Comparing 2015 Utes to 2016 Utes.

[Anonymous]

I was curious to see how Utah was doing so far this season. Many people have said Morgan Scalley is far worst than Pease was last leason.  Well numbers are really not showing that to be true.  I would say Utah’s schedule has been slightly less difficult this season vs last season though.  I would also argue that the 2015 Defense is one of the best defenses Utah has ever had.  Pease also stated Scalley schemed most of the games with him soooo don’t get the criticism heaped on him.  The comparison of TW and TW2 is very interesting because many people have argued if TW was slightly better Utah wins the South.  

 

2015 Season stats

2016 Season Stats

 

Biggest difference in this years offense is big play ability.  TW2 has the ability for big plays although his completion percentage is well below TW percentage.  Yet he has two more games to be played and already has more yards than TW.  I guess if you want to add in Thompsons numbers than it right about the same.  TW2 has 13 TD’s at this point with 5 interceptions in the season and TW had 13 with 10 interceptions.  I think the schedule has been a lot easier than it was last season.  2015 Utah got USC a little later, 2016 Utah gets them early and wins.  Most of the teams in the PAC12 South are down but I would argue the conference is slightly improved overall.  

 

As far as the defense goes it is pretty much the same.  A few yards difference a little better in some areas a little worst in others.  I don’t think losing Pease is the reason why the defense SEEMS worst to fans though.  It is the inexperience at linebacker and injuries.  Pease got torched by USC when Norris went down.  Scalley has done pretty good overall with TONS of players missing key games.  Fitts would have really helped to make up for the lack of experience in the linebackers.  He was going to play that Reilly/Paul Kruger type OLB/DE.  Now Hansen has sort of had to help as a down linebacker/safety more than Scalley would have liked.  Pita T while his efforts may be noble is not as experienced as Fitts.  Losing Pease, Paul and Norris hurt the defense only slightly is what I am getting at.  Utah leads the nation in interceptions. Utah has been giving up HUGE plays at times.  The ASU Harry touchdown was ridiculous I watch it all weekend and can’t believe Utah didn’t make a play on it.

For the next two games I would like to see four quarters of complete football against Oregon.  No slow starts or lulls, yes I expect a few series where the offense won’t be succesful.  I don’t want 3-4 consecutive series of pathetic Utah offense though against Oregon.  Going into Boulder it would be nice to see the Ute offense just take command of Colorado.  Defensively I think Colorado is right around the second or third best defense Utah will face all season. 

What do you think of Utah at this point of the season?  

 

[Anonymous]

Actually maybe I need to be more realistic about Colorado they are near the top defensively.

PAC12 2016 rankings

[Tacoma Ute]

My only concern is the missed tackles and the tendency to hit rather than wrap up.

[Utahute72]

Isn’t that really a reflection of fundamentals training at all levels. From Pee Wee on up.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Inexperienced LBs, but also injuries on the DL all have had an impact.

[rbmw263]

Lets be honest, we are missing Stevie T a ton. Not that teams have had a ton of succes running between the tackles on us, but that extra NFL quality rotation guy on the line would be a big boost

[Anonymous]

Yes. Inexperienced LBs, but also injuries on the DL all have had an impact. If we had Lotulelei for Cal, no way they even run on us. Then add Joe Williams and we win that game.

[leftyjace]

I too don’t get the knock on Scalley. We all knew that there’d be a learning curve in his first year as a DC. Right? I mean, that’d be true for anyone. The upside over the long term for Scalley is definitely very high. And our team play is not suffering dramatically as a result of this.

Let’s also keep in mind that Scalley was brilliant at doing one-on-work with individual players. In the DC role he can’t do that. Could the drop in fundamentals partially be because the person we had on staff that was great at driving that home now doesn’t work one-on-one with the players that much?

That’s an honest question. I never played football at any level so I just don’t know the division of labor amongst the coaches.

[Anonymous]

In the two losses would you blame Scalley? He got the STOP against Cal. Utah rushed the wrong guy in Moss. 

Against Washington he got the stop that excellent pooch kick isn’t on him. The third down drop by Simpkins isn’t on him either. Again we counted on a freshman to make a play. 

[rbmw263]

The biggest difference is LB. Bar none. Norris and Paul were second to none at meeting the RB in the hole. Our current ones cant ever seem to find it. I also feel like this defense is hesitant in pursuit. Maybe because of missed tackles. But im of the opinion that being hesitant in pursuit leads to far more missed tackles. They need to swarm/fly to the ball. They dont.

 

Offensively, we are more versatile and improving steadily. Especially at WR. We are able to get separation that we werent able to last year. This has opened up the run game a bit and our home run potential is about 100x bigger than it was last season. Home run plays change games.

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