Block U

Welcome to the new Block U and SB Nation

clockwerks — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:29:30 -0000

Hey Block U,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
Once you're logged in, press your Z key in any thread with new comments
Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to Block U from YouTube or images from Flickr
Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of Block U and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.

What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

Block U now has all the basic information about the Utah Running Utes and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of Utah Running Utes material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

Spiraling costs of Utah Football

Mon, 05 May 2008 18:10:30 -0000

Is anybody else miffed about the yearly price increase of their Utah football tickets? This year I am paying $310. a seat. That's almost $52. a game. In addition to that my tailgate pass has gone up. I pay nearly $400. just to park my tailgate vehicles in the tailgating lot! I know a lot of 30+ year fans that have turned in their tickets this season because of the yearly increases. Maybe I'm hallucinating but I remember Chris Hill telling us (after the new stadium was built) that he would keep our ticket prices low, what a lie. I guess the seats will eventually all be owned by corporates and all the hard-core fans will be gone.

Try Again!

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 13:49:10 -0000

Quarterback thoughts.

It was good watching the Utes finally win a close game. Reading some comments about the qb situation disturbs me. There should be a number one qb period. He doesn't lose his job due to injury. When he is healthy, he should be put back in. if he srews up then, he should be axed in favor of another.

A Good Win!

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:42:48 -0000

It was worth staying up until 12:44 am. to see the Utes pull one out. It seemed that the breaks finally went their way. The bottom line is" Winning is more fun than losing". That was our motto back in '69. It doesn't matter how it gets done. Utah had enough Defense to seal the deal. next year. This victory will help the team in the off season as well as having won 7 bowl games in a row.

No "I" in Team......

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:00:05 -0000

Things that bugged the hell out of me from day one of spring practice. The offense was way ahead of the defense and the comments of Johnson and Casteel made when asked how they would do this season. Johnson, "I feel that I'll be the MVP in the conference, and Casteel, "I feel dissed for not being selected on the All-Conference Team. I, I, I, I, is no way to start the season. Johnson may know the offense better than anyone out there, but at times when the offense is struggling, and when dumbass Lug-nut it calling bad plays, he gets the deer in the headlights look every single tough game. And he has the best receiving corp in the league and bearly gets 'A Buck-Fifty' a Game. GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK!! And worst of all, he gets out played by the shit-head-down-south, and this is his first year in the league. I could go on and on about our offense and dumb-ass Lug-nut but I hope some of you will understand.
Now Coach Witt needs to get this team to start believing and defend our home field. Yes he did a great job after losing our key starter at the beginning, but must we have a reason or bulletin material to get motivated to beat a team?? We should go out every game and play hard and leave in all out there. Oregon State, Air Force, and UNLV, we didn't have any bulletin material to get us motivated to beat them. The rest are revenge games and games we should win. I hate to say this, but the fucking TDS would jump in front of a truck and believe they could stop it if their coach told them. Our team would have some doubts if that happened. I really hope our team will step it up and start playing as a team, but as long as Coach Witt is still in bed with Lug-nut, we'll always be the second or third best team in the league.
BUT WHAT THE HELL, "WIN OR LOSE, WE'LL STILL BOOZE"

Ranked?

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 05:34:25 -0000

Do you think Utah would be ranked?

Alright well I have a couple of questions. I just wanted to see what you think. First, if Utah beat the team down south do you think we would have been ranked going into the bowl game? Then the next question. At the start of next year. Do you think we will be ranked? We have an awesome quarterback returning, amazing running back, great recievers and about the same defense. Which was incredible this year (except maybe UNLV). Tell me what you think? I think we could go ranked into the next season starting it off with hopefully a huge win for us in Ann Arbor against Michigan.

GO UTES!!

Poll

What do you think about Utah being ranked at the start of the 2008 season?

I blame the Officials! Unbelievable!

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 04:58:04 -0000

I can't believe some people's thinking after this game. The refs lost it for us but everyone seems to be focusing on Utah not coming through on 4th and 18. Yes, that was a huge opportunity to close the deal. However, that mistake does warrant giving the game away. Byu did not have to make another play following the 4th down conversion. It needed at least 2 more first downs after that conversion to get in decent field goal range for its kicker. It was given 30 yards on an early Christmas gift from the officials. The personal foul was a joke. It was a good football hit. How do you call that after letting Keihl's hit on Brooks go in the first half?

