Last time Kyle Whittingham faced something like the situation he’s in now, was 2007. He was 1-3, his starting QB and RB was hurt and he just had his ass kicked by UNLV. Ute fans were wondering if he was the guy (and at that point it was something worth wondering).
Now the setting is different but the situation is the same. Utah is 2-2 and coming off of a serious asskicking by Arizona St. Now while ASU isn’t even close to being UNLV, certainly Utah should have been competitive, at least on defense. Kyle’s starting QB and RB are hurt and he has an O-line problem to boot. Only now he doesn’t have Utah St., Louisville and San Diego State to get heathy on.
Instead we get USC, a team that might be better than the Trojans in UCLA and a team that is better than either in Oregon St. The morons have already started bitching. If Utah falls to 2-5 that chorus is going to get louder.
Since Utah became good at football, a short nine years ago, rarely has it felt like a team needs a win more than this team needs one. If we could be even 3-4 or 4-3 going into the Cal game, it would feel a light year better than 2-5. Being 3-4 means a bowl game, being 2-5 probably means no.
And at the same time a win in the next three sounds like a long shot. We are just not up to snuff at QB or O-Line right now and linebacker seems like an issue as well.
Not to mention USC’s motivation not to start the Pac-12 0-2.
The loser of this game is going to face a great deal of questions, the winner lives to fight another day.