Thoughts on the game, and the season

The Game:

Coaching: Seems like Scalley failed to prepare the defense properly for this game. I thought they would be what kept us in this game considering they were much healthier than the offense. NOPE. The safeties and linebackers were fooled repeatedly before the ball was even snapped. Much of that can be blamed on inexperience, but Hubert has as much experience as anyone in CFB, and he absolutely set a new standard for crapping the bed. Every UofU football choke job will be measured against his choke job tonight.

QB: Rising getting hurt didn’t help, but he wasn’t playing well before the injury either. He was running it well, and throwing it rather poorly. He got lucky on one pass that could gone much worse, and threw several that easily could have been INTs. I hope, for the sake of the development of this team, that he doesn’t play for us next year. We need our young guys to develop. If Nate Johnson is the future, then he needs to play, if he isn’t then Rose needs to play. Barnes does not have the physical tools to play QB well enough at this level.

RB: These guys played well. JJ played soooo hard, and didn’t get enough touches IMO. Ludwig got cute and tried to spread the ball around too much rather than just wearing the defense down and shortening the game.

WR: Vele tried, had some good plays. Parks played pretty well. Couldn’t get separation when it was needed (as usual). Ho hum game as usual.

TE: Yassmin was a mixed bag. Munir is not the answer next year. Kendall had some good blocks again tonight.

OL: MEH

DL: Played pretty well, all things considered.

LB: Reid had some good plays. There were several times when these guys were clearly lost pre-snap, not knowing what to do. Not their fault, they are all young except Diabate, who is knew to the system. We needed an experienced leader behind them who could tell them where they needed to be.

S: That brings me to Hubert, who turned in one of the worst individual performances by a Ute in the history of the program. He looked like Bernard out there playing DB. He did a terrible job of getting the team in position to make the right plays, and when the play went his direction (which it did on every big play of the night I think) he effed up every… last… time. He’s played a major factor in us losing two Rose Bowls and one CCG. I know I said I won’t complain about players anymore, and I’m trying not to, but this guy just needs to move on with his life, the fans deserve to have him move on after enduring his performance tonight. If he is playing for us next year, and he is on the field, I will make it a point to not watch the game.

ST: pretty good tonight really. They did their part for once, and the other two parts of the team did not come through.

THE SEASON: It was clear from game one that this team was not who we thought they were. I think we put too much faith in Scalley and Whitt to prepare a very inexperienced defense for big time games. This defense lacked a vocal leader that had the skill and knowledge to cover weaknesses like Lloyd did last year. Hopefully someone steps up on defense this offseason and becomes that player for us. Phillips was excellent, but he was not in a position to communicate with the rest of the team on the field (being a Corner makes that nearly impossible on most plays).

I haven’t been as engaged with this year’s team as I was with teams in the past. Football is becoming less of a priority for me, and there just aren’t many standouts on this team. Similar to the defense losing Lloyd (and failing to replace his leadership), the offense losing Covey hurt more than I think anyone thought it would. The reliability in the slot, and in the spark in the return game that he provided was HUGELY important for this team… Not to mention his leadership. Cam and Kincaid did a good job of replacing the leadership that he brought, but when Kincaid went down, the team lost the only player they had left that could make something happen when absolutely necessary.

Rising was not a Heisman Caliber QB, and never has been. It’s honestly kind of sad that he’s in the conversation for our best QB in the Pac12 era. Huntley was obviously better IMO, but Rising is at least #2, and that’s not a good thing. He’s gritty, but he really should have played a different position in HS. He would have made a great linebacker.

I’m excited to see what JJ can do with an offseason of RB training under his belt. Glover was kind of a disappointment TBH, but hard to succeed with all the turmoil that group experienced this year. Glad TT is gone. He was clearly a distraction this year.

We still suck at WR, which is okay I guess if we continue to produce excellent TEs. Not sure who that next great TE will be. I wish Vele would put on 25 lbs and move to TE. He isn’t athletic enough to get separation against decent DBs. He’d be an excellent TE.

OL was very good at pass pro this year, but not so great at times at run blocking. Harding is the best position coach on the team.

DL: A lot of promise on this unit. They will be a force next year.

LB: Reid cannot be our best linebacker. He just can’t. He’s the RJ Hubert of linebackers. He tries really hard, he’s pretty smart, but he doesn’t have the physical talent to get the job done against the best players. Hopefully Barton is that guy next year.

S: Bishop didn’t seem to have the year I thought he would have this year. Am I crazy to think that he underperformed? I don’t know, just seems like he disappeared at times. Vaki is going to be excellent. I really hope Hubert moves on from the game of football, he owes the program and it’s fans that much at least.

K: need a better one

P: What year was tonights punter? No idea

Return game: Vele didn’t drop a punt all year right? That’s good I guess, but he shouldn’t be returning punts.

It was a good season, if an unremarkable one. Backed into the CCG, won it with a great performance, and were a good safety away from making this a competitive Rose Bowl game.