You guys can check that out here. I got some extra quotes from Utah and highlighted them more than I do for most visiting teams. Both because of my personal connections to the school and then also the fact that they're legitimately having a strong season this year. Gonna be interesting to see how the rematch goes in Salt Lake at the end of February.

I agree with Sean on this from Utah’s perspective. They have more work to do in the portal, and it’ll be coming.

I’ll share more in-depth thoughts on this in an article coming soon.

https://portal.rivals.com/news/transfer-portal-pac-12-report

Per Trojans wire, and when it's broken down, they're right...



Let’s be adults here, folks. Let’s be grownups. Let’s be mature individuals and admit the simple truth. It’s okay. It’s not a sign of weakness to admit what we can all see in the room: The Pac-12 very clearly catered to the University of Oregon in crafting and approving of its 2023 conference football schedule. The conference was just as clear and transparent in not catering to the University of Southern California.

We can simply admit this as mature adults, or we can look off to the side and pretend this didn’t happen. It’s your choice.

We don’t have to pretend. We can be honest with ourselves and each other and see this schedule for what it is.

Let’s be very clear: USC was catered to and given a soft, cushiony ride last year in the 2022 schedule release. The Pac-12 rolled out the red carpet for the Trojans. We never refused to admit that, too.

Then came the move to the Big Ten. Suddenly, USC was no longer valued by George Kliavkoff. Oregon was.

We can just admit this or pretend these considerations are irrelevant. Come on now. Let’s go through the details and simply admit the truth:

BACK TO BACK ROAD GAMES

Dan Lanning — USA TODAY Sports

Oregon is the only Pac-12 team which doesn’t have to play road games in consecutive weeks on the 2023 football schedule.

Come on now. Something like that just doesn’t happen by accident. It’s called P-H-I-L K-N-I-G-H-T.

OREGON-UTAH ON OCTOBER 28

Oregon plays Utah on Oct. 28.

The week before, on Oct. 21, Utah plays at USC. Oregon plays Washington State at home.

Come on now. Utah gets a uniquely tough road. The Utes were one of the big losers in this schedule alongside USC.

Oregon is being put in position to succeed. Phil Knight would approve.

OREGON-WASHINGTON OFF WEEK

Oregon and Washington get the week off before they play. The Ducks and Huskies also get a week off in the middle third of the season, which is when an off week is most advantageous.

Let’s be honest: Kliavkoff needs Oregon and Washington to stay in the Pac-12. He needs to make sure those schools have minimal to no reason to want to bolt for another conference. Of course he’s going to throw those schools a bone or two. It’s actually smart politics. I respect it.

Let’s just be grownups and admit this was part of the calculus when schedule was released. It’s not an idle coincidence.

Come on now.

USC "OFF" WEEK

Come on now. USC doesn’t have the week “off” in Week 13.

USC getting Week 13 “off” really isn’t a true off week, since the Trojans will have played their 12-game slate before Week 13. Having that week open means something only if USC gets to Las Vegas, and the Pac-12 made it supremely difficult for the Trojans to get to Vegas.

OREGON BUFFERS

If you look closely at Oregon’s 2023 football schedule at Ducks Wire, you will notice that none of the three big games for the Ducks — Washington, Utah, or USC — come back-to-back. They are all separated by easier, more manageable games.

Washington, Utah and USC do not have that enormous luxury.

WASHINGTON BACK TO BACK

Washington plays USC on Nov. 4 and Utah on Nov. 11. Back-to-back games against the toughest teams in the Pac-12.

UTAH BACK-TO-BACK

Utah plays USC on Oct. 21, Oregon on Oct. 28. Back-to-back against the top tier of the conference.

The UCLA-Oregon State back-to-back is on a short week in late September. The Utes were done no favors, which — when combined with USC’s rough ride — adds to the reality that Oregon is uniquely set up to succeed here.

USC BACK-TO-BACKS, PLURAL

USC has a Pac-12 back-to-back against Washington on Nov. 4 and Oregon on Nov. 11. Oregon plays Cal the week before playing USC.

Really, this could not be any clearer.

USC also has a back-to-back involving Notre Dame on Oct. 14 and Utah on Oct. 21. Tough games in consecutive weeks, twice.

Come on now. We all have our eyes open here.

OREGON BLACK FRIDAY

The Pac-12 made sure to put Oregon-Oregon State on Thanksgiving Friday to ensure that the Ducks get an extra day of rest before the Pac-12 title game if they get there.

BOTTOM LINE

From start to finish, the 2023 Pac-12 football schedule gives breaks to Oregon which don’t exist for other programs, particularly USC and Utah. We can either admit this as mature adults, or pretend this didn’t actually happen.

George Kliavkoff isn’t a villain for doing this, we should clarify. He’s just being smart and catering to most of his constituents, chiefly Phil Knight.

If Kliavkoff did make one mistake, it’s that he actually didn’t cater to Utah enough. Could the Utes have second thoughts after being wronged in a few obvious ways by this schedule? We’ll see


Edited for pictures and credits. Whole thing here:

Utes break the losing skid. Here are the takeaways:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/takeaways-utah-gets-back-to-winning-ways-against-wsu

Big chance to end our three game losing streak. We were fortunate to get a W in Pullman in OT 67-65. Rollie had a fantastic game.

WSU comes in having won 4/5 including USC at home and Az on the road. The have a Euro back in the lineup who didn't play in our last game.

