It dawned on him, as it dawns on everyone who came before him, that while yes, he’s having the time of his life, living out this childhood dream he considers himself lucky to be living, the calendar is shifting toward spring and that means soon Parker Van Dyke will have to embrace change.
Everything he’s ever known, though, is red, whether it be the campus near his childhood home, the ear-splitting din inside the Huntsman Center or those frosty fall nights inside Rice-Eccles Stadium. So when he finally can no longer block out the inevitability of what is to come — the end of his career as a Utah Ute — he has decided that the only way to manage the moment is to stare it down and embrace it.