As bad as that call was, the pass interference was worse. The ball was way under thrown, Byu's receiver pulls Stanford into him, and Stanford turns to look for the ball. An incredibly horrible call!!!!

This got me thinking of the times in the past when Utah has been screwed by officials. I assume we aren't the only ones but it sure seems as a Ute that we get the short end of the stick quite a bit. Here are a few on my all time "got screwed" list in no particular order:

1994? at Texas (basketball) - Officials allow Texas a catch and shoot with 1/10 of a second remaining for a game winner in Austin.

2002 at Arizona (football) - Utah's apparent game winning touchdown catch to Josh Lyman is called out of bounds when replays indicate that Lyman's foot was in bounds by a good foot and a half.

2000 Byu (Football) - Lavell Edwards' final game. Luke Staley fumbles on Byu's game winning drive but officials call him down; replays clearly showed that the ball was loose before Staley was down.

1998 at New Mexico (Basketball) - Utah goes into New Mexico undefeated and leads by 7 points with a little over a minute remaining. Andre Miller is then mugged and tackled twice without a whistle that allows New Mexico the opportunity to hit a game winner at the buzzer.

2007 at Byu (Football) - A personal foul is called on Robert Johnson on an apparent clean hit as the ball passes John Pitta. Without the penalty it would have been 3 and 10 for Byu with it needed at least 15 to 20 yards to get into field goal range. To pour salt on the wound, on the very next play R.J. Stanford is called for pass interference for playing "too good" of defense giving Byu an additional fifteen yards and setting it up for a touchdown. Utah is flagged for 10 times for 95 yards in the game compared to 4 for 43 for Byu.

Did I miss anything?

Credit to Coach Whit

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 21:16:27 -0000

It's time to give Coach Whit a break. He's turned around was seemed to be a season headed for complete disaster. He never panicked and has trusted himself and his staff to make things right. This Utah team is completely different than it was 4 weeks ago. I have always liked Whit but after the Vegas game I had my doubts and I could no longer defend him. That loss is still inexcusable but I've moved on and I think the team has too.

The TCU win was a huge one. I realize TCU is struggling but it was a game both teams needed desperately to win to have any success this season. One of the most impressive things about the win was the way the Utes came back after things didn't go right. After the block punt and TCU's quick touchdown I thought things were going bad really quick. I expected the team to fold when TCU took a 14-10 lead. It was great to see Utah immediately answer with Johnson's TD pass to Wilson. Utah immediately seized back control of the game and never turned back. Furthermore, at the end of the game there were some horrible penalties; especially the pass interference call that negated the interception that didn't seem to affect the team.

I think the coaching staff and the team showed poise in the game that they lacked earlier in the year. I credit this attitude adjustment to Whittingham. Next week will determine whether or not this team has really changed or if we're just being fooled again. It will be interesting to see if Utah has a let down at CSU or if they go in there and crush CSU like it should. The CSU game will determine whether Whittingham has truly changed the mentality of this team.

Kyle Whittingham: Code Name Quarterback Killer

cougarkiller — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:38:05 -0000

Kyle Whittingham: Code Name Quarterback Killer
If kyle whittingham was in a spy movie his secrect identity would be quarterback killer.

Kyle Whittingham: Code Name Quarterback Killer
If kyle whittingham was in a spy movie his secrect identity would be quarterback killer.
Is it just me or does Kyle whittngham have an amazing ablitly to totally destroy the confidence and career of every quarterback he encounters, here lets look at a few examples
Ratlif: BJ goes down at the end of Kyle's first season, we've only won five games and byu is all thats left, there goes the season over right, WRONG Rat gets the start down in zooby land, and he plays an amazing imspired game, leading Utah to an Overtime victory in a game that we weren't supposed to win. Then Against #24 Georgia Tech Rat gets his 2nd start, and leads Utah underdogs to a victory in the Emerald Bowl, here comes 2005 and everyone is full of excitement we can't wait for the season to start, because we know were going to start where we left off last season, Rat makes his 3rd start against UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Rat get's pulled mid way threw the 2nd quarter and replaced by Tommy Grady, Granted Rat wasn't doing the greatest, but it was only his third start EVER and the first of the season, he like everyone else had rust he needed to work through, but Whit didn't let him he pulled him.
To me there are two distintive phases Of Ratlif, The Pre-UCLA and Post-UCLA Pre-UCLA Rat had confidence, he went out there and made plays made big throws down feild, took some chances and won games he was the kind of quarterback that anyone would want, Post-UCLA after he got pulled stupidly in the UCLA game it looked as if Rat had his confidence shattere, he wasn't making the plays he used to, he was overthrowing recievers all over the place, i believe this was because he was scared of throwing a int. because of the coaches, and he was always looking over his sholder, playing on egg shells scared to make a mistake, that is no way to play football and it was all because of stupid coaching. Kyle didn't help out the situation either he was quoted as saying in a press confrence when asked about the struggles utah faced last year that "were playing with our #2 guy" who in the hell goes out in public and calls his started, the Guy that saved his job the year before his #2 guy what the Hell, and to make matters worse before the season he didn't name rat the started until about a week before the game, how can you not give it to the guy who got you your two biggest wins as a coach??? anyone

