Something Bentley said after the game epitomizes why he’s a good leader, was voted a captain.
“So, what?.. then what?” - some phrase he uses internally.
Adversity happens. How do you respond? That in a nutshell is the psychology of sports, from little league baseball up through the pros. Resilience.
Bentley has it. Ty Jordan has it (response after fumble). Phillips, Llloyd, plenty of other guys. If you don’t have that in your QB, you’re in trouble.
I like Bentley actually while his deficiencies up until now are glaring. But - which doesn’t negate what I just said - he is in a new system in a somewhat strange state among new players and scheme that is not his historic wheelhouse. New receivers in snow country with whom he is still learning to trust and utilize. Also, an OL that is more like a sieve makes the world’s best QB look like dog water. And I like the best the way Bentley does that Houdini escape move. Just sweet. I like his jazz dot. He spoke in the post game show on ESPN700, pure class, pure leader. So I like the guy and think once he adjusts, he will be a very good QB for Utah.
I like the same things about him. I hope he succeeds.
Is there any doubt at this point?
Oh, who really cares now? This is his last game as a Ute. Maybe he has enough fight to go out a winner.
I caught some hell for saying this last week. He’s so not good.
Isn’t he coming back next year? He doesn’t lose any eligibility for this season.
That’s true. Sorry, I forgot. It’s probably a bad sign if he sees the field for us next season, though.
He may have a year of eligibility left, but with Rising coming back (I hope), and I believe Utah will try to secure another grad or senior transfer, I’m not sure Bentley will see much action. Costelli will be green, so I don’t see the competition there. Justice Cooper is the Lake Oswego (OR) 2* QB, and Utah has the QB from Milford, Utah as a walk on too. Then, will Lisk stay?
I was yelling at the TV that the Utes needed to raise Lisk to their shoulders and carry him off of the field at the end of the game.
Starting true freshmen at QB is no longer unusual. In fact, it’s often necessary to hold onto them.
That’s funny.
Will the poster that claimed Bentley was a better QB than Wilson own up to it (forget who made the claim)— and this was an argument made late in the season.
I’m definitely not making excuses for Bentley as many of his miscues were bad reads and mental errors but one thing I did notice and ran back on the DVR to confirm. At the 9:00 mark of the first quarter FS1 showed a sideline shot. You can see a Utah trainer bandaging Bentley’s throwing hand. He has had a really nasty cut on that hand for the past couple of weeks. I wonder if it was aggravated or reinjured in the first quarter.
That being said, I am truly thankful & grateful that Britain Covey is still alive tonight. By the way, for my more religious than I friends, can you be thankful without being grateful? And can you be grateful without being thankful or do you have to be both? If the latter is the situation, do you have to be equally thankful and grateful or can you be really thankful but just a little bit grateful? Or vice-versa?
With all the gratitude I can muster I thank you for raising this interesting set of questions.
I don’t even do that to computerized receivers in video games because it makes me cringe when they get wrecked.
I haven’t read the rest, but yes he ■■■■■■■ does.
Wow, what a fresh take. Shut up already. You’ve made your opinion clear on a 23 year old kid that had heart, was voted captain, tried to learn a new system with not many reps, and didn’t quite have the tool set to excel.
I don’t know what the deal was with JB yesterday. The TD to Covey was perfect. The INT that got him pulled was worse than awful.
He’s not that bad, otherwise he wouldn’t have been the 2 out of camp.
The first half Utes would have struggled with Lisk, and people would be saying “well, he’s a walkon, so this is on Whittingham” or something like that.
The 2nd half Utes were inspirational, and Lisk getting the team ball is well deserved. He’s always been prepared and a supportive teammate, so good on him.
I read the reaction in Wazzu land, and a LOT of their own fans were saying “I hoped they wouldn’t ‘Coug it’, but they did”.
We don’t have that kind of baggage - the future does look bright in SLC.
I noticed on a number of JB’s pass plays, that he was not setting his feet for the throw. He was arming it, if I can use a noun as a vowel. But to be fair, Lisk got lucky on at least two throws into traffic. One of those throws as bad as one of Bentley’s, right to the defender. In JB’s case, the defender intercepted the ball, in Lisk’s case, the defender dropped it.
JB came out with the team’s mental preparedness for the first half. I say so-called preparedness on offense and defense, as we witnessed. It was not great, which kinda surprised the heck out of me given that family was in attendance. Then after the benchmark had been established, that is Utah was getting kicked all over the field, the Utes head to the locker room. Whitt said that he told the guys (and I paraphrase), if you are not prepared to play with all you have, don’t come out onto the field. Get dressed, you are done. Okay, I added that last sentence but you get the drift.
The outstanding question: was Utah going to pull a “Washington” in the second half?
At that point, Lisk was the guy, he ended the first half and I did not expect to see JB in the game again. The first offensive series was 3 and out; I’m thinking okay here we go, is Utah going to rise and shout or rollover?
The defense provided a partial answer. They were lock down, they played with the intensity and fire that we had seen from WSU in the first half.
The Utes begin to click on offense, and provided us fans with one of the most satisfying comebacks since they beat the TDS a few years ago. The tale of two halves could not have been more stark.
And I enjoyed every second of it. I agree, Bentley just had a bad day, maybe because his throwing hand was banged up.
Given that Utah now has a commitment from Texas transfer, true freshman 4* QB Ja’Quinden Jackson, I don’t think Bentley will return and I don’t think Lisk will return. In the post game program on ESPN700, Scott Mitchell made a big push with Drew to return.
Next season, Utah will have:
Cam Rising, 4* transfer from Texas, RS Sophomore
Ja’Quinden Jackson, 4* transfer from Texas, Freshman
Peter Costelli, 4* HS recruit from California, true Freshman
Cooper Justice, 2* or 3*, from Lake Oswego, OR, Freshman
Bryson Barnes, NR, from Milford, UT, walk-on Freshman
Edit:
Cam Rising suffered a serious shoulder injury, one that is known in the baseball world to end careers. He will not likely participate in spring ball. Peter Costelli needs time to adjust, while who knows, he could be the guy Ja’Quinden Jackson we don’t know. The other two, not sure their level of progress.
I think this young team assumed that with the win @ CU, they could just show up against Wazzu at home and win.
Wazzu had something to say about that in the first half, and then they did a Utah @ UW impersonation.
Crazy year, doesn’t count, we got out of the season exactly what we needed - game snaps for a lot of talented teenagers - and we should be contenders next year.
Always good to go out with a win.