Quote Originally Posted by UTEopia View Post
I think I fall into Camp 7. I think I understand the risks, but being risk averse in most things, I am willing to ride this out in the hope that we get to the Rose Bowl. Up until last week I believed this would be the year, but the loss of Huntley has trampled that hope.

Our talent and talent development put us somewhere in the middle of the PAC and that is where we have finished most years. We are talented enough to challenge and beat the big names, but not so talented that we can simply show up and beat another team of equal talent. With a few coaching exceptions, none of whom are coming to Utah, I don't see our talent level changing dramatically. As a result, I don't see the risk of change being worth it.

Until that Rose Bowl happens, I will continue to buy my season tickets, attend the games and enjoy watching the Utes. I will try not to get my hopes up until after the final whistle on the last weekend in November. I really jinxed us by buying flights to San Jose for the Championship game after the UCLA win. Fortunately they were on Southwest, so I am not out anything.
This has always been my view as well. I share the same frustrations* as most Ute fans (offensive problems, November struggles) but still believe that, while there are certainly better coaches than KW out there, it is improbable that our next coach is among them, especially if we were to fire or force out a highly respected and long tenured coach.

Sure, Utah has hit a plateau, but I personally don't have a problem being patient while the team wins 8-ish games a season while we wait for that one season where things align and fall into place and we break through to the Rose Bowl. At its best Utah will never be expected to earn more than one Rose Bowl per decade (at least not by any rational neutral observer). As Utah is in its fifth year of being a legitimately competitive P5 team I'm okay to sit through another five years of 8+ win seasons before I conclude that KW is simply incapable of getting Utah there. I know it's painful that we've been so close and had some seasons where things appeared to align--this season may still be the one if Shelley turns out to be good enough.

*I say that I share the frustrations of most Ute fans, but not all. I see a lot of people attribute Utah with the shortcoming of having one inexplicable upset or game where they "play down" to their competition every year. I always hate that because basically every team in the country has that except for Alabama, Clemson and maybe a couple other elite teams in a given year. It's part of the insanity and fun of college sports that we love--except when our team is on the wrong end of it then we are quick to conclude that our coach is a doofus. I'll step off my soapbox now.