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You've read the stories, heard the interviews and hopefully watched the highlights - so, are you more optimistic about this year's team, less optimistic or are you feelings about the same?
In a lot of ways, I feel better about this team. It's nice to see Jordan Wynn produce well, but more importantly, it's nice that he's staying healthy. I like hearing about Utah's depth at quarterback and how surprisingly good the offense has looked early.
That isn't to say, though, there aren't concerns. But the concerns we have today are pretty much the same concerns we had prior to camp - namely the offensive line and kicking game. I'd like to see both worked out before the opener against Northern Colorado, but that might be expecting too much. The offensive line just might be our bane of existence this season.
As for the kicking game? Well Coleman Petersen, as erratic as he's been in camp, could still overcome whatever demons he has flying around in his head. If he shakes those, and I think we'll be just fine there.
So, while there are still areas of improvement, for being a week in, I think we're doing well.
To compare, I decided to go back four years and look at the state of camp in August, 2008. I found this:
Whittingham: Offense not where it needs to be
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham has given some of the credit to the offense's troubles in moving the ball to the defense, but said the offense still has a long ways to go.
"We're not where we need to be 12 days out, we certainly have to make a lot of progress in 12 days," he said.
Asked specifically the areas that are lacking, and Whittingham replied, 'it's everywhere, across the board."
Puts things in perspective, doesn't it? And compared to where we were last year, when the offense could hardly do anything, especially early in camp, I'd say we're ahead of where the program needs to be prior to the season.
Still, they've got some things to work out. Fortunately, there is still a good amount of time to do just that.