Comments about ‘Utah football: Ute coach downplays renewal of rivalry with Aggies’

The Aggies looked good last week. We will need to play better on offense. We should be able to beat them by 10+ points.

very interesting photo attached to the article.

You are underestimating the Aggies it will go either way...

I like that Utah plays Utah State! They better bring their A defense, the Aggies QB is "Michael Vickish" and could easily be considered the #1 QB in Utah College football this year and a few more as well.

Conference of champions week one beat by:

Nevada
BYU
Colorado State

San Jose State loses by only 3 to powerhouse Stanford (at the farm).

The WAC (including recent WAC and semi-WAC) did well against the PAC-12 last week.

@Tom in CA

Yes, those were the 3 (4, if you count Stanford's less-than-impressive victory over San Jose State) disappointments for the "Conference of champions," as you put it. But it's interesting that you don't mention the other 7 games (Oregon State did not play):

Washington wins,
Arizona also wins,
UCLA dominates,
ASU crushes their opponent,
Utah posts a shutout,
USC demolished former USC offensive coordinator Coach Chow's Hawaii team, and
Oregon was up 50-3 in the 2nd quarter before putting in their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stringers.

Don't these games count as well?

@ Tom in CA

The interesting thing you fail to mention about those 7 Pac 12 teams that won is the level of competition those teams played to get those wins.

ASU crushes NAU (are you really that impressed?)
Utah posts a shutout against Northern Colorado (an FBS team who hasn't won a game since 2010)
Arizona beats Toledo in OT (bragging about beating a MAC team in OT, not impressive)
Oregon beats Arkansas St. (I agree it was impressive, but unfortunately the Utes avoid one of the two best teams in the conference)
UCLA dominates Rice (As expected considering Rice is a bottom of the pack C-USA team)
USC demolishes Hawaii (USC definitely looked the part of a top team in the country)
Washington beats SDSU 21-12 (well at least Washington could do something Colorado couldn't do and that is beat a middle of the pack Mountain West team)

Overall, the pac 12 did not have a good week outside of the big two (Oregon and USC).

Sorry, I meant to say to GoRed not @ Tom in CA

This is the problem with Whittingham and the Utah administration - comments like "it's just another ballgame" and "There's really nothing that sets this game apart". No doubt it is another ballgame, but the arrogance Whittingham shows by not even acknowledging the significance of a rivalry that has been ongoing for 110 or more years is pretty sad. Do you think USC would downplay the importance of their rivalry with Notre Dame or USC? Never.

Whittingham and the administration at the U should revisit the concept of "How to Win Friends and Influence People". But this attitude of "we're better than you now" simply because the U belongs to the PAC12 doesn't fly.

Good luck USU.

@ Tom in CA
No one ever said the PAC-12 had twelve powerful football teams. Is it OK for some of the bottom dwellers to get beat by teams from other conferences? Sure it is! The Conference of Champions just means that the top teams in the conference in any given sport can compete VERY successfully on a national scale. All conferences have weaker teams, even the mighty SEC.

Kitsutsucky-

Did you even read the article? Because the general feeling by Utah coaches and players is that of respect for Coach Anderson and USU. At the same time, the last few times they've played Utah state, Utah has won by 20 or more points. Not only that, but they haven't played in 2 years.

I'm not downplaying Utah state's potential, but from a fan's perspective, this doesn't at all feel like a rivalry game anymore.

Should be a good game, good luck to both teams and I hope there is safety for both sides! Go Utes!

My daughter and I drove from Nevada several years ago to see a Utah-Utah State game in Romney Stadium. I remember being surprised how easily the Utes demolished the Aggies, then newly minted members of the WAC. I thought it would be a better game.

This year could well be a better game. The Aggies are much improved. Coach Andersen has done an amazing job. And nobody should believe the Aggies will be an easy opponent, not anymore.

That said, I do believe the Utes should be favored to win. The defense will keep the Utes in the game. Yes, I admire Chuckie and the offense he leads. It may well be in the top 3 the Utes will face all year. Utah's offense has tremendous potential. Wynn should have gotten the rust out in a game where playing his best wasn't essential. Special teams needs to be able to count on field goals and extra points, but otherwise special teams play should be very good.

Will it be easy? No, the Aggies are going to be very tough. But, I have confidence in the Utes pulling it out.

"No one ever said the PAC-12 had twelve powerful football teams."

Thanks for the clarification.

Comments from some of your "brethren" would have one believe a team not a member of the mighty Pac-12 is inferior, and further, any team e.g. Utah who is now a member of that conference is suddenly superior to anyone else e.g. BYU.

Looking forward to 15 September. And Friday night's game in Logan should be very revealing.

@ GoRed
"But it's interesting that you don't mention the other 7 games.Don't these games count as well?"

Honestly, if it was up to me, I wouldn't count some of them. There needs to be more competitive OOC games, instead of picking on teams that would get beat by some high school teams. Kudos to Michigan and Alabama, Boise State and Michigan State for battling it out in Week 1.

at kitsutsuki,

Ya, the arrogance of Whit and the U trying to downplay the importance of the second game of a difficult season so as not to emotionally peak in week two.

It is almost as arrogant as saying yes, we wil play Utah State, but we are such a great opponent you must come to Happy Valley twice, while we will only venture once from our beloved LES.

Tom in CA - while in the Mountain West, the Utes didn't pay any attention to who was up and who was down in the conference. They focused, and got their business done. That helped them get to 2 BCS bowl games.

California lost to Nevada? Doesn't affect the Utes.
Colorado lost to Colorado State? Doesn't affect the Utes.
Washington State lost to BYU? Only affects the Utes if the Cougars walk away over-confident after beating a team with a new coach, and Weber State.

Tom in CA: Utah's being superior to to BYU has nothing to do with being in the PAC-12. It has much more to do with winning 7 of the past 10 games with them including an old fashioned butt-whipping in Provo last year. In those 7 wins, Utah has won by 15+ points per game while the 3 BYU wins are by a total of 12 points combined. That started long before Utah joined the PAC-12.

...I'm shocked, a Friday night game in Logan? I thought that elite college football teams from THE Pac12 didn't play games on Friday nights? Have the Utes played on Saturday yet? Oh yeah, first Saturday game will be 9/15 thanks to the Cougars and their world-wide network partner!