Utah Football 2014 Season: Worst Case Scenario

So now it’s time to have some fun and look at the worst case scenario for the Utes this upcoming season. Short of a We Are Marshall-esque scenario,

The Utes stumble out of the gate and despite beating Idaho State, the offense and defense struggle. Kaelin Clay can’t quite understand the intricacies of coach Christensen’s offense, and it’s clear that Kenneth Scott is clearly not the receiver he was before his knee injury.

One week later, they drop a game to Fresno State, as the secondary and injury plagued linebacker corps continue to struggle against the spread passing game.

Trying to prevent a losing streak, the Utes head out to Michigan and proceed to be crushed by the Wolverines. The Utah defense's struggles against running QBs continue, and the offensive line simply can’t protect Travis Wilson, giving up sack after sack.

Coming home, Utah barely squeaks out a win against Washington State (hey, all the losing was making me sad, and I needed at least one win to break the monotony), and fans are calmed briefly by being at least .500. However, that changes as they hit the meat of the schedule, starting with the UCLA Bruins.

Brett Hundley continues his trend of victories against the Utes, easily picking apart the defense, as the offense struggles against UCLA’s elite linebacker corps.

Up in Corvallis, Sean Mannion continues where he left off last year, racking up touchdowns and beating the Utes in a shootout.

USC comes off a game the week before against Colorado and runs over the Utes, with their vaunted defense getting to Travis Wilson to the tune of six sacks and three picks, one of them a pick-six.

Still reeling, the Utes stumble into Tempe, giving the Sun Devils an early lead off another pick-six (maybe someone should tell Travis that Matt Schaub is not the best NFL quarterback to emulate). Despite coming back and fighting hard, the Ute’s simply cant pull off the win and head home to take on the Oregon Ducks.

The Ducks have no problem handling the Utes at home, not perturbed in the least by the MUSS. Now with a 2-6 record, morale hits its lowest point of the season for the Utes who head out to Palo Alto to try and pull off another upset of the Cardinal.

This time, however, the Utes are crushed, as Stanford comes out hungry and looking for blood. Ty Montgomery returns another kickoff for a touchdown, and the Cardinal run all over the Utes in nearly unstoppably fashion.

The Utes manage to pull off the win against a struggling Arizona team and head out to Colorado carrying a little bit of confidence.

However... the Buffs pull off a surprising victory, with quarterback Sefo Liufau tossing the game winning touchdown with one second left on the clock, stunning the Utes.

After the three-win season, Kyle Whittingham is immediately fired and Utes Athletic Director, Chris Hill, struggles to find an adequate replacement. Even worse, BYU goes undefeated and, despite their weak schedule, manages to make the inaugural four-team playoff. Taysom Hill finds himself in the running for the Heisman Trophy, setting NCAA passing and rushing records for a quarterback. The losses proceed to hurt the Utes on the recruiting front, where they pull in the lowest ranked recruiting class in all of the Pac 12. Furthermore, Utah is found to have violated NCAA regulations and will be given a four-year bowl ban with reduced scholarships.

And now that my soul has died a little and that is complete, feel free to make your own predictions.