There were two really big mistakes (the PAT and the muffed punt that you mentioned) but you failed to mention that Sellwood was MWC special teams player of the week. So special teams must have been doing something right.

I would actually give the Defense a B+, simply because of the 3.3 ypc, which was below AFA’s average. It isn’t necessarily the D’s fault that AFA got 85 some-odd plays, that is on the O for not being able to sustain drives.

I’d bump Schramm’s grade up to a C as well, simply because he had to deal with some execution problems (read: Cain’s fumbles) and the fact that his now-#1 RB might be out for the game if they push it too hard. We became extremely one-dimensional in the 2nd half, and it really hurt us…especially with the O-line play.

Id agree with above posters about how the Special Teams were good in some areas and quite disappointing in others. So I’d give them a C overall.

Question:
Is KWhit’s grade simply a reflection of how the team performed overall, or is there some type of game management flaw that I missed, because I thought the team reflected the coach’s attitude to suck it up and pull out the Fugly (with a capital F!) win in OT.

B, B+, the Utes played a nasty team and won. The O has slowed us down all year but we’re still winning and having a great Utah season. The team is decent and some of our youth foreshadows a promising future to me. We have to catch passes that hit us in the hands, that affects our QBs mentality at some point. Half the dropped passes back and we roll Air Focre and win at Oregon. So, yes, there are issues.

Look, everyone in the nation is comparing us to last year and guess what: we had an insanely good team last year, we were as good as anyone at the end of the year.

We are not quite as talented (close though) and we are not as cohesive in key areas (QB to WR as an example, O Line is off and on, RBs are too injured). But don’t fear close games, we have a coach who plays all games smash mouth and close to the vest: this is how we win, by beaten people down. He wants to establish a team identity that equates to people saying “We hate playing them they maul us . . .” and that is what Utah has never had, an identity to hang their hats on. BYU has one, it’s send out 5 guys and get the ball off quick and score fast. Bronco went right back to who they had been for 25 years and it has paid off: kids buy into who you are. Saban did that at Alabama too. Right back to who they were. Utah, on the other hand, had a schizophrenic identity: Lovat, Howard, Stobart, Fassell, McBride, Meyer, now Whittingham—no continuity on offensive and defensive philosophy Until McBride and that with three different coaches and disparate success over the years. Our only identity prior to Meyer was losing games we had no business losing, the great “what if” team. But Meyer seized on McBride’s affection for his players and used that, invoking McBride as the beginning of our identity. Now we can build on something that exists, has a history—not constantly be trying to find ourselves. Smash mouth offense and nasty, smacking, blitzing D—that is us. For thirty years we drifted, not anymore.

I recall the Georgia Tech game, the 2005 Emerald Bowl? They disrespected us, were disappointed to have to play little old Utah. Our stated goal, as I recall, was to beat on them until we could see them quit, just physically pound them until all they wanted was to go home and Weddell said he could read exactly that on their faces. That’s how to become a known program, maybe we will never be a dynasty, but we are becoming a team that quality recruits are excited about enough to investigate, who other teams grudgingly give respect and nods to, that the media advertises—broadening our recruiting base even more.

Given all our problems, and that our only loss is in one of toughest venues in college ball, to a team that is clearly talented and fast and deep . . .

Why are we grading them downward?

Are we spoiled already, after one year it’s NC game or nothing?

Hey, enjoy your team’s success, there will be years when they stink again, I promise you. At least you will know what to look for and why we are not who we should be, in the past, we had no idea who the hell they were at all.