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Utah Utes football: Mr. Opportunity — Brown has gone from backup to U.'s top receiver

I was very disappointed listening to ESPN the other day when one of the commentators (Skip Bayless?) said there was no way Utah was even close to being good enough for a BCS title game and said we really weren't even good enough to be in any of the BCS bowl games.

I realize ESPN doesn't like the MWC, but the most annoying part was when he said if BYU had beaten TCU they would have had a chance at the title game because they have national respect and they've won a national championship in the past.

Why doesn't anyone repect our program like the big-time schools (USC, Texas, BYU, Florida, etc.). We have a pretty good team this year and the media should atleast give us a LITTLE CREDIT!

It all comes down to establishing a national reputation.

As much as some like to belittle BYU's National Championship, the fact is, it put BYU on the map nationally. BYU dominated the WAC, winning 10 WAC championships in a row at one point and annually representing the WAC in bowl games back when only the conference champion went to a bowl.

Ty Detmer winning the Heisman trophy and several other BYU players finishing in the top 5 in Heisman voting, along with numerous other awards -- Outland, Doak Walker, Davey O'Brien, Sammy Baugh -- and frequent Top 20/25 finishes established a pedigree and respect for BYU's football program.

Utah has had a couple of great seasons this decade, but it takes more than a BCS invite to establish a national reputation.

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btw, congrats to Brown on a nice season.

The analysts at ESPN are all morons and still have an axe to grind re: the MWC. You don't see Skip and the group saying the winner of the Big East or ACC don't deserve a BCS game do you? That's because the those conferences still have ESPN contracts. Had the MWC continued to be with ESPN, the Utes, BYU and TCU would be getting plenty of love. Just consider ESPN the jilted lover and all their comments are put into perspective.

all the utes do is beat bcs teams
no one wants to lose to a non bcs team so they avoid the utes
plus, utah and the mwc are on a competitors network
if we can win out maybe we can play an sec team and make a point

The best part is that he has already earned is degree. Congrats Freddie Brown!

As for a national rep, nobody outside the LDS faith gives a rip about byu....they're threat of a lawsuit in 01 has made them more of a national laughing stock.
None of those players who've won awards have gone on to do anything. They're like boise st, a paper tiger.

I'm sick of these wannabe Utah BCS busters being pretenders. Quit playing patsy schedules. That you means you Ball State, Boise State, and BYU.

Be like Utah or TCU. Look at who Utah has played. At the Big House vs Michigan, vs #23 Oregon State (leaders in the Pac-10), vs #16 TCU, at #27 Air force, #17 BYU in 2 weeks, etc.

Thats 3 top 25 teams on the schedule, already beating 2 of them, and if airforce beats byu, thats 4 top 25 teams on the schedule, already beating 3 of them.

TCU has played at #4 Oklahoma, at #7 Utah, vs #17 BYU, etc.

BYU has played 1 team with a winning record, got blown out. They beat the only team in college football without a win this season (washington) by 1, yes ONE, point.

Ball State has only played 3 teams to date with a .500 record or better

Boise has played hapless Oregon and squeaked it out, then a bunch of patsy's like BYU and Ball State have played.

Grow up and schedule a challenge.

Utah Utes 10-0

Go Utes

Utes will get even more respect if we can go to a BCS game and win, just like in 2004. Just win baby, just win.

Would have said BYU is a national power alongside Texas, Florida etc. Regardless of what happened 25 years ago. That was a BYU troll.

BYU is like SMU - a team with a distant, rich history followed by a period of prolonged irrelevance.

Got blasted by TCU because they aren't BCS-worthy - not even close. It's pathetic that 1984 makes everyone feel better about that.

I hope Utah gets to a BCS bowl and gets their 8th consecutive bowl win. They need to prove to the Skip Bayless's of the world that we belong at the big table. When these bozos look at the 10-13 scores of recent games they think the Utes are small and weak. This Utah team reminds me of the Baltimore Ravens team that quietly won the super bowl. This team has provided more drama and excitement than the 2004 team.

Please Utah, shut up all your critics! WIN OUT!

