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SALT LAKE CITY — Falling in line with the results on the field, this wasn't a banner year for the annual forecasts for the college football locals.
Much like BYU's repeated attempts to get bowl eligible, my predictions came up short for the Cougars and Utes. Same goes for Utah State, though the Aggies were the only one of the three to exceed expectations.
The common theme among the three teams is that none came close to being satisfied with their respective seasons. Finishing at 8-4, the Utes clearly enjoyed the most success, but their best wins came against two 7-5 teams (UCLA and USC).
Let's examine the preseason prognostications compared to the actual records.
BYU
The Cougars were overwhelmingly the biggest disappointment among the three in-state programs, finishing the season on a five-game losing streak and failing to become bowl eligible for the second time in seven years.
An impressive 5-2 start quickly gave way to the embarrassment of failing to win another game. To their credit, the Cougars managed to rebound after three demoralizing losses in a four-game stretch and at least competed well against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State before being done in mostly by self-inflicted wounds.
In optimistically picking BYU to go 7-5 and 5-4 in its inaugural Big 12 season, the thinking was transfer Kedon Slovis would resemble the quarterback he was as a freshman at USC. For a multitude of reasons, some of which were beyond his control, he never came close to consistently playing at a high enough level.
When injury sidelined Slovis for the last four games, junior college transfer Jake Retzlaff filled in and looked overmatched at times. The best that can be said is he got experience and, under newer rules, did not have to burn a redshirt season.
Going 2-7 in the Big 12 has cost two assistants their jobs and put the remaining staff on notice going into next season. Two consecutive losing seasons, given the ability to reload with transfers and the two years the program had to prepare for the new conference, likely means BYU needs dramatic improvement to avoid a major shakeup.
Utah
As the two-time defending Pac-12 champions, anything less than a three-peat would be viewed as a letdown. Figuring something had to go wrong after two Rose Bowl appearances, the pick here was 9-3 and 7-2 conference.
Going 5-4 in the Pac-12, the Utes didn't come close to meeting expectations. With some merit, under the circumstances of playing backup quarterbacks the entire season, many came away with a level of satisfaction on the season.
The assumption is a healthy Cam Rising at quarterback would have altered the complexion of the season. But the fact is, the program has had four losses in each of the last three seasons.
Facing a challenging schedule, the Utes handled all five opponents that finished below .500 and lost to four ranked teams. The eight wins came against teams that combined to go 41-54.
Utah State
Even though they didn't beat a team that finished with a winning record, the Aggies battled through rotating quarterback injuries and found a way to get bowl eligible at 6-6 (4-4 in the Mountain West).
The transfer portal battered the Aggies, who saw up to nine projected starters leave during the offseason. That's the primary reason for the prediction of 5-7 and 3-5 in conference.
But here they are, good enough to make the postseason in all three of Blake Anderson's seasons as the coach. Nothing can match the exhilaration of winning the Mountain West championship in Anderson's first season, but the Aggies can take pride in going 3-1 over the last month to reach six wins.
Anderson likes to say this season was Year 1 of a rebuild, which helps explain why the program has dipped in each of his three seasons. Taking him at his word, the foundation is set, and it's reasonable to expect improvement next season.