Ok thats enough about Rat, now lets move on to this year he Puts in the Freshman quarterback in against UCLA and he makes some huge plays running for first downs tossing a TD pass, absolutly wonderful play for a Freshman,fast forward to UNLV Kyle puts him in again, and he fumbles the ball, he comes off the feild never to go back in, True fumbling is always bad but give the kid a break he's a freshman playing in just his 2nd game you got to put him back in.

Now Tommy Grady, We all know what tommy is capiable of we saw it against ucla, but after struggling through the first half against unlv whit, decideds to bench grady and bring in the injured johnson, true tommy wasn't playing great, but can you name a player on the Utes who was playing good, with the exception of kicker luois sakoda? so Whit takes grady out at half and puts in BJ risking getting him injured before he fully heals, and totally destroying Grady's confidence, if BJ gets injured again this season which is very likely and Grady has to come back in how do you think he's going to preform, most likely he won't be making the big plays, he'll take sacks rather than risk throwing the ball, he will settle for short passes and not throw the bomb for fear of being taken out again basically its the same thing as Post-UCLA Rat

It is definently time to get rid of whittingham, before utah becomes qb killer U

Black Monday

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:33:25 -0000

Was that the stock market or Utah football? It's really doesn't matter they both crashed on a black monday.

Where did Kyle Wittingham go? This is not the same person who once graced our sidelines with a fiery determination to win. He used to expect perfection out of his defenses. Now he seems lost as a head coach. Is it because he is trying so hard to be something other than himself (Lavell, Urban) that who he was no longer exists? It is sad to see.

Coaching in college football is everything. They have complete control, they recruit, the hire their assistants, the play a role in scheduling, they coach, game plan and motivate. Utah has always had some of the best talent in the conference WAC or MWC as we do today. The ability to take that talent above itself "consistently" is the mark of a good coaching staff.

Great players in college do not elevate themselves. Show me a consistent winner week in and week out without dramatic swings one-way or the other, and you will find a solid, well-coached team. Michigan, Tennessee, Alabama (pre Saban) are all feeling the same pain we Utah fans are feeling. They have even better talent yet their coaching staff's fail to deliver week in and week out. So is our lot.

Hey it is clear our stock price has been slumping and is on a downward trend, no question about it. What happens to CEO's when the company under performs under their watch? Call a board meeting; we will be looking at a new CEO soon I guarantee it.

The worst part of it all is that we need a consistent long term coach, inconsistency in our head coaching position is almost as bad as inconsistency on the field, we had hoped Kyle Wittingham would deliver on that and be here for the long haul, I know that's what he wanted too. It seems neither of us will have that wish granted on this BLACK MONDAY.

former football player

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:07:24 -0000

I'm here in Central Texas and am trying to find any information on a former player. He stated that he played FB for the Utes circa mid to late 90's, but I can't find anything. His name is Raymond L. Halstead. I would appreciate any help on varification of his story. ie did he play, was he on practice squad, etc. Thanks.

Experience and thoughts on the MTN TV Situation

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 04:11:47 -0000

I've been away from the site all summer but I'm checking back in these days.

I've heard numerous rumors in the media and newspaper about the latest on the MTN contract with the satellite companies. Just like everyone else, this has been extremely frustrating for me; especially last year when I was living out of state and saw very few games as a result of the tv deal. Now that I'm back in the state, I have access to the MTN through Comcast but through my own pride I absolutely refuse to get Comcast. It sucks compared to the other options.