Bury your head in the sand and ignore reality if you want, but, the fact is, BYU is seen nationally as the marquis program in the MWC and the only team with an established national reputation.

Utah and TCU are making some inroads, but they've got to maintain their high level of play for several more years to get there.

Utah disappeared from the rankings after 2004, making them look more like a flash in the pan than a top program.

BYU plays your oh so superior Ute squad in 10 days. We'll find out then who the real pretenders are.

Utah fans need to stop pretending that barely beating the worst Michigan team in 5 decades is a quality win.

I agree with the comments from "Give Utes Respect." I saw Skip Bayless make his comments that Utah wasn't a "worthy" BCS team. It was really annoying that he said Utah doesn't get the kind of talent that BYU does and he said that BYU has earned national respect and that they are likely to be one of the two dominant teams in the west in the future because of their growing recruiting base (he said USC and BYU are almost certain to dominate the west in the future).

I realized we can't always compete with the BIG BOYS (USC, BYU, etc.)but we should get some credit during our best years---Like This Year!!!

Let me say first that I am a Ute fan. But the reason people were saying BYU could have played in the BCS championship is because of how high they were ranked to begin the season - this was based on their previous two years of football. If they had beaten TCU and continued undefeated through the season, I can only imagine they would have been embarrassed in a championship game. They do have a national reputation because of their resume. Utah is working on that, and you can guarantee that there are at least 10 teams right now that respect us. The thing that sucks is that if Meyer had stayed one more year - which would have probably kept Alex Smith and Parris Warren here - the Utes could have had a legitimate shot at a title run the next year. I'm not blaming Whit for not getting us there that year, there was a lot of bad luck with injuries and the aforementioned players leaving.

The lack of ESPN love is probably largely due to their contracts with other conferences - and the fact that our conference had to set up its own crappy network. We're getting national attention and hopefully, when we get to the BCS bowl this year we will get to play someone better than a 21st ranked team (although I did see one projection matching us against Wake Forest, which sucks rocks).
Go Utes!!

Unfortunately a national title at some point does give you credential (although I am so sick of BYU fans always bringing up their championship as if it makes them still good), but it doesn't mean that you are always good. Along with SMU above, there are a dozen other teams (Marshall comes to mind) that were at one point good, but are now jokes. How many games did Washington have to lose this year before people stopped taking them seriously, same with Michigan, same with Utah State (oh wait...)?
I actually saw a show last year or the year before where they plugged in the numbers from previous years and ran them through the BCS computers, almost half of the national championship games had at least one team different from how it actually happened and some games had both teams changed (BYU was one of them).

That's just how the system works, an undefeated season can get you into the BCS and it's easier to do that when you have weak opponents. BSU has it easy because they are in the WAC, unfortunately for BYU they still have to play TCU and Utah (and Air Force will probably surprise them too).
Kudos to Coach Whit for not doing that.

Michigan (3-7) plays Northwestern (7-3) and at Ohio State (8-2) and the Wolverines will probably finish 3-8, tied for 9th in the 11-team Big Ten.

UCLA (3-6) plays at Washington (0-9), at Arizona State (3-6), and USC (8-1) and will probably finish 4-8, possibly 5-7, around 7th or 8th in the 10-team PAC 10.

Utah barely beat Michigan 23-25; Michigan also lost to Toledo (2-7) in the Big House.

BYU destroyed UCLA 59-0, the Bruin's worst loss in almost 80 years.

The only significant difference between BYU's schedule and Utah's schedule is Oregon State vs Washington.

#4 No Iowa (8-2) received 617 points and one first-place vote in this week's FCS Coaches Poll.

#8 Weber St (9-2) received 485 points.

And before you bring up comparative scores, remember that Toledo (2-7) beat Michigan by one point more, 13-10, than Utah beat them. Using the comparative score logic, that would make Utah slightly worse than Toledo.

is a big play maker for Utah. Keep getting him the ball.

I know he hasn't put up rediculous numbers, but his size alone will give him a shot at the NFL. A 6'4" receiver with good speed and good hands will at least get a look.

Thank you for going through all of those mental gymnastics to make a worthless point!