Love to hear what the leading football wonks think about the game today.
Go Utes!
It was wet. There was a scrimmage from which you can take little of real substance. It was great having a tailgate with the usual suspects in the usual spot. Beyond that Jackson threw a couple of nice dimes and seems to be trying to make the case for the number 2 spot. Glover is the real deal I think. Barnes has some wheels. We’ll know much more by the end of fall camp.
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Curious what Kyle Whittingham said about the transfer portal after the spring game yesterday. He said he expected a handful of guys to enter before May 1st. Said it was good for them seeking more playing time and good for the team since it freed up a scholarship for Utah to fill. I was surprised at how candid coach was on that, while we know it to be true. Utah is still looking for pieces; last season, the staff did a nice job of identifying players needed to shore up some gaps. From what I have been able to gather, the team is looking still for players at CB and WR, and maybe even for the OL.
My question is what did Barnes do to get a taunting call. On the replay it looked like he turned his head to look, but I didn’t see any gesture.
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I didn’t see the game. Was working in my yard, recorded the game to view when I was finished. The game recorded, the title was as clear as clear can be “Utah Spring Game.” Only when I started playing it, it was Oregon’s spring game. I was able to watch on the Pac12 online site a few highlights, but that is all.
I saw what you saw; nothing.
Random Observations:
Jackson wasn’t great, but he looked like a QB. That’s a huge improvement. Last year he looked like a TE trying to play QB.
Barnes has good judgement and good wheels, but I don’t know if he will ever start. Some poor OL play hurt his performance.
Glover looks like the real deal. Tavion looked bigger, and a bit sluggish. Bernard didn’t play.
Vele seemed to establish himself as WR1. Cope made a circus catch. Cope and Money Parks will compete for snaps behind Vele and Enis. Didn’t notice Dixon. Utes still need a speed merchant to run deep routes and scare secondaries.
TE is talented and deeeeep! At least 6 different TE’s had a catch.
The DL outplayed the OL. The young LB’s looked mobile and hit hard.
Some good stuff from the secondary. Broughton and Bishop were all over the field making plays. Lawler, Mataele, Savage, and Vaughn all flashed. Again, they were not tested by deep speed.
A lot of guys sat out, so take all this with a grain of salt. I’ll never place much trust in spring game stuff after Brewer’s excellent showing last year.
OL #79 Al Harrison get helped off the field in the second half. It didn’t look good. Hope he’s OK. Likely he would be on the depth chart in the fall.
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The big takeaway for me is the talent and depth of talent we had out there playing on Saturday was way beyond what we used to see at a Spring game in the MWC days and early PAC 12. That’s not saying there weren’t talented players on those teams, too. We just didn’t have enough of them to be able to deal with injuries. Yesterday we had a full compliment of OL such as we didn’t have those guys playing across the teams like we used to. I’ll be blunt and say back in the day (taking Rising out of the equation) we would’ve been thrilled to have a Bryson Barnes or Ja’Quinden Jackson starting at QB going into a MWC season. Both will be good backups to Rising. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ludwig developed a “Slash” package of offense to get Jackson on the field. The kid has too much athletic talent to be sitting on a bench waiting his turn to play.
We’ve come a long way in the last decade. Let’s see where we get to this season.
GO UTES!!!
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Dixon wasn’t suited up.
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A whole bunch of guys not suited up, Dixon still has the big hair, his version of Chevy Chase’s dream of playing for the Lakers in Fletch - “6-5… 6-9 with the afro”
Greg hit the nail on the head in terms of the amount of talent, built over time. We’re at the point where even with a lot of guys held out, even in a spring game, it looked like 2 reasonably decent football teams out there. I can remember some really lean spring games where even some of the players were saying it was kind of a joke, back in the 90s, and not all FB programs even have a spring game, anymore.
On the WR deep threat, that’s never been an issue with Dixon, but now Cope and Money Parks also bring respectable speed, enough to force a safety to gamble on who they help with, and Vele certainly can stretch out an athletic secondary (ask whoever’s left at USC).
On the upside of Glover, Micah Bernard revealed the truth in his interview. They game him two serious hardball questions and he handled them like a pro - one about playing CB in the Rose Bowl and the other about Glover and where he fits in.
Basically, Micah chuckled and said Glover has a “very, very high ceiling” and that they pose different looks at RB with Thomas, himself and Glover, and Parks.
Hard to think of who is a classier member of this year’s roster than Micah Bernard. It will be fun to see where he takes his life - kid is a winner.
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Sounds like Jackson would be Mac’s kind of QB. I guess Barnes would be too.
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