I in no way feel that it is the fans' responsibility to get this MTN deal done with the Dish Network and DirectTV. My opinion on the matter is that the MTN and its owners must be asking too much or else it would be available. It is the best interest of Dish and DirectTV to carry as many stations as possible as long as the price is right. The MTN is trying to get fans to call to give it some leverage. However, let's face it, the MWC is nothing on a national scale! The only people that care about the MWC are the schools within its borders and possibly the WAC. That's it. Enough said. Anyone that has ever lived outside of the MWC borders knows how little attention it gets on a national scale.

Nonetheless, regardless of my feelings on the responsibility for the MTN's distribution, I called Dish Network and DirectTV last week and asked about the station and its potential availability. The representative at Dish immediately told me that negotiations were ongoing with the station and that is all the information he had. I was somewhat impressed that he knew what I was talking about when I asked about it. On the other hand, I didn't have as much luck with DirectTV representatives. The first guy had no idea what I was asking about so he transferred me to a different department. The second guy had no idea what I was talking about either and transferred me back to the department I talked to the first time. So I hung up and sent an e-mail and got a response similar to what I got from Dish that negotiations were ongoing. So that's the story as of last week. My prediction is that nothing happens in that the only way we are getting out of this deal is to leave the conference.

BrentCasteel4Heisman.com-Brent Casteel's Fan Site

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 08:45:01 -0000

Just in time for the upcoming season (39 days away) a website has been created to chart one of our favorite and exiting Ute players Brent Casteel.

Just google "Brent Casteel Heisman" and look for the website.

The site offers a daily blog, tens of news articles, photos (including a photo galleries subpage), player profiles and more. Please check it out and support Brent. As we all extremly look forward to the upcoming season!

This page a non-profit site, does not advertise, so please add on!
Thank you.

http://www.brentcasteel4heisman.com

Kyle

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 06:20:14 -0000

My sister and my brother came home from Wal-Mart teh otehr day and ran in and were freaking out because they said that they had just seen Kyle Whittingham.

My sister and my brother came home from Wal-Mart teh otehr day and ran in and were freaking out because they said that they had just seen Kyle Whittingham. I denied it but they went on to tell the whole story. My little brother had a Alex Smith jersey on that day and they were walking out of Wal-Mart when a guy walked up who was on his cell phone and he said "Hey who's number 11 I don't know any 11 on the Utes." As my syblings were about to say Alex Smith the guy said "Is that Alex Smith?" They said yeah and ended up walking away well my sister not being exactly the biggest Ute fan just thought he was friendly but my little brother said when they were out of earshot "That was Kyle Whittingham!"

So when they got home and told me this I still denied it but how cool would that have been to see him while you are just walking around the town you live in. I asked them why didn't they say anything to him. They both jsut say that I wouldn't have said anything. I really think I would have said something if I would have been there especially at least say something like "Are you Kyle Whittingham..." I don't know but my syblings were stoked.

Predict Utah's won/loss record

JazzyUte — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:30:45 -0000

@ OUS -
Air Force -
UCLA -
@ UNLV -
Utah State -
@ Louisville -
SDSU -
@ TCU -
@ CSU -
Wyoming -
UNM -
@ BYU -

I'll have my predictions posted in the next couple of weeks, but I wanted to see what some of you think Utah will do, game by game.

Red White Spring Game

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:33:33 -0000

I just wanted to thank the players and Coach Whittingham for their time to talk and sign autographs and have pictures taken with my son.
My son is 12 yrs old and when he graduates high school in 2013,his next goal is to go to college at the University of Utah and be a member of the football team.One of my Goals for him on this journey was hopefully to meet Coach Whittingham so he could see how big my son is for his age.On Sat,we was fortunate enough to meet the coach after the game.I give a heartfelt thank you to Coach Whit and numerous players for taking the time to talk to me and my son.The advice that coach Whit gave my son brought a tear to my eyes.I now know that dreams can come true and that was one for me and better yet,my son!!! we still talk about it.Thanks again

MWC Continues to Make Mistakes

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:21:54 -0000

The Mountain West Conference continues to make mistakes. Its latest mistake in my view is not its latest television deal that has excluded many of its fans from having access to games (including me). I think that will work itself out in due time. At least I hope so. I definitely do not want to go through another football season trying to figure out ways to see road games on television.

