As the new season begins, the Utah Utes have kickoff'ed their inaugural season with many changes and many new faces. First off, they have hired a new coach, George Poe, who is a rookie coach and only has some experience as an assistant of a high school football team who were dominant in the state of California. Utah Utes want to make it known that its not the coach, but the players who make the difference on a football team. New owner Mike has had good results with rookie coaches in the past with other teams he's owned and he hopes to bring the same success to Utah. After many changes have already been made and many new players brought on in free agency, the Utah Utes inaugural draft has been deemed a success by many. Recruiting WR Naranjo was just the first step. "We've added a player who can outstretch many defenses and plays smart. He will be a key part of our offense for many seasons to come." adds owner Mike on the pick. Utes also went with a DT in the second round William Jones. He along with other DT Thomas should be a nightmare for opposing QBs for years to come. They also recruited QB Karl Jones. A raw QB and a work in progress. But risk can bring rewards. Says Jones, "Utah once had another big name like Karl in town. And we know what he could do playing basketball." Along with many additions to the offensive line, Utah certainly feels good about their future in the very challenging league that they're in. More to come from Utah Nation...

https://goo.gl/images/wxWRKd #80 John Naranjo

Well things didn't turn out as nice as Utah Nation would've liked in their first game. A 13-50 loss to Navy. Ouch... Not many positives here either. Clearly, Utah has a lot of rebuilding to do. Owner Mike says he wishes he could've been around for the inaugural draft. Things would be completely different. Many head-scratching moves by the previous owner and it is showing on the field. Hang in folks. Gonna be a long season but we will improve. More to come...

"The list of players on the "to keep" list pales in comparison to the players that need to go..lol. I can think of maybe 10-15 players on this team that are deserving to even be on a team."- Owner Mike

Harsh words from the owner for sure.. Meanwhile, Owner Mike's other team who plays in the International Football League stands at 13-2-1 and is prepping for the playoffs in their first season. Mike was part of the inaugural draft in that league.

So another week, another blow out by opponent.. This time a 7-38 beating by Arizona. The Utah Utes are clearly not ready for owner Mike's master playbook. "I am gonna have to ease them into learning this playbook. It's not gonna be a quick turnaround overnight. It's gonna take lots of time and patience."- Mike. Utah Utes have also lost confidence already in QB Seward. His stats so far: 3 TD/ 9 INT and a comp pct of 39.8%. They will be starting red-shirt freshman Karl Jones in their next game at UCLA and also will be moving Douglas Smith from WR to RB. What do the Utes have planned? It's nobody's guess at this moment but big changes are coming soon in a must-win game at the Bruins. Stay tuned.

UTES 24, Hawkeyes 21..... The Utah Utes get their first win in an exciting fashion vs the Iowa Hawkeyes. First time win for owner Mike and newly signed Head Coach Thomas Battle. Trailing 21-17 with under 2 minutes to go, the Utes ran back the Hawkeyes kickoff 96 yards for a TD and hold off the Hawkeyes chance to tie at end of regulation. Congrats to MVP Douglas Smith for the kickoff return. He was pretty much quiet for the whole game but when the team needed a big play and all chips were down he came through in a huge way giving Utah its first win in the league. Next up: another home game this time vs. LSU.

Congratulations to Utes CB Darrell Bogan for being the first Ute to appear on the weeks leaderboard. He was lights out despite a 3-35 loss to Notre Dame. Now if we can get some offensive players on that board we'll be set!

Second year QB Karl Jones came to life today in a 58-16 rout over Kansas Jayhawks. He was 27 for 42 passing with 603 yards and 6 TDs and 0 INTs. Truly the best game played by the Utes on both sides of the ball in their 2 year existence.

Utah didn't do too much this offseason. But they have completely reshuffled their RBs core. They have signed transfers Osvaldo Lindsey and Ryan Elsner to join William Stokes in the backfield. Both RBs are converted QBs who have speed and lots of it. Now, whoever starting QB Karl Jones hands off to, there will always be that threat of a long run. Exciting times in Utah! ;)