Late night ramblings about football and stuff

I just got home from a night of partying and thought, to unwind a little, I would make a blog post. I'm not fully drunk, but probably a bit tipsy that I may look back at this in the morning and regret what I put. But who knows, sometimes tipsy posting is the best form of expressing your ideas. Why? Well because at this stage I know that no matter what subject it is, I'm right. That means if we talk about the central reasoning behind the fall of the Soviet Union, I will always be right.

Lenin's revolution didn't go quite as planned

But I'm not here to talk about Soviet politics (though it's always an interesting topic), instead I would like to start out by talking college football. Mostly the fact that I have a difficult time getting through the elongated months between February and August. I hate wishing my summer away, but can't help but get giddier than a school girl on crack when thinking about Utah's prospects this season.

Schoolgirls like football, too. Too bad they didn't look like this when I was in high school, or maybe I'd of gone to class more than I did. Oh and a warning to all you google users out there, when searching for schoolgirl photos, make sure safe search is on, or you may get some very unwanted results (or in the case of single nerdy men, much wanted results)

Anyway, going into last season I had my doubts that Kyle Whittingham could keep it rolling (the theme of Utah's football commercials last year) and to an extent, those doubts are still there. Obviously a 7-5 season isn't anything to get excited over, especially after coming off an undefeated season the year before. Maybe under McBride Ute fans would have accepted such results, but I'm sure most were disappointed with how they often struggled throughout the year.

With McBride we accepted mediocrity quicker than Tom DeLay accepted bribes. McBride dangled 7-5 seasons in front of us and we snatched them up like light wands at a rave. But that was then, this is 2006 (last I checked, I know I'm not that f'd up) and we expect more. So it isn't surprising that many Ute fans are excited and even some are claiming a possible repeat of 2004. God knows the parts are there for that kind of run, but having the parts and getting it done are two completely different things.

Which takes us back to Ron McBride. McBride was a good coach who took over a terrible football team and made them good. However Utah had the talent to not only win an outright conference championship (something they failed to do under McBride), but also go undefeated and compete at the national level in a way most Ute fans had been yearning for the past half century.

McBride was good, but not Urban Meyer good

McBride's best season pretty much summed up his career at Utah. Good, but never great. Utah started out 8-0 in 1994, climbing the top-25 polls and kicking up a furor in the Utah football community.

I'm sobering up, not sure if it's the anger over McBride's ineptness at times or the fact I've been typing for 30 minutes.

I liked McBride, as did most Ute fans. He was a great guy with a grandpa attitude. A big teddy bear that you could snuggle up with in bed (ok, that's probably sounding a bit weird). But he couldn't get it done when it counted the most. Turn up the pressure just a tiny bit and McBride's teams collapsed faster than Paris Hilton after 2 shots of Jager. C'mon, she's a stick! You give her two shots and she's on the floor quicker than you can say skank -- which is probably why she's on the floor in the first place.

Paris after one shot of Jager. Give her another and she's out for two days

But for all their underperforming, McBride sure took satisfaction in being the underdog. And that's exactly how McBride won, especially in his later years. Utah had some of its best seasons under McBride in 1999 and 2001. The Utes went 9-3 and then 8-4 after being picked to finish toward the bottom in the Mountain West. Of course it was Utah's inability to sustain that success which hurt McBride the most. They followed the 9-3 1999 season up with a 4-7 2000 season. And the 2001 season was followed by a 5-6 season in 2002, which cost McBride his job.

Of course the rest is history and Urban Meyer came to Utah and won right away. In two years he went 22-2 including a 12-0 BCS busting season. He did this all with the same talent McBride had gone 5-6 with two years prior. Chances are McBride would have finished with 8 or 9 wins in 2003, but the Utes would have inevitably dropped a game that cost them a shot at the outright conference championship every Utah fan had coveted since the inception of the light bulb (ok, maybe not that long, but damn close).

Edison is posthumously a Ute fan

And now we're in the Whittingham era and many Ute fans feel like 2004 was a return trip back to the McBride days. And, on the outside, who could blame that reasoning? Utah was picked to finish at the top of the Mountain West Conference and struggled to a 4-4 conference record with an abysmal loss to San Diego State.  

No one should ever lose to Tom Craft

But McBride never had to replace 90% of his offensive production, either (like McBride's teams had any offense anyway) as well as key players on defense. If you look at the record, Utah's season was mediocre teetering on disaster. However losing what they did, 7-5 isn't all that bad. Especially with how close they came to winning some of those games.

Wow, I really strayed from my original point about preseason excitement. Who would have thought a post about 2006, summer and the Soviet Union would progress into the history of Utah from 1993 on? I surely didn't, but that's the enjoyment of just jotting down your thoughts.  

I can't help but think this year will be successful for Utah. The kinks from last year have worked their way out and it should definitely be a smoother transition for the coaches this season. However I also thought last season would be a decent one with at least 8 wins and an expectation of 10. Ok, so I was 3 games off...sue me.

I guess this is why summer is a double edged sword for me. I like the fact I can relax and not worry about school, but I hate the anticipation for the football season. It's like Christmas on steroids and I'm either going to really like the gift, just be content with the gift or hate the gift altogether.

Man, to be a kid again...when Christmas morning actually had meaning. Now all I get is a gift card, some cash and socks. SOCKS people! Who in their right mind felt socks would make a good Christmas gift? I should knock them out of their socks.

If I get another pair of socks for XMAS, I'm going to hang myself with them

Who knows what this season will bring, but it at least gives me something to talk about. Instead I'm relegated to making posts at 2 in the morning where I'm talking about what I might be talking about come October. Yeesh, if I weren't drunk already, writing this crap very well might have had me opening up a bottle.

That's it, that's all I have to say in my tipsy rant. I guess I'll go search for the Alcoholics Anonoymous number again.