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SALT LAKE CITY — Former Ute WR Steve Smith, Sr. may be retiring from the NFL after this upcoming season, but he doesn't fear the future that lies ahead. Plus Tom Hackett earns more preseason All-America honors and Fox Sports plans on covering its college football bus with khakis.
Really? A bus wearing khakis? You so do not want to miss this.
Here's a brief rundown of what is trending on the internet about Utah athletics.
Steve Smith's last lecture
The 2015-16 season will be former Ute WR Steve Smith Sr.'s final year in the NFL, and what a marvelous 15-year career it has been.
Smith Sr. recently wrote an article for Sports Illustrated's Monday Morning Quarterback feature, diving into why he made the announcement to retire, what he learned from playing in the league, what he'll miss the most and why he doesn't fear looking ahead to the future.
"Right now, I'm going in a different direction, on my own terms," Smith Sr. wrote. "I don't know where my journey will go next, but I'm ready for what most people shy away from when they get older: change."
You can read the entire MMQB article on si.com.
Hackett named to CBS Sports Preseason All-America Team
The preseason accolades continue to pour in for Utah punter Tom Hackett.
The 2014 Ray Guy award winner was recently added to the CBS Sports preseason All-America First Team, one of just five returning players from the 2014 CBS Sports All-America First Team chosen last December.
Hackett lead the nation last season in punts inside both the 20 and 10 yard lines and was second in punt average. He finished the 2014 campaign with a school-record 3,619 punt yards.
You can catch the full preseason All-America first and second team on CBSSports.com.
Fox Sports outfitting a bus with khakis?
We've all seen the UTA buses with the advertiser wraps on them, but have you ever seen a bus with khakis on it? And not just a picture of khakis, but a wrap made out of the real fabric?
The Detroit Free Press was the first to report Fox Sports' plans on covering one of its buses in khakis and a Michigan shirt to promote Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh's return to college coaching — oh and the Fox Sports 1 college football opener Utah vs. Michigan on September 3.
The bus will travel the country promoting the game (well, at least one of the teams involved in the game).
Photo credit: Fox Sports Communications
The bus' exterior will be wrapped in real fabric to simulate Harbaugh's famous khakis-and-shirt attire, with a Sharpie around the neck and play card tucked into the waist.
"Once it became official that Harbaugh was going to return to coach, it became a huge, huge priority for us, from a production standpoint and a marketing standpoint," Robert Gottlieb, executive vice president and head of marketing for Fox Sports Media Group told the Detroit Free Press. "... the appeal and the interest in Harbaugh and the program is so intensified, that we definitely wanted to do something that was a little out of the ordinary that would help drive home the message that this game is coming."
Ute fan creates 2015 season hype video
Utah fan McKay Pett (@MPett3 on Twitter) is currently serving an LDS mission in Montana. But before he left he set out to create a Utah football video looking back at the Ute legacy and hyping the 2015 season.
If you have suggestions for any Ute links you come across on the web, send them to me at [rojackson@ksl.com](Robert Jackson is a cross platform sports and weather producer for ksl.com and KSL-TV.