BC needs to show up tonight. He had a rough night at WSU (7 pts, 5 fouls, 6 TOs).

We need to take care of the ball (19 TOs in the first game)

WSU leads the league in 3 pt attempts and makes per game. They were 4-30 from 3 at WSU. So, our perimeter defense will be important.

Utah is a 3 point favorite.

There’s been a tight lid on the WR coach interviews. One thing it’s sounds like they’re angling for is P5 experience. That doesn’t mean that who they hire will absolutely have that, but this tells me that they understand that this hire is important for the offense to take the next step. If they can hire a WR coach away from another P5 school, that’s a big win.

Starting five: Branden Carlson, Ben Carlson, Gabe Madsen, Marco Anthony, Rollie Worster

Did Tavion get an invite to the combine? Per Twitter:
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Wouldn’t be all that surprising, but considering some of the snubs in the past I wasn’t necessarily expecting Thomas to be a no brainer invite to the combine.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

With the Salt Lake Bees announcing their plans to move to Daybreak after the 2024 season, it looks likely, at least right now, that Smith's Ballpark is going to be razed (probably for more condos, yay!) shortly thereafter. I'm not going to get into how sick this makes me from a sports perspective (I think Smith's Ballpark is one of the nicest minor league parks in the nation and the thought of it being demolished, despite how great it is, is just disappointing on all fronts) - but this is likely to impact Utah baseball.

It's not a pressing issue today, as they will be able to play in that stadium for the next few seasons (I doubt the city will turn around and demolish it in 2024, the second the Bees bolt) but it's probably something that is coming. Unfortunately, there has been zero movement on the on-campus baseball stadium. Does this move spur an action plan and, you know, action? Because it feels like Smith's Ballpark's days are numbered and the baseball team has to have a contingency plan, ideally one that gets 'em a stadium on campus.

Here it’s is:

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Here’s Sean’s article on Braeden Daniels declaring for the NFL Draft. It’s a move that has been expected for a while now.

https://utah.rivals.com/news/utah-s-daniels-declares-for-the-nfl-draft

I’ve been talking to people on this and a few other things before jumping on to post this.

In the surface, it stings to lose a starter. I’ve heard it for NIL. However, I’ve also been told it’s because because Maea and Faaiu are projecting better than him right now. I’m sure the answer is somewhere in between.

Here’s the press release:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/utah-football-announces-2023-schedule

Wonder what happens that turns a 4 star into FcS material.

He said on Twitter "Transfer portal here I come." I wouldn't tell if there was any backstory besides a loaded linebacker room, getting thinner now though.

LE - Jonah Ellis/Sugutaraga
DT - Tafuna
DT - Pepa
RE - Filinger/O'Toole
LB - Reid
LB - Barton
CB - Broughton
CB - Vaughn
NB - Vaki
FS - Isbel
SS - Bishop

So many quality returners it's almost silly.

Pretty impressive. Watched a bunch of
Game today as was sick at home and was very impressed at their brand of ball and hustle!

I spoke with local 4-star TE Roger Saleapaga last night. He was one of the key group that participated in Utah’s priority recruit junior day.

He said he loves everything about Utah from the coaches to the atmosphere. His favorite part about the trip this weekend was his time spent with Freddie Whittingham. He said Freddie is a genuine good person who he can tell really wants him at Utah.

He mentioned he’s spoken with Kuithe and Kincaid who have said to have fun and enjoy everything and that the TE numbers speak for itself.

He’s not LDS, although his brother recently graduated from BYU. The family lived in California until his brother attended BYU.

More to come.

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What I'd like to see

1. BC lead the team in FGA. He's far and away our best option on offense.
2. Gabe jump and land in roughly the same spot on his shots. No more degree of difficulty crap.
3. Wilguens Exacte with 15 mpg.
4. Win the rebounding battle.
5. 10 TOs or less per game.

Let’s get this thing rollin’… Utah had a tough challenge in order to snap their two game skid…

It’s a big weekend of 2024 unofficial visits for the Utes:

https://utah.rivals.com/news/utah-ready-for-big-unofficial-visit-weekend

Whether Rising has a torn ACL or MCL, he’s expected to miss the very early part of the schedule. Hopefully, that will give Nate Johnson some time to play with the first string and let’s see what he has.

One of the big questions going into the 2023 season has Cam Rising reached his ceiling?


A two-year comparision of the 2022-2023 seasons shows a QB that has played at a very good level with minimal improvement this past year,

Going into the 2024 season once he is healthy enough to play, will we see an improved quarterback? One thing working against him is it Dalton Kincaid has left for the
NFL so he has one less top receiver at his disposal.

There does not appear to be a new and highly effective receiver coming into the system for next year. So what Rising will have are prior targets that likely aren’t going to change. Will PAC 12 defenses be able to take ad
vantage of a offense that has become predictable? Will another typical season by Rising allow the offense to be even more effective? Important questions but I don’t see anything on the horizon that would give us hope that the offense will be more effective than it is now.

One year after almost losing his life and then defying all odds, Ephraim Asiata was participating in junior day festivities yesterday.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnbGrcmhINy/?igshid=Zjc2ZTc4Nzk=

After a solid first half, Utah couldn't keep up with the Trojans:

Hubert — who technically still has a year of eligibility he could get because of all of his injuries — will try for the NFL Draft, instead. Good luck to him.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnX2BjRqk6N/?igshid=Zjc2ZTc4Nzk=