UW game assessment

Football
1

Tough loss. Too bad we couldn’t find some points in the 2nd half.

But looking at things from 10,000 feet, this team is insanely young and this season / this year is a big mulligan.

Definitely things to work on.

I love the youth! Ty Jordan had his Zack Moss freshman screwup. I saw mistakes by Broughton, Ritchie, a missed tackle by Marks. They found out what it takes to achieve success, and came up a little short.

Van Fillinger got some quality snaps, Fotu is a talent, I saw Aaron Lowe get a snap and Z Vaughn had a pick & a long return. Great to see Vonte Davis get a pick. This is all money in the bank for him to come back next year. He should capitalize on the education opportunity, he’s got a future.

On offense, the OL played a bit better, we got consistently good yardage running the ball. Bentley needs to distribute the ball better and take less hits. GREAT to see Thompson get a beautiful TD.

Kuithe started to come alive. GREAT to see Covey back, though he wasn’t a factor on offense.

Brumfield looked good, Micah Bernard showed his potential. Jordan Wilmore looked a helluva lot better than last week, and looks like a better RB than last year.

Tough loss, a ton of quality snaps for a lot of young players.

We’ll see what happens next week. I think we’re supposed to play Oregon State, who’s coming off a huge win. Get punched in the month, what are you going to do?

I think we’ll see a rebound.

2

Big time choke job.

No pressure on the QB at all.

Awful call on the QB sneak.

Terrible red zone fumble.

That about sums it up.

It’s tough not to close when you have a chance against one of the conference power programs.

2 Likes
3

The throw game is a complete joke, hasn’t looked this bad since the McBride era.

4

I was not impressed by UW’s quarterback. You have to take advantage while these guys are down.

5

Lol. It’s been so much worse. 5-7 years.

6

Is our fairly consistent lack of a passing offense simply a system thing or is it a player problem? We consistently get less out of our QBs/WRs/TEs in the throw game than other programs - see last nights game. I know this season doesn’t really count and it is an exhibition at this point but this is not a new problem. We here have been debating this every year for years and statistically our throw game ranks at the bottom half of the PAC-12. So, is it simply a system problem or is it a player problem? If Mac Jones or Trevor Lawrence (with 1-2 of their WR or TE) mysteriously transferred to Utah, would our throw game improve? Or would they turn in to what we are accustomed to? My personal opinion is it is a system problem. Just interested to hear what others think?

7

You pose some good questions, but this one is easy. Of course our offense would improve. Our offense was devastating only a year ago because of Tyler Huntley, our best QB since BJ.

It’s a personnel issue. How many of our WRs have gone on to NFL careers? That’s not a system thing.

8

It all starts up front. If your QB is getting tattooed from missed blocking assignments, tough to get the air game established, except through hot routes & screens.

UW’s QB struggled a LOT in the long game in the first half, then found some success in the 2nd when momentum was going their way. (I didn’t realize how much he’s struggled in the long game).

Against USC, we struggled to get the run game going. So, good progress.

Film will reveal where the throw game broke down, but there was good success in the middle game - the errors & failures obscure that, granted.

I wonder if Vele has been nicked, or what. Why no Covey yet? Thompson looks good, the deep threat we’ve needed. Enis still finding his groove.

1 Like
9

The entire “system” has to work to have an effective passing offense. From blocking scheme to play design and the players that fill those rolls. Huntley had some big passing games but statistically Utah (in the PAC12) has never had a top 3 rated passing offense. So does Utah under develop offensive talent - specifically OL/WR/QB or do they not recruit well enough at those positions? It is a system problem or a player problem?

10

Again, clearly a player problem. It’s self perpetuating too. We can’t recruit WRs here because we’ve had so little success with WRs.

But if you swap our WRs with USCs, our passing game would blossom and theirs would suffer. Our QB doesn’t have a strong arm, and we lack pass protection, so we might still have issues, but this is all about personnel.

11

You’re right that offense is like a symphony - a lot of things need to come together.

