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There is almost always something interesting going on around the Utah Sports Cast, with the possible exception of that slow, dull time in mid-summer when we half-heartedly cover baseball while waiting for a blockbuster Utah Jazz signing. The rest of the year is split between football and basketball seasons, so we don’t generally have a problem finding things to talk about.
At this time of the year (early fall) the primary teams/sports we follow are Real Salt Lake, The University of Utah football, and Brigham Young University football. I mention this because last week these three teams tallied one win (Utah) against three losses (BYU and RSL lost twice). This week the “Big Three” went 2 – 2, with RSL splitting two games, BYU winning, and Utah losing. The one team that won last week had their collective heads handed to them, and the teams that lost managed to find some victories.
So it is being a Utah sports fan. Our teams are often mediocre – enough so that flashes of real, legitimate success are remembered for a long time (what BYU fan doesn’t smile at the simple mention of the year 1984?). More often than not we have teams that look fine one week and shaky the next. In that sense, September has been a very typical month in Utah sports.
The ultimate expression of this inconsistency was displayed during the past two weeks by the University of Utah. They started with a significant, career-defining win over a nationally ranked opponent one week, followed by a pitiful shutout loss at the mercy of a team that was at the very bottom of division-one football last year. Utah went from looking like a great, underrated team with a potent offense and an iron-clad defense to being throttled by one of the conference cupcakes.
To give UNLV their due, they do seem better this year from last; and they were prepared, motivated, and eager for the game. All the same, the Utah team that kicked UCLA to the curb would have blown the Rebels all the way back to Dixie. Not that history has much to do with it, but this was the first time Utah had lost to UNLV since the Ford Administration. That provided motivation for the Rebels, and left Utah without excuses.
I suspect Utah will win another few games. In fact, they may have a winning streak sometime in the season that will bring their record to more respectable numbers. Then, like every other Utah Sports fan, I will be predicting brighter days and bigger victories to come. I will probably even write about it on this blog. Then, with another bottom-tier bowl in the books, I can look forward to 2008 with much more optimism than the situation deserves. Not that I mind -- that is the life of a Utah sports fan, after all.
In other news, BYU played well and looked pretty good. I’m not trying to ignore that, but the stuff we have in the podcast about them is very interesting and I wouldn’t want to spoil it.
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