A TOUGH EVENING

Yeah I don’t know about that last statement. I don’t get fans fascination with Hill. You have zero evidence to suggest that he will be all world. I still think we roll with Scalley.

My biggest problem with Scalley is he really is still young and doesn’t have connections outside of Utah at all. I wonder where he gets the offensive coaches.

I don’t get all the hate on Scalley. The defense is not our problem right now. Could they be better, sure. But our offense hasn’t scored more than 23 points against any conference opponent. Our defense is keeping us in games. The offense is a complete mess and I think much of that is on the coaches. Playing an injured CR and not even giving IW chance? Red zone issues, turnovers, analytics, etc.

2 touchdowns in 2 games will win you nothing.

Our defense has kept us in games but here’s why I’m concerned about Scalley:

1. Defense has been pretty good but has regressed quite a bit the last two years.

2. We have been having major problems tackling 3 of the last four years. Remember Florida in Gainesville + last year + this year.

3. Major problems with over pursuing on rush defense. Better to affect the throw and contain the quarterback than to only get one sack out of four times we get to the qb while letting the quarterback break contain. This is exacerbated by playing man defense because by the time the quarterback escapes the pressure, his receivers have had enough time to escape the man coverage.

4. Play calls come in late and players are often struggling to get into position as the ball is being snapped.

5. He’s seems like Whittingham 2.0. Though I appreciate Whittingham, I don’t know if I can take a boring offense for another 20 years. I could be wrong on this. Perhaps he would develop quarterbacks well and open up the offense like it was under Urban. I hope I’m wrong about that, but he seems to be a Whittingham clone.

Yeah that sucked. A lot. The failed fourth down knowing Cam couldn’t plant and throw past the sticks was a big coaching blunder. Linebackers are also making uncharacteristically poor decisions; injuries have hurt the position but Lander made a few odd mistakes that hurt us. Jonathan Hall has the physical talents, but he looks to still be getting used to coverage and that led to open receivers.

Stop reading now if you need some time to ponder the season in a state of strict realism, but I’m going to focus on the silver linings and excuses. Not quite to the point of blowing smoke up the programs a**… but maybe in that same ballpark.

– Micah Bernard is an absolute animal. Runs hard and pass blocks harder. ASU knew we had a statue of a QB and he did an excellent job of picking up pressure.

– Secondary played well. Refs aren’t throwing a flag unless the morgue requests a second look, and that resulted in some broken up passes and solid coverage overall downfield.

– Scheme is fine, in my humble opinion. Run game looks good enough to keep the defense honest. Receivers were open enough to stop and catch a ball thrown at their ankles.

– I think we should’ve pulled Cam, but I also don’t know what’s been going on behind the scenes. Before elaborating, I present a recap of the sh*t he’s been through: comes to Utah to sit with Lud in the booth for a year (while not an injury please keep in mind that this is the era of the transfer portal and instant playing time), wins the job from Bentley and is injured on the first drive in 2020 (big injury #1), loses by a hair to Brewer before winning the starting job and stomping to PAC12 before being knocked unconscious in a shootout with CJ Stroud, comes in to 2022 the clear starter and does clear starter things before his knee is injured and then Teddy Bridgewater’s (big injury #2) itself in what was then a 14-14 score where Utah was having success moving the ball against a very good PSU defense, 2023 he sits and waits with what looks like a velcro bear trap on his knee, and then 2024 he comes in and promptly throws 5 easy TDs to all three levels of the field before game two has the tendons in his hand react appropriately to being sandwiched between a Baylor players cleat and the ground (big injury #3). So we reach last night and his one pass with a little air under it can’t even be celebrated because Cams body is contorted so that he’s afforded the opportunity to be looking towards heaven while his ankle waves down at him. OK, maybe I lied and did blow a little smoke there.

– Everyone calm down. Season has been injured, but not dead. In each of the years winning the PAC12 Utah suffered losses early in the year which had us in a similar spot before miraculously Rasputin-ing itself down the stretch. Our next two games are to Houston on the 26th, a team who has been shut out twice and scored a season high 12 points before tallying 30 against TCU, and TCU next week. Following these games we have the two ranked teams in Rice Eccles. ISU makes me nervous so that’s probably a toss-up at the moment. Zoobs weren’t picked by Hinckley, Monson, or Nelson, so I’m picking the Utes here too.

The only bright light is Micah Bernard, who is playing better than ever, and the O line has performed well.

Shame on Whitt and Lud letting Cam dictate who plays. Of course he wants to play. Wilson, Rose, Huard all want to play as well. What a dumb comment by Whitt. “He has won a bunch of games for us”. I was at the game $1500 to fly my 2 boys down with me and every football illiterate fan could see Cam could not run or throw. What was unbelievable was Cam was allowed to keep coming out series after series, interceptions and missed throws everywhere. How does that reality make anyone think Cam gives the team the best chance to win the game?? AZST is not very good. Our O line looked 50 lbs and 4 inches bigger than anyone on their D. Let Wilson had it off to Micah then at least AZST would have to play honest. Can’t win a game with 10.5 on 11. Im still in shock how obvious a mistake that was and I think the world of Cam. That game was so winnable despite us not being a very good team. Players must be p**sed.