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Utah Utes football: Forget BCS; U. is No. 1 for Utahns
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I'll go to my grave a Cougar...but I could't be happier for the Utes right now...again...congrats on a great season.
The Utes did what no other can claim.....which ever team is crowned national champions they still were not the undefeated team.
As Johnson said "what else do we have to do"
The current system is set up by the powerful for the powerful. In business we call it a monopoly, it violates the antitrust laws currently on the books and until the law gets involved there will be no changes.
Utes, Utes get the recruits !
Everyone in the state and the MWC came out winners, and we keep koach Kyle. How sweeeet is that ?
Are you serious? What about pre-season rankings? If Utah was ranked in the top-15 prior to any games being played they would have a shot at the 1 or 2 spot.
Since BYU was ranked in the preseason that overrated team had a better chance at the title then the unranked Utah team.
Good job Utes. You did the job that my cougs couldnt.
Without the BCS I may have turned out as such. Who cares, they're #1 to all of us.
Way to go big RED!
This is a team that doesn't care about "labels," otherwise they would have been defined by rhetoric that never gave them a chance.
Integrity is Integrity; and Integrity knows whose best--and this year in collegiate football with integrity the Utah Utes become the very definition of "Champion."
For a few years now I have heard my Ute buddies mock the way BYU won the national championship in 1984. We beat a 16th ranked Michigan team and then had to play politics, having had a perfect season. We were not allowed into the national championship game and could only 'play the teams on our schedule' I think were coach Witt's words. We did everything we could, to include beating a #2 ranked Pittsburgh team at the beginning of the year. In the end, we got the national championship by default, and thus was born the BCS.
Now you are in the exact same position, maybe better in one regard: You beat a solid #4 ranked Alabama, not #16 Michigan. Now you have to just have to hope and pray. Sadly, you can't do anything more than beat every team on your schedule.
BYU's national championship in 1984 is every bit as legitimate as your claim this year. I hope you get it but know that it is HIGHLY unlikely. Even though you throttled an Alabama team in a more convincing manner than Flordia did.
Let's hope for the AP.
If either team wins NC, it will be with an asterisk (*):
(*): In 2008, University of Utah football team finished 13-0, beating 4 top-25 ranked team including #1-ranked most of the regular season Alabama 31-17 in Sugar Bowl. According to a football fan from ESPN, 66% agreed Utah should be named National Champion.
SoCalUtahFan
Alabama 33-30
Florida State 41-23
Utah 46-15
Oklahoma 54-13
Strength of schedule? Over that same time period, Alabama, FSU and Oklahoma played the powerhouses from Northern Illinois, Troy, Western Michigan and Rice, to name a few. CONGRADUALTIONS UTAH.
Utah actually has the best of both worlds right now in recruiting. They are able to draw mission bound kids just as easily as BYU. They have a very rich LDS structure at the U in terms of student body, fellow LDS players, strong institute program, and quality LDS coaches. And they can also bring in quality athletes who are not LDS and actually let them have a life. On top of that, the very best LDS players have been choosing BCS schools with regularity for quite a while. BYU fans need to just enter reality and recognize that BYU's mission is to promote the Church - not beat Alabama.
The Utes are number 1 in my book. Go Utes!!!
2009 NC UTAH UTES!
Next.
And aside from Gov. Huntsman getting caught up in the moment (and attended the U before graduating at U of Pennsylvania), there have been many great football teams (and basketball)from all three major schools over the years. Even Weber State had a great season. I think Utah State will look good in the coming years.
It's time we all realized that Utah is a great place for college sports, and stop the scoolyard bickering over who's best. Can't we all just say we enjoy watching the teams play, in good years and bad?
Congrats Utah for a great season, and a great Sugar Bowl win.
But I will say this, Utah should declare themselves national champs and celebrate like it. I wanna see t-shirts with nat'l champs 2008 on them! Who has a better claim -- no one. (Though it makes me slightly sick to my stomach to write it, it's true.)
1. BYU was a better football team than Utah,
2. Max Hall was better quarter-back than Brian Johnson,
3. Bronco was a better football coach than Kyle.
Congratulations Utes on a great season. Hope we can give you a run next year.
that the 2008 Utah team is the best/greatest football team ever in the state of Utah history.
1984 BYU team was good.
2004 Utah team was excellent in making BCS history as first non-BCS to make to a BCS bowl.
2008 Utah team was the GREATEST --it confirmed that 2004 was no fluke and that UTAH is worthy of National Championship in beating 4 top-25 ranked teams including #1-ranked-for-most-of-regular-season Alabama. Not only they defeated Alabama, they dominated the game.
of football fans...show 65% agree Utah should be NC.
Thanks for showing class BYU fan, I rooted for BYU when they played Arizona.
BYU started with the more favorable national ranking because they appeared to have the players necessary to make a run at the big time. They choked. However, they're still undefeated at home the past 3+ years. If Utah had played at TCU or Oregon State this year it would have lost, and the BYU game would have been different (maybe still a win, but Hall's not a good enough QB to play as well on the road as he does at home).
Congrats on a great season and the dagger through the heart of the BCS! Enjoy the victory and get ready for next year. Utah's cupboard is bare, and the "TDS" is loaded except the offensive line (which didn't do much this year, anyway).
Now for the rankings. Absolutely the Utes deserve the #1 ranking in the country. To briefly review, Utah beat 4 top 25 teams: TCU, Oregon State, BYU, and Alabama. Remember, Oregon State beat USC, USC's only loss; TCU beat previously undefeated Boise State; and, of course, Alabama, a team that held the #1 ranking for 5 weeks, beat Georgia (who ended up 10-3) and LSU, and came within one quarter of playing for the national championship. Also, Florida beat Alabama by 11; Utah beat Alabama by 14 in New Orleans, basically a home game for Alabama.
(continued)
The best thing Ute fans can do now is to flood the AP voters with our e-mails and remind them of these obvious facts listed above, coupled with the fact that the Utes are UNDEFEATED, a claim that no other team in America can make. Neither Florida nor Oklahoma (Texas, and USC, for that matter) can honestly make the same claim because of each of their one losses. It is actually possible for the Utes to be ranked #1 in the AP poll. This split happened 4 years ago in January 2005 when USC was voted AP#1 although LSU received the BCS title. (Reading the fans comments on many national online papers, there is a huge amount of support for the Utes across the U.S.)
Thanks for an unforgettable, history-making season, Utes!!!
Here's the deal. Everyone needs to boycott the NC game. Don't turn on the TV. Let the network and all the advertisers know that this is not a true NC game and, thus, you will not be watching it. Make it the lowest-rated football game of the year, and the people with the money who made up this atrocity will decide there should be a change.
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The Utes rock.