If a boost of confidence is what Utah football was looking for at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday night against TCU … um, it’ll have to keep searching.
What it got instead was a scattered chorus of boos — from some of the frustrated fans decked out in crimson, the ones who typically splash red paint all over their faces, wave their flags as though they’re part of a breakaway republic, stomp their feet and cheer their guts out. And before anyone hammers those fans, consider what they were exposed to for most of the evening, deep into the night.
Atrocious offensive football. Atrocious football that was offensive.
A substandard effort on attack that set righteous offensive football back about a century or so. You don’t throw a performance like that straight into the mugs of people who have grown accustomed to — and, yes, maybe spoiled by — stellar play for the better part of a decade or two. Ineptitude isn’t their thing.
Nor is it the Utes’, who were equally disappointed.
“There’s no mystery as to what our issue is thus far,” Kyle Whittingham said. “It’s been showing for three weeks in a row now, so we’ve got to look at everything really hard in the next 24 to 48 hours and make some tough decisions and see where we’re at.”
Everybody can see where they’re at, and for Whittingham and his players, it’s not a happy place.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham on the sidelines as the Utes host the TCU Horned Frogs, NCAA football in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
So it was that this poor showing did nothing to breathe new life into a gasping team. No, it did the opposite. It kicked the breath straight out of the Utes, and left them wondering what it will take to restart, to resuscitate what once was a season full of promise.
Promising it is no more.
What it is, is a mess. A third straight loss — two of them at home, and this one coming by a score that is every bit as dismal as the final 13-7 count indicates, at the hands of a struggling TCU team also looking for new life — slammed the door on the Utes 2024 aspirations. Not saying the whole deal isn’t worth playing out, just saying the goal of a title is gone and what’s left is an also-ran’s adjustment toward development for the future and building character out of what is now shattered dreams.
Yeah, describing what happened in this game pretty much summarizes what the season has descended into and what it will be in the weeks ahead — a project.
Any optimistic presumption that having freshman quarterback Isaac Wilson now firmly installed as Utah’s starter, what with Cam Rising out for good, would somehow buoy up the Utes dissipated quickly into a dark realization. And that was the harsh truth, from start to finish.
Everything about the Ute attack fell short. Total yards? Utah got a measly 267. Passing yards? It got 199. Rushing yards? There were 68 of those.
Other than the fact that Utah couldn’t pick up first downs — it totaled 12, couldn’t convert on third down — it gained just 2 firsts in 15 attempts, couldn’t convert fourth downs — 0 for 2 there, couldn’t sustain drives, could complete just half of its passes, averaged 2.6 yards per carry, could barely get past midfield, and could score only one touchdown, and it punted 11 times, everything went right to plan.
It got to the point where any objective observer had to start to feel sorry for the Utes. To be sure, they want nobody’s pity, but that’s what they earned on this occasion. As they flailed around, it was hard to remember or even imagine the dominance this team, this program, in many previous years had thrown down on visiting opponents.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The fans express their support as the Utah Utes host the TCU Horned Frogs, NCAA football in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
Wilson couldn’t — and probably shouldn’t have been counted on to — properly conduct a symphony that played out of tune. Expecting an 18-year-old to achieve that, in hindsight, was foolish. Whittingham in days past did more than hint that the path forward for the teenager would be difficult, he straight out declared it. And he was right.
Wilson’s earlier starts — three of them — didn’t seem to offer him much advantage. And when the guy who plays the most important position on the field can do nothing significant to boost a lurching cause, that in most cases spells doom. That’s no condemnation of the young quarterback. He might very well sometime in the future have his day. It’s just that Saturday wasn’t it.
Problem is, Utah’s coaches saw no other brighter options among the backups on the roster. And they should carry the blame for that. It’s their job to recruit and prepare a capable quarterback room, beyond a fragile starter who had shown in earlier seasons that he was liable to get injured. Whatever they have in that room, they decided they would or had to float or sink with the kid. And they sank.
There’s not much more to it.
Granted, that sinking wasn’t all on the freshman QB. The offensive line struggled to grade enough road to create openings for running back Micah Bernard. The veteran rushed for just 55 yards, and 20 of those came on one carry.
The normally rugged Utah defense gave up just 13 points, and that should be good enough for victory. Whittingham praised the effort there. But it missed some tackles and, compared to what Utah’s offense conjured, TCU blew past that, totaling 395 yards.
One of the few Ute highlights came on Wilson’s 71-yard TD throw to Money Parks. That was sweet, but nearly all the rest was sour.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Utes running back Micah Bernard (2) is chased down by the TCU defense, NCAA football in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
As the night rolled by, the aforementioned fans in the stands got surly, as they had every right to do. Some booed in the third quarter when either hapless play-calling or execution that made the play-calling hapless chapped sections of fans who couldn’t seem to believe what they were witnessing.
With just over five minutes left in the game, the Utes took possession of the ball at their own 37-yard line with a chance to actually go ahead via just one touchdown, if they could manage to construct one meaningful drive in a meaningful moment. They couldn’t, their chances ending when Wilson heaved arcing desperation toward the end zone and it fell incomplete.
When TCU picked up a first down, the game was done for.
Whether the Utes are done for depends on them.
Asked if the offense can be fixed this season, Whittingham said: “I sure hope so. But the last three games haven’t been very encouraging. I know I’ll keep working and trying to figure things out.”
The Utes’ weaknesses and struggles are apparent, but their progress is theirs to chart. They can at least improve, if they will. Climbing out of this nadir is what’s left for them to play for — and boos or cheers — their competitive character will be measured by that.
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