U Of U Football, T-Minus 51 Days...And Counting!

For college football fans, the next few weeks are the longest of the year. It's like kids surviving April and May before their summer break. It's so hard! Especially since there's so much hype out there. How will the teams be? Will they exceed expectations, or not live up to them?

On Thursday September 1, 2016, the best university football team in the state of Utah (going by statistics for the past decade or so...) will take the field. That's also the first day of this year's Salt Lake Comic Con, another event I'm highly anticipating.

I've been a U of U football fan since I first attended school there in 1987. It's been a long and many times, tough three decades for us Utah fans. For those unfamiliar with the University of Utah football program, saying it's been an up and down program is an understatement. Utah dominated for the first half century of their existence. Then came the meteoric rise of the university program in Provo. I grew up watching BYU roll over everyone, including the hapless Utes. Oh, those games were brutal!

Just brutal.

But a change has taken place over time and Coach Whittingham has turned the program into a respectable force. Yes, in 51 days the boys in crimson and white will put on the pads and do battle. How will they do? We'll just have to wait. And the waiting--right now--is pretty tough to handle.

The Dichotomy Of A University Spring Football Game...

For the die-hard college football fans, there was football to watch on TV today. I must not be die-hard because I forgot the University of Utah Utes were playing their spring Red/White game this afternoon. I did, however, catch the last quarter.

And it made me think, am I supposed to be happy or sad about what I saw?

I know there are those who watch every play, study every scheme and they saw a completely different thing as the watched the red and white teams scrimmage. Hopefully they saw improvement at the various positions, individual performances where players shined. Also, I'm sure the coaches have specific things they want to see, how offensive and defensive plays develop.

But what I saw was a dichotomy of a team. When there was a great play offense, doesn't that mean that someone on defense missed an assignment? If the defense stopped the other side from scoring, that's great for the defense, but that means things might not look good for the offense next season.

As I watched each play, those thoughts kept going through my mind. It was like I couldn't enjoy a great catch because a great defense would (and should...) have stopped it. And will the defense stop a great run up the middle when it's game time? I guess we'll find out.

Maybe it's a good thing I forgot the game was on. I would have just spent the entire time over thinking the whole thing.