After the past two years, it seems as thought we can safely put the “5th year Senior QB will transfer in to save us” theory to rest. Appears that if a Senior QB has washed out from another program, there’s generally a good reason why.
My question now is whether Rising can be as effective in week 8 after teams have time to prepare for him, or if he’ll end up running for his life behind the shoddy OL…just like Brewer was.
I don’t recall why Brewer lost his job at Baylor, I think it was injury or something like that. He lit it up while he was there. My only guess is in some part it is Utah coaching/system and not just the player. Somehow Utah seems to get less out of the QB position than other teams. OLine is a BIG BIG problem that needs to be fixed 10 years ago. But we still seem to get less out of the position than we should. Easy to blame the WRs as well, no separation and lots of drops. That being said some plays take time to develop and if there is no time, there is no separation. Utah needs a lot of help.
Rising definitely showed something, maybe he can continue it next week. Hopefully…
The key difference I saw between QBs was leadership. The guys clearly respond to Rising, who’s been here longer, paid the price last year with the shoulder injury, has been positive and supportive of Brewer, not just before but during this game.
Player leadership is tough to bequeath. In 2006 when the Captains were chosen, the coaches intervened and selected Weddle as a one of the captains, which was a bit of a surprise. Nothing against Weddle, but he hadn’t been here during the summer when the core identity and chemistry, the foundation was being formed.
How well do things work out from here? Really hard to know. When Rising came in, we were in a tough situation, and SDSU’s defense may have dialed down the intensity a little. But there was no question of the energy lift we got.
Jaylen Dixon has been almost non-existent this year, but had 2 deep artwork passes thrown his way, one a TD, one should have be a PI in OT.
Enis, Vele. Kuithe, O’Toole, Howard got his first TD. Rising got them believing.
Clearly we had a lift. Exactly why is going to be an uncomfortable question for players interviewed this week. I don’t get the sense there’s animosity against Brewer, just maybe a “distance”.