I'm sure I'm not the only one here, but I've been watching BYwho a bit while there aren't a lot of teams playing and one thing has stuck out to me:

Zach Wilson is getting a ton of time to survey the field and when he does throw a deep ball, it surprises me every time it isn’t picked off. Here’s the post from CougarBored that got me thinkin’:
Zach Wilson
I’m guessing my expectation of defenses is thrown off by watching the Utes play for so many years, but it is really shocking how small other teams are. Look at Troy, UTSA, Navy, etc… They look tiny! We all know how Utah would handle this BYwho team. Maybe they’d catch a couple of our DB’s flat footed and we’d give up a large play, but as the field shrinks in the Red Zone, Utah’s defense is nearly impenetrable.

Anyway, just a few observations. I’m anxious to see Utah play some real football.

I hate talking about certifiable crazy people a lot, and even more when they’re attention starved like the terribles down south. That said, I’ll say this, I tried to watch an entire half of one of their games and had to stop at a quarter.

They are not very good, and don’t execute well (or rather they’re not consistently clean in their execution). In many ways Zach Wilson reminds me of another Wilson whose first name was Travis (and I really appreciate the heart and everything Travis gave us). Travis did very well playing against low end P5 teams (and even had some really good games against other P5 competition), did great against decent G5 teams, and feasted on anything below decent G5 competition.

Zach Wilson is feasting on their abysmal competition and was being hyped up because there weren’t many teams playing.

That’s pretty much it.

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I had exactly the same thought. BYU fans are convinced he has improved, when in reality much of his improvement is simply due to poor competition. He was attempting to make the same throws last year, and they got picked off regularly when he played against good teams.

When you attempt throws like that (throws into very tight coverage against smaller defenders) you will catch the defender off guard sometimes, which is what he is banking on. He is in for a world of hurt when he plays a good team.

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A few years ago I did a Travis Wilson vs Alex Smith vs G5 comparison and vs G5, Wilson had better stats. Wilson was elite vs G5. The difference between Smith and Travis? Against P5 teams, Smith took it to another level and Travis regressed. Smith was better vs P5 than Travis was vs G5.

It will be interesting to see them play Boise in a few weeks. Boise looks to be very disciplined.

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It’s hard to tell how good byu is. They are blowing out everyone they play but everyone they have played so far is awful.
If Wilson thinks he’s going to get drafted he better leave after this season because I think he would get exposed next year, if the seasons get back to normal. That said I think he would be another John Beck: simply not an NFL QB.

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In their one game against Utah State?

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There have been some legitimately talented quarterbacks who made a living playing against lesser competition at smaller schools. Zach could have the goods, but we’ll have to wait and see until he plays against better competition. I have a hard time judging based on last year, because of the growth potential and shoulder surgery he has had since then.

Carson Wentz- North Dakota
Joe Flacco- Delaware
Tony Romo- Eastern Illinois
Steve McNair- Alcorn St
Kurt Warner- Northern Iowa

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We’ve flat wrecked their QB’s over the last 10 years. Wilson was going to run into a buzzsaw had we played. This year’s schedule for them really offers no meaningful indicators of how good he is. Until he has to throw receivers open, we will never know.

BYU’s schedule so far.

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My argument is that those QB’s looked like NFL guys playing vs chumps. Wilson looks like a good G5 QB playing against chumps.

I’d be willing to bet that any national guys who have Wilson as a top tier QB haven’t actually seen him play. They just see the gaudy numbers and assume he is great when the reality is, he’s a good QB with a very good OL playing against a terrible schedule.

I’m always open to changing my tune but I will stand firm that Wilson is the same Wilson he has always been until he shows me otherwise. His first chance to do so will be vs Boise and I think he will look very average that game.

And I think that game will be the first time any national guys look at him and whether BYU wins or loses, the Wilson chatter will be much quieter then.

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There was a time when Boise was loaded with NFL talent on defense…that time has passed. I’m sure Wilson will be fine against them. The question is whether Boise can score in return,

NFL scouts, who do this for a living, are famously bad at evaluating QBs. Let’s not pretend that we know anything about Wilson’s NFL potential. Maybe he makes it, maybe not. The important thing is that we are rooting against him.

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I agree. To date the defense’s he’s faced have been almost non-existent. It has been merely pitch and catch for him. You watch and most of the time there is no one from the other team in the picture when he’s throwing, and it’s not due to an outstanding OL. There is no pressure on the QB at all. He has a strong arm, but there’s a lot of average QBs that have a strong arm.

I want to see him perform under pressure before awarding him the Heisman.

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I think Joe Burrow is really helping Wilson out a lot. Like I said above, I highly doubt any of the “experts” ranking him so high have ever watched him. They see BYU, they see QB, they see ridiculous numbers, they remember Burrow and they want to be “the guy” that discovered the next “guy” so they toss him in. Wilson, if he goes pro, will be a guy that will be mocked really high…then fall like crazy once he starts working out and scouts really get their eyes on him.

He’s a good G5 QB. Nothing more, nothing less. Had he walked on at Utah, he would be Drew Lisk. We’d all know his name but he’d be the third guy on the depth chart and when Whitt says “it’s a three man race” we’d all know that it’s really a two man race and that would be the extent of our Zach Wilson thoughts. No one outside of Utah fans would know who he is and BYU and all the national guys would talking about Jarren Hall or Gunner Romney being a Heisman and a first round pick this year.

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I would love to see the Rivalry game played against BYU! I hope we can see how our team matches up against BYU and hopefully drops them from Top ten to unranked.

Best part would be that Utah would be playing its first game and even with all the rust they would still own BYU.

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Reverse psychology…I like it.

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