Ute Notes, 1/4/2011

Football
CB Brandon Burton has declared for the NFL draft.  This will be a big hit on the Ute secondary, which was probably already the big weakness of their defense heading into next season.  This means that SS Blechen is the lone returning starter, with FS Justin Taplin-Ross and CB Lamar Chapman set to graduate.  Coming into this year, they were replacing Joe Dale, Robert Johnson, and RJ Stanford, but had experienced guys like Justin Taplin-Ross, Lamar Chapman, Brandon Burton to fill the void.  This next year, they won't have quite that same depth coming back.  We'll find out a lot about Conroy Black at CB and Greg Bird at FS next season.  The other potential CBs would be Ryan Lacy, Reggie Topps, and Quade Chappuis.  It will be an inexperienced bunch for sure.  The front seven should help them ease into it, as 5 of the 7 starters return and 11 of the 14 on the "two-deep."  Still, this was not good news for Utah's secondary and defense as they head into BCS Conference Utopia.

Basketball
The Utes are encouraging fans not to quit on them, stating that the best is yet to come.  I suppose this is a step-up from Boylen grabbing the microphone after a game and chastising the fans that did show up for the lack of support by the fan-base (hint: the ones in the stands are showing support).  First off, I do not think that the Utes will ever be relevant with Boylen at the helm.  He stifles player-development by never allowing a "leader on the court" to develop.  Basketball-wise, he may be similar to Izzo, but people-skills-wise, he is a hermit.  Secondly, Utah has yet to show the fan-base some reason to have faith that the conference season will be different.  They have lost 5 of 6, with 4 of those opponents having no chance at the NCAA Tournament, and the other two on the bubble (Butler and Michigan).  In 4 of the games, they were not even all that competitive, losing by double-digits.  It's a one-man show right now: I can watch the Lakers play if I want to see that.

This is a desperate grab.  And this is a team that will have to compete in an improving Pac 12 next season.  Maybe 'compete' is too strong of a word.  While the Utah football team will be competitive in the Pac 12 (though I do not belief they will compete for titles, but they will be competitive), the hoops team clearly bit off more than it can chew.  Maybe Boylen will be gone after this season and they can get somebody who can lead this once-proud program back to where it belongs: relevance, and Sweet 16s.  I continue to be, as always, a Boylen critic.