Nonetheless, I think a huge mistake that the MWC is making right now is not expanding to 10 teams. There is a great football program in Boise St. that would jump at the chance to become part of the MWC. The MWC made the mistake of not inviting Boise St. when it brought in TCU a couple of years ago. If it had done so, it very well may have reaped the benefit of having another MWC school crash the BCS party and solidify its claim to a BCS automatic bid.

There is no reason Boise St. should not be invited in the conference. They would immediately join the powers at the top of the conference. They have proved this numerous times in its pounding of Utah and Byu in recent years. Right now the MWC conference has three legitimate football schools in the conference; Utah, Byu, and TCU. That's it. Let's face the fact that Wyoming, Colorado St., Air Force, San Diego St., New Mexico, and UNLV at this point are not capable of having sustained success from one season to the next. They are holding the top 3 down. Therefore, the only way to boost the conference is by adding another school that has earned national respect and would automatically boost the power of the conference.

I realize that Boise St. does not have a legitimate basketball program at this point. However, either does TCU. Football is where it counts these days! Everyone already has an equal chance to succeed in basketball. It is football where you need to build your resume as a conference.

Finally, Boise St. is passionate about football! Its fans are obnoxious, arrogant, and difficult to have a conversation with. They believe Boise St. could be competitive in the SEC. They are similar to Byu fans in that they overestimate their program's stature. Nonetheless, they fill their stadium every week and they travel well. I guarantee that if you took in a game at every MWC school this football season the only stadiums that would be close to full would be Utah, Byu and possibly TCU.

I am shocked that the MWC has not jumped at the chance to add Boise St. to the conference. I do not know what it is waiting for. I do not care if Boise St. is not in a huge television market. It has national recognition as a football program now. That is more important that the market size. At this point market size is irrelevant. MWC games are not broadcast in their schools' own boundaries let alone nationwide. MWC Presidents should invite Boise St. before it is too late. There is no reason to wait.

Poll

Would you be in favor of adding Boise St. to the MWC?

Local Media should stop bashing Majerus!!

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:50:55 -0000

I'm tired of reading article after article about Utah basketball in the local media and seeing the writer take every opportunity he has to slam Rick Majerus. Rick Majerus is talked about as if he is some sort of criminal. Rick Majerus should be viewed as a hero in the Utah community rather than the villain that the local media portrays him to be. During the coaching search it seemed every writer took the opportunity to bash Rick Majerus when commenting on the search or the type of coach Utah should pursue.

The latest demeaning of Rick Majerus came in yesterday's Deseret News in an article written by Mike Sorensen. The article focused on the need for Jim Boylen to energize the Utah fan base but Sorensen took the opportunity to slam Majerus by saying "Majerus won ball games but was a pain in the rear for everyone from athletic director Chris Hill to the local media to the fans in the stands." This is the last of many articles written in the past month by the local media that have taken the opportunity to remind everyone how "horrible" things were in Utah when Majerus was the coach of the Utes. Sorenson took the opportunity in other articles to slam Majerus. In his article posted March 26, Sorensen states "Sure, Rick Majerus won a lot of games, which everybody hopes from a coach. But the big man turned off a lot of people with his quirkiness, his bad-mouthing of Utah (even if it was often done in jest), his annual flirtations with other jobs and the manner in which he treated his people outside his inner circle."

Many of these criticisms are false or blown way out of proportion. Majerus joked about himself much more than he did about Utah culture. I never once heard Majerus seriously bad mouth Utah. However, I did hear Majerus preach how important family is and how he wished he would have been a better son to his father. Majerus did flirt with other jobs annually but who could blame him? Is there anyone out there that would not listen to other job offers if given the opportunity? It is part of the business. The important thing is that Majerus stayed for 15 years and arguable would still be here had he not been shoved out the door. Lastly, how did Majerus upset "the fans in the stands?" I guess if winning conference championships is offensive he is very much guilty.

Majerus was obviously a tough coach and not fit for every player. I personally attended Majerus' basketball camps during high school and he was not easy on young kids either. Nonetheless, he always stressed to kids how important family and education are in their lives. I do not mean to pick on Mike Sorensen. We all know that Gordon Monson is a famous Majerus hatter and has written articles in the past focusing on what a horrible human being Majerus is. The local media as a whole is guilty of it.

