2024 Utah Utes Season Recap

[Sarge]

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Salt Lake City, UT

As red and white confetti fell from the rafters, Utah’s finest celebrated in the middle of the field as they hoisted their coach onto several players’ shoulders. The Utes, led by Coach SageBow close the season 7-6 with a resounding 40-21 victory over Coach Kgreene, Paul and the Tulane Green Wave. The atmosphere at SoFi stadium for the Sriracha Bowl was electric and deservingly so as Troy Young won the MVP award and finished with 287 all purpose yards, 5 total touchdowns, and singlehandedly dispatched the Green Wave. There was no way to stop the red from running all over PMS and Tulane’s bowl game dreams.

Reports have surfaced that the AD of Utah has definitive intentions of extending the ball coach after the up and down season as the program over the last three years has been trending upwards. This is especially important as it’d bring stability and long term security for players and coaching staff alike after this inaugural season in their new conference. Conference play was as middle of the road as the entirety of the schedule but it’s definitely a bright spot. The Big 12 is one of the most competitive conferences in all of college football and the upper echelon teams need to be weary of a resurgent Utah program on the rise.

Initially, it seemed Coach SageBow thought that Holden was ready for the big lights, letting him uncork it over 30 times in the first two games but with back to back crushing losses, a one point to Syracuse and another close one to Utah State, the curtains fell on Holden’s arm as it was relegated to hand-off duties as Young became the focal point of the offense.

Despite the losses piling up, there was a lot of optimism built in the program after the TCU game as 2-3 Utes took TCU to the absolute brink, coming up four points short. This would later be evident as they played typically great Houston to within one point and absolutely dismantled a ranked Arizona State squad in an absolute thumping. From that ASU game forward, Utah would turn its season around from being 2-5 to finishing it out 4-1, the lone loss coming to Colorado and earning its bowl berth with a win over BYU.

A lot could be said about Utah’s offensive firepower behind Young and Holden’s rushing attack, but what most people don’t talk about is Utah’s defense. Utah finished #4 in the conference in points allowed, Total Yards allowed, and 5^th in sacks despite having one of the worst turnover margins (-1) in the conference.

Coach SageBow has a lot to look forward to and there should be plenty of optimism heading into next season with the roster, which we’ll cover here:

Notable Departures:
A OVR - Sr RB Troy Young (Speed):
2,192 Rushing Yards, 23 Rushing Touchdowns, 8.45 YPC
261 Receiving Yards, 3 Receiving Touchdowns

Troy Young gave NFL scouts a lot to consider with his pure running ability, ELITE speed, strength, and football IQ. It will be hard to argue against Young falling past the third round regardless of how deep the RB class is.

Likely Replacement:
B+ OVR – (So) Joe Lopez (Power):
476 Rushing yards, 2 Rushing Touchdowns, 6.26 YPC

A four star recruit out of the state of Georgia, Lopez is a completely different build from Young but what he lacks in gamebreaking speed, he makes up for with his exceptional strength, ball security and pass blocking.

A OVR -  Sr FS JC Gentry (Run Stopper):
66 Tackles, 4.5 Tackles for Loss, 1.5 Sacks

An absolute hammer that filled the box and the stat sheet all year, Gentry has to be a high target for NFL GMs looking to add a complete safety with serviceable coverage skills and elite tackling ability. Gentry led the team in tackles and consistently got linebackers and his other DBs in the right spot at the line of scrimmage. It’s going to be a significant loss for a secondary that doesn’t have a thumper like Gentry ready and waiting.

Likely Replacement:
B OVR – Sr FS Lenny Durant (Zone Coverage) OR B OVR Fr FS Vincent Chatham
4 Tackles (Durant)
Lenny has colossal shoes to fill and is a completely different mold of player. If he doesn’t prove that he deserves to be on the field, it’s likely we’ll see Chatham as a Redshirt Freshman take the field and own the starting spot there. What Chatham lacks in development he’s well ahead of the curve in forcing the QB to put the ball in his hands and flipping the field for the Utes.


Look Ahead to 2025:

The Utes have done a fantastic job with gradually improving year after year and this one is no exception, but they are losing a LOT of seniors this year to the draft or post football lives to where there might be legitimate concerns from Coach Sage and his roster next year as Utah continues its new journey in the loaded Big 12.

Passing Yards - 1420 - Returning production - 96%
Passing Touchdowns - 10 - Returning production - 100%
Rushing Yards - 4,498 - returning production - 50%
Rushing Touchdowns - 43 - returning production - 55%
Receiving Yards - 1420 - returning production - 66%
Receiving Touchdowns - 10 - returning production - 20%
Sacks - 41 - returning sack production - 54%
TFLs - 62 - returning TFL production - 58%
Interceptions - 10 - Returning INT production - 30%

Holden is a obvious boon for the offensive side of the ball as he is essentially the bulk of the returning rushing yards and essentially all of the passing production. The biggest concerns here are where will the turnovers generate from in the secondary and the Sack/TFL numbers will be tough to reproduce.

Projected 2025 Depth Chart:


Rising stars to look out for next season:
DT Norman Burton
OT Andreas Shields
CB Michael Summers
DE Gilberto Torres



Recruiting:
Utah (at the moment) looks positioned to finish #12, and no worse than owning a top 15 class in the country. They got themselves a huge commitment from OLB Steve Rogers, a 5* Coverage type out of New York with tremendous upside and could possibly find himself forcing the issue and trying to fend off a redshirt with his immense talent. Heir-apparent quarterback 4* William Short also comes in with the 2024 class, who will most likely take a redshirt to maximize his starting time in the future. Ultimately, Utah finished its recruiting class with one 5*, eight 4*s, ten 3*s, and six 2*s that’ll likely turn into some decent depth pieces. I think the arrow is pointing up for the Utes and with the right development plan and scheme, they’ll be an even more difficult out sooner than people think.


This wraps up our recap of the Utah Utes and their fantastic season! Thanks for reading and see you again soon. Thanks for @SageBow for the small pieces of info!

[npklemm]

Losing a lot on defense, but they seem to be replacing with superior players. Great season for the Utes and the future looks bright

[Ewade]

Great recap! Although I despise the Utes, their future looks bright and upcoming for a great chance at being a good team overall. I am excited to see how this rivalry goes for future seasons as they potentially have a shot to compete with us Aggies for their first win against us and when this occurs it will be a sad day for us but a historic day for the Utes.

[SageBow]

Thank you so much Sarge! It has been an exciting season to be onsite after 3 back to back 2-10 seasons, Holden has ascended into being a viable offensive threat and you're right, my defense was a little slept on this year. Despite only having NFL guys at DT and FS, this defense played really well down the stretch once I joined the "Sarge School of Defensive Gameplanning".