Should never be allowed to be ranked higher than 20 for the rest of history.
Utah
- Thread starter NotreDame du Lac
- Start date
Yeah. After Clemson was destroyed by WVU 70-33 in the Orange Bowl, someone should have said that Clemson should never be ranked again.
That's why the win over Iowa State was impressive to me. Our guys could have walked through the whole bowl game experience, but, they played with purpose and played hard. That's a huge testament to our players, the captains, and the staff. On the surface, no big deal to the average outsider. To me, job well done.
Not interested in being there?
They have NEVER been anywhere.
Maybe Alabama or even ND would have a reason to “have to get up for the game” but Utah? Come on, zero tradition or expectations.
This. Motivation and not wanting to be there is such a bad trope of college football. The narrative is an excuse after the fact and protection mostly for sec teams that get left out... shoot it to the moon. I’m convinced it’s perpetrated by people that have never played in competitive athletics or have forgotten how kids this age are wired. They want to compete. Period, end of story.
Since Oklahoma is 0-4 in playoff games, shouldn't they also be band for say 10 years?
They're human. They beat Oregon and they had a real shot at the playoff. Happens all the time.
Disagree completely. I played in 4 bowl games. Trust me our team was less than thrilled to be in two of them as our goals were much higher and we didn't fulfill them. Just relating what I've personally experienced.
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I’m with you. This is easy for a former athlete of a team sport to understand. You need all guys to give 100%. All it takes is 1 guy to be disappointed.
Man I’d have given my left arm to play one more college game, scrimmage, bowl... anything (don’t assume you were the only one that played college ball here). Probably tells you a lot about those teams you didn’t care to compete. I probably should say “most” kids want to compete but hey.... again this trope is usually used by the bamas of the world that underperformed lofty expectations but just weren’t as good as everyone thought. Has little to do with motivation and everything to do with excuses after the fact.
Let’s face it it’s easier to say after the fact “we didn’t want to be here” rather than “they were better then us”. Just a coping mechanism mostly for fans or those rare players that can’t face reality. But I think I didn’t have to mature any to want to compete then, but I know now I’d do anything to play a down again. Tropes for after the fact for those that can’t confront the reality they weren’t as good as they thought. It’s the most disliked narrative in college football I just hate it and nearly every player I played with agreed.
Did you lose a bet on UT?
Pretty much the same simple minded argument that Paul Finebaum and others have raised about ND because they get crushed in every big game....that they should be banned from playoffs.
Point totally escapes you. Why does that not surprise me?
Complete BS. You play to win and compete, period. I've played sports all my life(baseball/football), not Div 1 football (Div 2) like the great echoboy likes to tell us all the fricking time. Never did I or any of my teammates not want to win or compete. This is a lame ass BS excuse for losing a game. Unfricking believable.
This was a bit of a hot button issue for me but I hate when people outside the program speculate on the motivations inside those walls. Announcers and media do it to sound smart and fans use it to cope. But it’s almost exclusively used OUTSIDE the program, it just always frustrated me and still does. I will say there are some exceptions (maybe to meet echo somewhere closer to the middle)- if there’s a spate of injuries, a big coach leaves, or a bunch of key players declare. But by and large this stuff is always started from outside and I hate when adults speculate on what’s going on inside the program and accuse kids and put their coping on the motivations of kids they don’t know. It’s the worst of college ball to me. Sorry end rant.
Utah has both Fiesta and Sugar Bowl wins, one of them over aforementioned Crimson Tide
Are you saying that it’s complete Bs that team sports require the whole teams effort? That is what I stated and that is what you were calling BS which is interesting.So you think every kid in the country gave 100% effort in every single bowl game? Why even have a coach to motivate them then? I can’t believe I am even arguing this with you. Nobody would agree with you.
The team with the loftiest goals heading into the season, having fallen short of those goals, will usually have a difficult time in meaningless post season games.
I believe he played at Michigan State. If I'm wrong ecko sorry!
Happens to teams that have been there done that. However, No one on this Utah team should have that mentality. If they do have that “I’m board with you Texas” mentality, then that’s why you are where you are. That’s why you have done nothing to think your above playing Texas. Shame on the coaches for not getting these guys mentally ready for this game.
I can remember a lot of posts this season of Whittingham being the perfect coach for ND.
Oh, they beat the ducks, so did ASU.
Now?
This poster creates the dumbest threads I've seen. Each thread out does the last, it's actually impressive someone can be so illogical.
Utah was severely over ranked by the CFP. Their ranking was likely one of the worst assessments by the CFP in their short history. The CFP has always valued strength of schedule and has punished teams like Baylor and TCU for scheduling weak out of conference opponents. Utah played an extremely weak schedule. Their 2 OOC opponents were a very feeble FCS team in Idaho St and a lousy Northern Illinois team. During the regular season, they played only 1 team that won more than 7 games, USC, and lost. It appears the only metric the committee looked at when they ranked them as high as number 5 was margin of victory. When they finally played a quality team in the Pac 12 championship game, they lost by 22 points.
The best explanation for why they lost to UT is not that they were disinterested. It's that they were way overrated to begin with and were bound to fold against another semi-decent team.
The best explanation for why they lost to UT is not that they were disinterested. It's that they were way overrated to begin with and were bound to fold against another semi-decent team.
Yes good assessment and equally important, what about Texas? Why Are they so inconsistent during the regular season???
UT certainly underperformed this year but a lot of that had to do with injuries on their defense including 5 starters who lost significant time.
Yeah, that's the big question. I think in Herman's short tenure at UT, he's shown two things: He can get his team to play well against really good teams, and he tends to do well when he has extra time to prepare for a game. UT was really competitive against LSU early in the year and kept it close against OU. They only lost by 7 in each game. And we know what they did against Georgia last year in the bowl game; a game that was not as close as the score indicated. You're right. Herman's big issue is consistency and normally that has to do with instilling fundamentals. A fundamentally sound football team is usually a consistent football team.
I actually did my freshman year as I redshirted. My bad . My team was in 4 bowl games in my time. I played in 3 Gator, Aloha and Sun Bowl. Thank you for asking though.
Utah overachieved all season with almost perfect execution each and every game. Based on play, it absolutely deserved being where it was.
UO, a team that had more talent on paper, played an incredibly great game in the Pac12 championship game.
Last night, UT, a team with a boatload of talent that had underachieved all season (partly due to injuries), put it all together after having a month to prepare and have young talent get healthy practice time together. UT’s offensive and defensive lones were incredibly impressive.
Utah produces a lot more Div-1 scholarship players than you'd expect.
These hot takes are silly. OU got blown out by LSU and there is no reason to think UU would have lost by 60 instead of 40. The Utes weren't 'unmotivated' for the Bowl game, but unfortunately the Horns weren't either. UT still gets the top talent in their big state and I doubt many starting Utes would be starters at UT.
Also the Texas boards say that the key was a change in DC before the bowl game. They report the pass rusher who was in the backfield all night had been assigned to pass coverage for most of the year. So it was a major shift in strategy that Whittingham had no tape on and probably not the personnel to stop.
Just curious, why are you an ND fan? That’s cool if you don’t want to answer. Im cool with it though
Nope, thats why this country is full of snowflakes. The everyone gets a trophy syndrome.
