The Victors

I like the Whittingham hire a lot. I wish he were ten years younger, but in every other way, I think he’s the right man for the moment, and overall a very good cultural fit with UM FB. And he’s a damn good coach with a damn good track record. It’s rare to be able to hire someone like that.

I like Beck a lot: he has all the pieces in place to run an excellent run-first offense similar to what he ran at Utah last year. We may all be underestimating transition costs, but ultimately I think it will be a good fit. The offense will have practically everyone back in ‘27 unless ppl portal out. If we have a good year with incremental improvement and players come back, ‘27 could really be the year.

I’m a little more concerned about D than O, but Hill seems like a good hire and seems to want to run a system somewhat similar to the MacDonald/Minter defenses. Yes please.

As others have said, we could be a lot better than last year and not have a better record, considering the schedule. If we look like a well-coached program that’s poised for a run in ‘27 by season’s end, then we should probably be satisfied with that.