Raider Ute’s Football Season In Review Part Deux…

Oct 19, 2013; Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal mascot the Tree (right) and an alumni Tree on the sidelines during the game against the UCLA Bruins at Stanford Stadium. Stanford won 24-10. Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports

Editor’s Note: This is Part II of the Genius that is Raider Ute giving us his Football Year In Review. Part I was yesterday and you can read it if you click on these words right here.

Now, it’s time for the Ute Football Season In Review II: Electric Bugaloo.

6. Not sure if you all heard or not, but we beat Stanford.  Printed up t-shirts and everything.

I’m sure you all remember how you felt when Stanford marched right down the field and scored on their opening drive of the game.  Here it was, a vastly superior team, a national title and holders of the keys to the kingdom after they graduate, well on their way to making a very nice soufflé out of the Utes and all we can really do is sit back and watch the show.  Then…the Utes answered.  Then Ty Montgomery ran back the ensuing kickoff.  And then the Utes answered.  But just before the first half came to an end, the Utes engineered in my mind anyway the best offensive drive of the entire season.

From the moment the Utes made their way into the PAC, there was always that searching for that “signature” win that might give people some pause as to whether this program and university as a whole really belongs in this conference.  Well, for now anyway, here it is.  Getting a victory as a visitor at Rice-Eccles Stadium is no longer a foregone conclucsion.  On this day, the Utes took down the eventual Pac-12 Champions and all while everyone said it couldn’t be done.

7. Travis Wilson, it turns out, was broken.  And Adam Schulz was…well, Adam Schulz.

It’s the quarterback controversy that only Utah football can produce.  During the spring game this past season, I made a very wise comment on Twitter about how I’ll be pining for Adam Schulz if this whole thing with Wilson doesn’t pan out.  It’s also a good thing no one reads back that far on my Twitter account, or that could have gotten out of hand–even if it was meant in sarcasm.

Forgive me for a moment for mentioning one of my professional sports fandoms (again) on this blog, but most Giants fans are familiar with Brett Pill and his, um, “exploits” shall we say.  Pill is pushing 30 years old and has only been playing at the major league level for about a season or two.  Pill is what we baseball fans like to call a “AAAA guy”.  He can’t quite hit major league pitching, but drop him down to Fresno and he’s crushing everything that comes across the plate.  As such, there are limitations to what you’re going to get out of a player like that.  Like the time when Pill swung at a wild pitch in a game against the Diamondbacks a few years ago and Jon Miller went ballistic.  Maybe you had to be there, but it got a chuckle out of me anyway.

That, in an nutshell, is where we are with Schulz.  There are certain things Schulz may not be able to do very well.  One could argue the same thing with Wilson, but at least injuries on the field and things that happened to him on or before his date of birth contribute to much of that.

8. Let’s face it: you would have never met Rhett Wilkinson virtually or in person if he hadn’t said in the Deseret News that Travis Wilson was faking an injury.

Many pieces of advice are given on the Internet, but I think the most dispensed and the least taken is this: “Don’t Feed The Troll”.  Everyone feeds the troll.  It’s that odd thing about human nature that compels us to respond to most inflammatory and idiotic things that are written online.  Why do you think there’s a such thing as an “Internet Tough Guy”?  Because there’s not much you can do when someone trolls you.  You either sit there and take or block that particular person.

Here is the thing with Wilkinson’s piece (which has now gone down the DesNews’s memory hole).  I really don’t think he was trolling in the sense that he meant to get under the skin of Ute fans at large.  That’s mostly Gordon Monson and Pat Kinahan’s job anyway.  I actually think he meant what he wrote.  Oh, sure, you may not take seriously a man who justifies Adam Schulz being a full time QB for the Utes based solely on his high school numbers, likely forgets about the fact that Conner Manning is redshirting this year, and that a “national coaching search will find someone that is easily better than Kyle”, but sometimes you just have to say what Elaine said on an episode of Seinfeld: “You’re not real bright, are ya?”

9. Trevor Reilly is awesome.

Every year, there is one guy on this team that either graduates or jumps ship to the NFL with eligibility in which I say “man, I’m going to miss that guy”.  Last year, it was Star.  This year, it’s Trevor Reilly.

10. We beat Colorado, our bitter arch-rivals in sarcasm only.

I don’t know whether I’m still irritated over the fact that the 2011 game against the Buffs ended the way it did or I would really like to try some pranks in Boulder that involve swapping weed for oregano and then laugh as the CU students wonder why they’re craving Italian food instead of Funyuns.  But there’s something relieving about winning more than one game in a conference like this, so for the time being, I will take any victories in conference I can get.  Against the great and the not-so-great.

Here is to next season and that maybe this will be the season that Kyle finds an heir apparent to the legacy of Brian Johnson and Alex Smith and Mike McCoy and Scott Mitchell and Lee Grosscup.  Who’s the Quarterback U, now?

GO UTES!