An important question regarding the future of Utah, BYU and Utah State football and a quick glance at geography.
Let’s do the latter first and more thoroughly ask the first as the latter.
As the SEC sits at the center of college football these days, it’s time to measure the literal distance between the schools in that conference and the schools in Utah, and then the figurative distance between those and these, which may be just as real.
Missouri (1,250 miles) and Arkansas (1,309) are the two closest SEC schools to Salt Lake City (we’ll use that as a base). Next comes Texas A&M (1,389), followed by LSU (1,667), Vanderbilt (1,681), Ole Miss (1,702), Kentucky (1,709), Mississippi State (1,796), Alabama (1,855), Tennessee (1,857), Auburn (1,971), Georgia (1,985), South Carolina (2,119), and Florida (2,261).
Anybody who’s ever driven those miles knows how far away SEC country is.
The more significant question is: How far is it from the kind of football played out here in the shadows of the Wasatch?
It’s been widely noted that Utah was the only state this season with three teams finishing in the final Top 25 poll. That’s pretty cool, when you think about it. Utah was 12th, BYU 19th and Utah State 24th. Progress is being made.
But can more progress be made?
Like golfers working on lowering their handicaps, the closer they get to scratch, the tougher it becomes to sustain that advance. Same thing with football here. It’s one thing to sup among the best 25 teams, quite another to sit at the head of the table.
Boiling that question down, if we presume that the Utes were the best team in the state in 2021 — and presume we will, since that presumption is correct (relax Cougar fans, we’re fully aware that BYU beat Utah on Sept. 11 in Provo, for the first time in a long while) — how far-distant were they from Georgia and Alabama?
Which is another way of asking: How far away is Utah — and, in order, by comparison and association, BYU and Utah State — from qualifying for the college football playoff and winning a national championship?
There are two ways of answering that question. With a lie and with the truth.
No.
One falls under the confines of a more exclusive, more restrictive four-team playoff and one is made more colorful, and realistic, by that playoff being properly expanded. Under a popular suggestion that a larger playoff would include champions from the five power leagues, plus a smattering of others, Utah would have already been in that playoff, at least nudging open a door of opportunity for something more.
It’s doubtful that the Utes could or would have knocked off Alabama or Georgia had they faced them, but what about Michigan and Cincinnati? Based on the way they played against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, does that alter anyone’s opinion regarding what the chances are, fat or slim, what they could be moving forward?
Finding an exact answer is impossible.
Some say the difference between the SEC and everybody else is the power, strength and size of the players in the trenches. Others say it’s more the speed. Everyone has a best guess. But that’s what the regionalized nature of college football and its exclusionary makeup force everyone to do — suppose and suspect.
Granted — results have, indeed, been convincing.
As for Utah and Ohio State, one can argue that the Buckeyes were missing a handful of their best players in Pasadena as they opted out to prepare for the NFL draft, and that that narrowed the difference in the 48-45 win for Ohio State. But that’s speculative, too.
Either way, Ohio State was not the equal of Georgia and Alabama, but it was within shouting distance. Maybe. And the Utes hung with the Bucks.
Although that result was a weird one, considering the wild manner in which the shorthanded backend of Utah’s defense flailed in attempting to cover Ohio State receivers, there was also the inability of the Utes to put pressure on C.J. Stroud up front, as he threw for what seemed like a billion yards.
All of it had the appearance of an anomaly, not a true reflection of the way Utah football typically does its business. And that game still was a classic.
Which is to say, Utah is in the ballpark.
Apparently some others agree, as the Utes already in projected polls for next season have been ranked as high as fifth overall. Not that preseason polls, especially this premature, mean a whole lot. What they do indicate is respect for a program, and for the coaches, as well as the kinds of athletes that program recruits and develops.
Bit by bit, the Utes are ascending. And most everybody knows it.
The same can be said with slightly less vigor for BYU and then, USU.
The Cougars are the only football outfit in the state to have won a national championship, albeit under significantly different circumstances. No matter, they still have the trophy. And while they do not circulate in that same company, controversial or otherwise, these days, they, too, are improving, beyond where their recruiting rankings place them. If there’s one thing both Utah and BYU do, it’s develop their talent.
While in neither case does it compare with the four- and five-stars that line the rosters of Georgia and Alabama, it’s worth noting that if you examine the starters for the teams in last season’s Super Bowl, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs, neither team had as many four- and five-stars, not even the eventual NFL champion Bucs.
There is hope, if a proper culture is grown into Utah’s and BYU’s programs, and recruiting climbs.
Speaking of quickly-grown culture, appreciate what Utah State did this past year in Blake Anderson’s first year driving that rickety bus. If anyone had said before the 2021 season that the Aggies would have found a spot among the final Top 25 teams, deep belly laughs — along with some projectile vomit — would have erupted, everywhere except for in the Utah State weight and locker rooms.
Nobody was laughing there.
As mentioned, it’s impossible to say with any accuracy whether the schools in Utah will ever catch up to what’s happening in Southern football. The game is as important to those folks down there as any other aspect of living. And the dollars generated — and the wins collected — by many of the teams they root for is living proof.
But college football in Utah is edging upward, as is the number of people who live here, and the number of people who are interested in and pay money for the games, the number of people who prioritize and demand excellence.
Salt Lake, Provo, Logan aren’t Tuscaloosa, Athens, Baton Rouge. Not yet. But who knows? Keep your eye on the Utes, Cougars and Aggies in the years and decades ahead.
They might still be a thousand miles away from the top of the SEC, and the cash generated by a league made up of big dogs — and those two things feed each other. But that figurative mileage may slowly shrink, the margins, too. May. Football is growing here — the talent, the interest, the fan bases, the culture. And just like the lyrical song declares it, “Never kick a dog because he’s just a pup. You better run for cover when the pup grows up.”
