It's clear: Utah is a football school
by JazzyUte on Nov 16, 2008 1:18 PM MST
in Basketball
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PrintBefore I get to the whole Holy War, I thought I'd run down the abortion that was yesterday's basketball game.
Let's travel back ten years to 1998. The Utah men's basketball team was just barely getting their season started, while the Utah football team was putting together an average, but far from great, 7-4 season. It was the week prior to the Holy War -- a game Utah would lose on a missed field goal -- and the last season they would ever play in the WAC. It was also the first year the Utes were playing in the brand new Rice-Eccles Stadium. At that time, Utah football was much like the season they were playing. At times they looked extremely good, but as a whole, they were nothing great. And people around the Salt Lake Community knew this, as Utah wasn't known for its football program.
Sure, they saw success in 1994 and had a solid run again in 1996, but they weren't lighting the college football landscape on fire. After that amazing run in 94, there were no top-25 finishes, no outright conference championships and definitely no 11-win seasons. But the fans seemed content with just being competitive and getting a victory over BYU. That is why Ron McBride survived a wave of 6, 7 and 8 win seasons after Utah hit its highest point. Of course, it didn't hurt McBride that Utah basketball was consistently the linchpin for Utah athletics. Regardless of how badly the football program floundered, fans could at least look to Rick Majerus and his Runnin' Utes. In 1998, they, like the Utah team in 1994, were at the highest of the highs. The team had just come off an amazing run to the championship game and looked just as good as ever, especially once WAC play rolled around and the Utes went the entire conference season -- tournament included -- without a loss.
That was ten years ago, this is now. If someone would have come up to you in November of 1998 and told you in ten short years the football program would be 11-0 and on the cusp of the BCS (which had just formed, or began to form in 1998), while the basketball team just lost to a D-II program, I'm guessing you would have had a hard time believing them. Yeah, we all wanted Utah football to be better than they were, but I think many of us conceded at that time maybe what Ron McBride had done was the best that could ever be done at Utah. It wasn't until a few years later that we realized the talent wasn't synching up with the wins and losses. But this isn't about the football team, at least directly, it's about how dramatically things have changed at the U.
Ten years ago, no one thought of football first and basketball second, yet that's exactly what we are doing right now. Ten years ago, BYU became the focal point for just one week and when that game was over, everyone returned their focus to basketball. This year, with a win over BYU, we'll be looking far beyond the month of December, to the New Year and a BCS bowl. Ten years ago, any fan would have taken an 11-1 regular season finish in a heartbeat, no grumbles, no complaints and no pains. Now anything short of 12-0 will have a tinge of disappointment and a lot of heartache this time around.
The fact Utah lost to Southwest Baptist -- a program none of us had ever heard of prior to the game Saturday -- and the response has been less worrisome than when they barely beat the Lobos a couple of weeks ago in football shows you just how different the programs are from where they were in 1998.
This is where we stand and probably will stand for a good while. I'm not saying the basketball team is going to be stuck in purgatory for a decade, but it's clear the two major sports at the U are going in two completely opposite directions. And it's not like basketball has been terrible for all that long. Four years ago, the Ute football program was on the verge of busting the BCS, while the basketball program was just kicking off its best season in nearly a decade, rolling through the Mountain West and then the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Since that season, Utah football has gone 35-14 (.700), while Utah basketball has gone 43-50 (.462). The basketball team could turn it around and surprise us, but right now, at the start of Holy War Week, it's clear: Utah is a football school. Ten years ago, I don't think anyone would have ever thought that possible.
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Reason
You want to know why the basketball program is progressively getting worse? Look no further than the seats in the Huntsman Center. Go up to Logan and go to a USU basketball game (or go to a Utes game when they play USU). The sounds inside the arena up in Logan is a stark contrast to the sounds inside the Huntsman Center. If you go to a USU home game, make sure and take a set of ear plugs because it’s literally deafening, and not just at times, but the WHOLE game. I went to the last game USU played at Utah and it was embarrassing. The small visiting fans section way up in the top of the Huntsman Center was LOUDER than the rest of the entire arena—and Utah was WINNING the game. USU home games are marked by lines waiting outside the arena up to 2 hours early with students waiting to fill the student section. USU students take their allotment of tickets and then some even pay to go to games, no matter who the opponent is. As a former college athlete, that is the type of environment potential high school recruits want to play in, not in a half empty arena where the fans just sit and watch and don’t jump up and down cheering the whole game.
Still Scratching My Head
I’m happy the Ute football team has risen from the ashes of the 70s and 80s. I hope we never see those days again.
But I still can’t figure out why our basketball team is so woeful. Programs have upswings and downturns, but our hoops program really seems to be spinning its wheels.
Your post was interesting because I grew up more of a Ute hoops fan. Not because I didn’t like football, but Ute football really gave nothing to get excited about; I liked it, but I was not pationate about it.
Utah hoops, on the other hand, was the sport that gave the U credibility. Football just occupied my time until hoops started. It’s frustrating to see that we may not be out of the woods yet.
While the jury is still out on Boylen, I think we’re still suffering from Giacs recruits who are still the majority of our starters and ‘contributors.’ I’ve heard others who’ve seen more of this team than I have describe them as heartless. Over time, I’m starting to believe that’s true, and I hate admitting that. Being good or bad is not the root of thier problem. They have no heart, no competitive fire. They don’t hate losing enough. They don’t have the cockiness or swagger of winners. They don’t have that desire to go out and punch their opponent in the jaw and kick them in the balls, even if it ends up in a loss.
We’ll see what happens with Boylen down the road. In the meantime, I feel like nothing significant is going to change until we’ve shuffled the Giac-era players out of the program in another year or two. I’m sure they are great guys individually, but they carry a heavy load and a low team self esteem.
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