As we know from many years of having a really good defense, disrupting one part of an offensive symphony makes it struggle. That’s every DC’s Job One.

We’re clearly at more of a “reload” level on defense. Expanding out of our core identity of being a defensive power, with a hard nosed run first offense is a work in progress.

The only way to do it is find success with the guys you have, then the recruiting will follow. Nacua, Covey & Vele were all non-factors, and to a lesser extent, Enis. That needs to change. (I’m sure we’re dealing with injuries. How does Samson not play vs his brother?)

Here’s one area of the offense that was perfectly seamless last night - Nick Ford returning to the Center and us having zero problems with the snap.

Keep grinding, be resilient, find a way to get better. Not pretty, but that’s where we are.

1 Like
12

Samson spent most of the game against usc limping. He must have a lingering injury.

13

I’m going to get beat up or banned, but I’ve got my big boy pants on, and I’m ready.

Why do we keep giving passes to Whittingham? I have not liked him in over 10 years, and I wish he had been fired long ago. I wish he would take a job somewhere else.

Every single time there’s a big game, except for that one game against Alabama that had obviously given up because they weren’t in the National Championship, we choke. Whether it’s beating CU to win the PAC-12 South. Or beating TCU a few years ago. Or last year’s championship.

Over and over and over, I keep seeing the same nonsense. Bad play calling. Being conservative when we need aggressiveness. Sitting on leads. Being aggressive when we need conservatism.

More than that, he is like the least charismatic, most boring human being ever. OK, I’ll admit that I’ve only been paying attention to Ute football for the last 20 years (that happens when you go to a grad school that HAD a better sports program), so basically it’s been Urban and Whittingham. And Whittingham is no Urban Meyer.

I’m just tired of this. I mean it really does feel like the old trope about insanity, repeating the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

I wish this would change. But I think most Utah fans are happy with him, so I’m like howling at the moon.

1 Like
14

I wouldn’t beat you up or call for your banishment. It just seems you’re naïve about college football and how few coaches could take Utah to the Pac 12 and be as competitive as Utah has been. I too want to be on top but our resources, geography, and history are so far behind that it’s almost miraculous that Whittingham has the Utes competing so far beyond what our resources would suggest is possible.

5 Likes
15

This isn’t even close to being true.

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16

I wouldn’t object to this guy or anyone using this phrase being banned permanently.

17

Neither are a lot of people. [

quote=“orangemarlin, post:13, topic:4655”]
I wish this would change.
[/quote]

To what? Who in the present landscape is a) better than Whitt; and b) a realistic option to bring over. My goodness, if anybody but Utban Meyer sucks you will never be happy.

18

Having Covey out has a huge impact on the offense. With him in, defenses have to shift their defense, opening up the running game, which should then open up play action. As is, especially against USC, the tight ends weren’t being used properly. USC kept crashing the linebackers into the line of scrimmage, which should have (and on several playes did) open up short routes across the middle, hooks, and seam routes to the TEs.

19

Let’s not go calling him Bob Stoops :slight_smile:. He’s won some, lost some. I don’t disagree that sometimes we go conservative, but that’s our game - establish the run game, win time of possession to keep their O off the field, and focus on defense when they are on the field. Kind of an old school Big 10 approach. Excel in special teams and don’t turn the ball over. But usually that means we don’t score points quickly like pinball Big 12.

I was looking through past recruiting years for Utah (which we don’t even always win) and there are usually 2-4 4* players in state. We just don’t have the same benefits (geography, superfunder, etc.) so I would say we have done pretty well having a great program, recruiting ranks in the 30s, and developing players. They still are college kids and have to execute the plays. Some play calling can be suspect - 2 runs, incomplete pass gets old really fast, but I can’t think of many coaches I’d want over Whitt for a program (not a couple year rental or pay $10M+). Boring can be good, as long as it fundraises from donors (that’s actually the big difference for HC - how they can energize the donors).

20

Hate to say it and hope I’m wrong but I think Covey’s best years are behind us.

2 Likes