I'm not at all depressed about this season, or pessimistic about next season for the Utes.
This season has been better- or at worst, on par- than what most of us U fans expected or hoped for. We've managed to beat UCLA, USC, Stanford, and Oregon State- with an anemic and inconsistent offense. Travis Wilson has been extremely inconsistent and disappointing. One of the most frustrating things about him is that he's occasionally good- like in that last drive against USC... but then he falls apart.
Yes, we're losing some very good players, at the end of this year, but as others have pointed out, most of our defensive and special teams players will be returning. I would argue that being in the Pac-12, and having a more successful season this year, will help us in our recruiting. We've beat three decent California teams this year. We've had some great exposure. I'm confident that we'll be able to recruit some solid players to fill in some of the holes in our offense. I'm not predicting that we'll be national champions next season, but I think we're going to be better than we were this season.