Does the local media realize that Majerus is the only reason they had something to write about in March during the 90s? His so-called "quirkiness" got Utah national attention each and every year. Majerus was a favorite on national broadcasts when he was the Utah coach. Winning games was not the only thing that brought national attention to the Utes; it was Majerus' personality that brought attention and prominence to the program. Before Majerus came to Utah no one had ever thought of Utah basketball. Majerus is the reason that Utah can now hire coaches like Jim Boylen. Majerus paved the way.

It is time we start praising Majerus for what was accomplished while he was here. The following is a brief summary of what happened during his tenure.

-    Conference championships in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003.
-    10 NCAA appearances including 1 Final Four, 2 Elite, 8, and 4 Sweet 16 appearances. Majerus only lost 1 first round NCAA game.
-    Utah had 6 players drafted by the NBA including 3 lottery picks.
-    323-95 overall record in 15 seasons.

I hate to say it but it is somewhat the fault of the university that Majerus is viewed the way he is in the local media. The university has done nothing to honor Majerus since he left Utah even after the accomplishments mentioned above. He should be honored in the same way Lavell Edwards is down south. I have seen numerous supporters in favor of the university honoring Majerus on Utefans.net. I could not agree more with some of the suggestions such as hanging a sweater in the rafters, having the court named after him, etc. Majerus deserves it!

Who should Boylen bring in as assistants?

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:12:30 -0000

Now the interesting part of this coaching change becomes who Boylen hires as his assistants. He does not have the option of bringing people with him as many coaches do when they leave another program because he has not been a head coach.

I personally would like to see him at least bring in one assistant with ties to the Utah program. Tommy Connor would be ideal but it would take a lot of humility on the part of Connor to accept a job from someone who beat him out for the job. Donny Daniels would likely be even a better choice with his recruiting ties in California but there is no way in my mind that he would leave his assistant gig at UCLA to return to Utah as an assistant. UCLA is at the top of the college basketball world right now. I imagine he is being compensated well there too.

I would not be opposed to Boylen holding on to Jones or Wilson but I wonder if Boylen wants any holdover from the previous staff. I wouldn't if I was the head guy. It would seem to hinder instigating my own philosophy and mentality on the program.

I would love to see Jeff Judkins return to Utah. He was involved in the program during the most successful time in Utah basketball and is a great recruiter. Many fans are down on Jud since he went down south but personally I do not hold that against him. If he wants to return to the men's game this might be the right opportunity to do so. Nonetheless, I understand that Jud is comfortable and enjoying the pressure free atmosphere of his current job.

At a minimum, I think it is important for Boylen to have someone on his staff that is highly familiar with the MWC and with the west. Nonetheless, Boylen should not have any problem bringing in quality people with his ties around the country from his NBA experience.

My thoughts on the Boylen Hire

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:24:39 -0000

I'm glad the coaching search is over. I'm happy with the Boylen hire even though I have been campaigning for Tommy Connor since Chris Hill got Stotts fired from the Milwaukee Bucks in trying to lure Krskoviak to Utah.

I like the fact that Boylen stresses defense. Defense keeps you in games when shots aren't falling. Majerus was also a huge defensive coach and his teams won games at times when the Utes didn't shoot above 35%. I think we saw the past few years what happens when defense does not seem to be the top priority. I'm glad Chris Hill did not go after a coach that supposedly plays an exciting brand of basketball but can't stop cardboard cutouts from scoring. Defensive teams show more consistency that offensive minded teams.

I like that Boylen has years of NBA experience. I understand that this is huge in recruiting. Not that I think Utah will suddenly start attracting the Kevin Durants of college basketball but it certainly will help in bringing in top talent.

One thing that I think Utah has lacked the past 3 years is toughness. They have played soft. This will certainly change under Boylen if his team plays at all like Izzo's teams at Michigan State. Michigan State is constantly one of the toughest teams in college basketball. Utah will not be pushed around by anyone.

Finally, Boylen is known for his work with big men. This will only help Luke Nevill reach his potential.

It will be interested to get a feel for Boylen's personality during the press conference. It will be interesting to see what he has to say and what expectations he sets for the program right off the bat.