan, ever. Yes, the Oregon game was a huge disappointment, and that was partly my fault for expecting so much. Still, we now have a terrific tradition, a future with real possibilities (which we need to be realistic about) and a program we can be justly proud of. That’s pretty good. Lots of other teams’ fans would love to have what we have.

[SeattleUte]

I agree with LAUte that we lost the mental game. That’s on the coaches. It’s just a observation. I don’t want them fired.

I still also believe that overall Oregon is a lot more talented naturally. Which enhances the importance that we be well prepared and mentally locked in.

[U-Ute]

Too bad we missed out on the Sewell kid. As a freshman he neutralized Anae. I don't think I heard his name called all night.

[Scorcho]

When Utah moved to the PAC-12 I think we all anticipated that the highs would be much higher, but I don’t think we factored in that the lows would be so much lower. Friday was soul crushing. I think that might be as crushing a defeat in Utah athletics as we’ve ever had. The only game that compares is the Championship loss vs. Kentucky in 98.

[Diehard Ute]

Too bad we missed out on the Sewell kid. As a freshman he neutralized Anae. I don't think I heard his name called all night.

One quibble, he’s a sophomore. Missed 6 games last year with an injury


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[LA Ute]

From a player's parent on Facebook:


As a parent of a son who is on the team but has yet to play, I think Ute Nation has lost a bit of perspective. This long post was triggered by someone on this page who said "Utah is shit". Several times. Who's shit? The whole state? The university? The coaches? The young men who play? The people who's jobs depend on the team for their livelihood? The fans?


We were out played, out coached and lost. It sucks for us, the fans, who have undoubtedly invested time and money in the team, but it sucks more for the "village" that are the players who are student-athletes, coaches, families, trainers, cheerleaders, team doctors, facility workers, admin, recruiters, the bus drivers, the pilots, the cooks that prepare food for the players, the person who cleans the bathrooms in the Ute football center and the hundreds of others who's job it is to support our players.


These players range from red shirt freshman who haven't set foot on the field to the elite players on the team who play. They've all invested hundreds of hours this season. They are not professional athletes. Remember even the GOAT's Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have lost unceremoniously. A loss is a loss by 24 point or just one. Time to move on and be thankful. "Utah is not shit".

Notice that the student always comes before the athlete. I think these players and their families chose the University of Utah for a reason-education. Many of whom may or may not have chosen college as a next step after high school if it weren't for their talent as football players.


Congrats on being the 2% of high school football players to actually make it on to a D1 team. Let alone play and have a 11-2 season. College football has been around for 150 years and will continue to excite fans and also break our hearts. There are roughly 130 schools who have D1 football programs and will graduate hundreds if not thousands of student-athletes in the coming months. As a parent, isn't that what its really all about?

How many of the Ute Nation knew that the University of Utah is one of six FBS programs to share the prestigious 2019 Academic Achievement Award from the American Football Coaches Association? Utah joins Air Force, Alabama, Clemson, Louisville and Rice University who all recorded a perfect 1,000 for their single year Academic Progress rate (APR). Coaches will attend an awards ceremony in January 2020. Well done! (You can google the article if interested in more detail).

Thank you to all the student-athletes for juggling a demanding practice and game schedule with classes, tests and papers.
Congrats to the senior student-athletes who will graduate this month or in May with your degree.
Good luck to the few of you who will have a career in the NFL after graduation. Wishing you much success but if it doesn't work out, how lucky you are to have something to fall back on.

Best of luck to the college players who will step onto the football field for the last time at what ever bowl game you play. Most of you are now going to have to redefine yourselves. You may become an accountant, sell real estate or work in marketing and some of you will have no idea of what to do next, who knows..... but the possibilities are endless because you are the future.

Thank you for being young men of character, integrity, who know the value of hard work and are graceful losers. Those qualities will get you farther in life than a win or a loss on the football field.

I hope that football have given you the confidence to know your worth off the field. Don't let this loss define you. I don't know any of you and you don't know me. You probably don't even know my son, who walked onto the team in August. He practices with you every day, meets you at 630am to lift weights 3 days a week, he runs from class every day to make It to practice 5-6 days a week just like you.

Many of you moved to Utah from other places in the country and have become a family. Only you and your team mates know exactly who you are and what you've been through these past 4 or so years. My husband played football in college, graduated in 1987. Only he and his team mates know what its really like to be a student-athlete. It's not the glitz and glamour of being a top 25 team that bonds you, its the physical bruises, the mental bashings, the highs of winning and the lows of losing, the funny things from coaches may say, the cheers from the fans, the news paper articles either praising you or tearing you down and so much more.


Thank you to the parents who raised amazing young men and the sacrifices you probably made during their high school and college careers. Only you know what it took to get your sons to the place they are now.


Thank you to those of you who have young families and sacrifice time away from them.

Of course the fans should be thanked for their support. The nay sayers will post snarky comments about this post and that's fine. I'm not the super fan police, just a Mom sharing her perspective.

Finally, the game could have gone our way, we'd be the Pac 12 Champions, play in the Rose Bowl or CFP, maybe win or maybe lose but the end result is the same, they'll graduate and for 99% - their lives as football players are over. They now have to become new men navigating a world that isn't always easy or kind.

[sancho]

From a player's parent on Facebook:

Ugh, if you Tweet or have a Facebook account, you are part of the problem! Free yourselves!

[Dwight Schr-Ute]

From a player's parent on Facebook:

Did said he aren’t post this in the Ute Nation group? I kind of just let the inmates riot for 24 hours with very little supervision after that game. 24 hours has turned into 96. Probably time to lock things up again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LA Ute]

Ugh, if you Tweet or have a Facebook account, you are part of the problem! Free yourselves!

That's the only comment you have on such thoughtful comments by that player's mom?

[LA Ute]

Did said he aren’t post this in the Ute Nation group? I kind of just let the inmates riot for 24 hours with very little supervision after that game. 24 hours has turned into 96. Probably time to lock things up again.

Me not understand post. Seem incoherent. Maybe dictate to iPhone again? Anyway, all your riot are mine.

[sancho]

That's the only comment you have on such thoughtful comments by that player's mom?

Sorry. It was too long for me; I only read the first paragraph about people posting mean stuff online. That was my takeaway from the first paragraph. I stand by my comment, though. The world would be better (it was better) without social media.

[SeattleUte]

There's a theory that had Blackmon not been injured the two breakout TD runs would not have occurred, since he's an exquisite tackler and no. 7 would not have got by him.

[concerned]

There's a theory that had Blackmon not been injured the two breakout TD runs would not have occurred, since he's an exquisite tackler and no. 7 would not have got by him.

I absolutely agree with that (and Hubert too), and thought so at the time. I think it was Nephi Sewell who had a clear shot at the los and whiffed?

[LA Ute]

There's a theory that had Blackmon not been injured the two breakout TD runs would not have occurred, since he's an exquisite tackler and no. 7 would not have got by him.

Pretty good theory, IMO.

Ironically, it was Blackmon who as a freshman got torched in a big game when our 1st-string CB had to go out. I don’t remember the details, except that the opposing team picked on Blackmon right away and scored a TD.