brought up as a potential issue in the offseason (since the P12 was full of teams that were notoriously soft) and Ute fans poo-poo’d it because THEY were the physical ones who were always pushing teams in the P12 around.
But it’s different when every team you play runs with the same attitude toward physical line plan that you do. When seemingly every team has an all conference/all-american RB and is more than happy to punch you in the mouth and run it down your throat.
That type of physicality every week takes adjusting to, and frankly I don’t think Utah appreciated how beating up on Cal, UCLA and Wazzou wasn’t going to translate into beating up on teams from Texas, the Midwest and the South where football is king and the kids are corn fed and bred to play football from day one.