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Never did I think my career or personal life would bring me to Utah.
My wife grew up and went to college on the West Coast. I grew up in New York, and lived and worked in New Jersey for 15 years, but I never thought our long-term future was in the Northeast. I figured we would head west at some point.
In hindsight, when The Salt Lake Tribune offered me the University of Utah beat, there wasn’t a lot of discussion. Covering a Power Five athletic department for a legacy paper? Yes, please. I get a fresh start, professionally and personally, and I can get my wife closer to where she wants to be? Yes, please.
I have been out here just over a month, and it’s been awesome. My colleagues at the Tribune have offered nothing but support and encouragement. Covering the Utes has offered plenty of intrigue already, namely a football team that was in the College Football Playoff mix when I showed up, and a young men’s basketball team off to an encouraging start.
Everyone I have engaged in my neighborhood and beyond has been polite and quick with a smile. Rush hour is not really a thing out here, so that’s a plus. I quickly found good coffee and good beer, but if anyone knows of good pizza, please shout it out.
Seriously, though, I’m happy to be here and excited to be taking over the beat fully for the retiring Kurt Kragthorpe. From my first day on the job last month, Kurt was beyond willing to offer his time and vast institutional knowledge, the latter of which will be sorely missed. He is well-respected by all, but that’s not going to change just because he is no longer writing full-time.
Kurt’s last assignment for the Tribune was the Alamo Bowl, which Utah dropped, 38-10, to Texas at the Alamodome. Early in the game, senior defensive end Bradlee Anae eclipsed the program record for career sacks.
Kurt did the heavy lifting over a number of days in San Antonio, but I made a cameo for the game itself on Tuesday. My contributions focused on the prolific Utah offense disappearing for the second game in a row, and All-Pac-12 nickel back Javelin Guidry having a tough night against Longhorns star wide receiver Devin Duvernay.
Columnist Gordon Monson questioned which Utah was the real Utah, the quality team during the regular season, or the one that faltered twice this month.
The Pac-12’s 18-game basketball schedule begins on Thursday with ten teams in action, including Utah hosting Oregon State at the Huntsman Center. The game will feature a matchup of the league’s two leading scorers, Utah’s Timmy Allen and Oregon State’s Tres Tinkle.
Earlier this week, I took a look at all 12 basketball programs and where they stand with the nonconference portion of schedules complete. Oregon is clearly at the top of the class. A small handful of others appear legit, but the majority of them are question marks.
Other voices
The Austin American-Statesman’s exhaustive Alamo Bowl coverage from the Texas vantage point included five key plays
Mike Sorensen of the Deseret News on how Texas effectively shut down record-setting Utes running back Zack Moss at the Alamo Bowl.
The Athletic’s Chris Kamrani with his take on the final game of Utah’s season.
As part of his Pac-12 newsletter, Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News offered some end-of-decade Pac-12 superlatives. Utah makes multiple appearances.
Around campus
• The Utah women’s basketball team opened Pac-12 play on Sunday with a frustrating loss to Colorado, which yielded some interesting postgame quotes from head coach Lynne Roberts and one of her key players.
• Utah’s fifth-ranked gymnastics will open its 2020 season on Friday night against No. 12 Kentucky at the Huntsman Center. The school announced on Tuesday that a school-record 9,376 season tickets have been sold. The Utes led the nation in home attendance in 2019, averaging 14,852 fans per meet.
