Dampier

[UtesRule]

My quick observations on Devin Dampier.

One night a couple of weeks ago I was flipping stations on YouTube TV and decided to watch the Wazzu New Mexico game. I was mostly interested in seeing how Bronco’s New Mexico team was looking.

I remember being impressed with Dampier. It was in the 4th quarter and they were making a come back. He mostly ran the ball, but what stood out was that EVERYONE knew he was going to run and he was still able to be VERY effective. High level athlete for sure.

I’m excited to see what he can do, along side Beck as his OC for the second year at Utah.

Hope he brings along good RB and WR1. Was impressed with them as well.

Go Utes!

[Larry B]

I’ve watched as many of his highlights as I could find and he kind of just seems like a more athletic and faster version of Isaac Wilson. Sure he’s a great runner, but a 1:1 TD to INT ratio? Whitt’s gonna shut that down real quick. We better reach out to Ken Niumatalolo to see if he’ll give us some tips on running the triple option.

If this is our home run QB transfer, we’re in worse shape than I thought. And before someone reminds me that NMU had an amazing offense, what they didn’t have was a head coach that p**sed his pants every time his offense took the field.

[Ute Dub]

More athletic to the tune of 1,200 yards rushing and 31 combined touchdowns last season. That’s a hell of a lot more athletic. I saw Wilson have plenty of opportunities to run 5 yards but he was scared or indecisive. Our defense is going to love this kid. He’ll keep them fresh and Utah will control most every game.

[chinngiskhaan]

No kidding. Calling him a “more athletic and faster version of Isaac Wilson” is a massive understatement. That’s like saying the grand canyon is just a bigger, longer version of the crack in my driveway. While it isn’t technically wrong, it massively under-sells the difference between the two players, as well as the difference that athleticism and speed will make for our offense.

If Isaac Wilson had been as athletic as Dampier, we would have had a much better season.

Additionally, he seems quite durable, which we all know is a huge luxury.

[Tony (admin)]

I’ve got a big crack in my back patio.

[DataUte]

What was Isaac’s TD/INT ratio? Oh yeah, 10/11. Whit shut that down so fast … wait, no he didn’t. Wilson also didn’t have any rushing TDs.

[SteelUte]

I’m excited for Dampier. I think he’ll be a big improvement from last year, as long as he’s given the keys to the car and Whitt doesn’t pull things back. I’m going to temper my expectations and go from there.
With all of this, I do want to say I’m sorry for the New Mexico Lobos. They’re team has been gutted of their head coach, OC, and now QB. I get that this is college football business, but it sucks.
Also, I still feel like I’m in the twilight zone. After that horrible season, and BYU’s amazing season, we are getting a former BYU Qb as offensive coordinator and a New Mexico Lobo QB and we’re pumped up about it. I really am excited for the change, hopeful that it improves things, but it still feels strange!

[DataUte]

This is the new way – mine the G5 for the better players and bring them up to P4 and they compete for 1st team (or start because they already know the system like this case with Beck coming over).

[EagleMountainUte]

I think there is a lot of upside with him.
Athletic he is very quick laterally and has good vision.
Leader. He has command when he takes the field. Seems to have a purpose and wants to do well.

Going to be a junior. Sophomore to Junior typically is where you see the player get really comfortable. Having Beck be the previous play caller I think gives him a huge advantage this season.

Cons are his turnovers. Everyone knows he has the picks but he also has around 12 fumbles.
Obviously his size. Always a level of concern there. His abilities more than make up for it. Just hope he can stay healthy.

[Ute Dub]

Good points. My observation is that he had to take more chances last year, than what he will have to do with Utah, as his 130 ranked defense did not allow him to play ball control at all. He was often playing from behind and had to take chances.

[EagleMountainUte]

I agree totally. Sometimes the offense has to take risks because of the lack of confidence in the defense.
Utah had the opposite problem I feel. End of game we saw the defense give up these late touchdowns because of a worn down defense. Eventually an offense can make it through the holes to score. Well except Utah’s offense ironically.

[lgt4141]

All Utah needs is an average offense to be much more competitive. The defense played hard until the end of the season. I thought they’d quit after Colorado.

Beck with Dampier seems like enough on paper to get Utah to an average if not better offense. I am not drinking red kool aid but am cautiously optimistic .

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Imagine having a QB that doesn’t take 3 years (Ludwig) to learn the offense.

[SteelUte]

I hear that all the time about Ludwig’s offense. It is so complicated…it takes a few years to learn…Cam sat out a year and was able to learn it…Rose couldn’t learn it…on and on.
To my eyes it didn’t seem that complicated but maybe there’s some truth to that. Players aren’t able to learn complicated systems any more. I shared that link from Tom Brady saying that even pro offenses aren’t complicated now because college offenses have been dumbed down.
Looking forward to a new look!

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I don’t get it either Steel. It looked like we had 4 or 5 plays. It was Whitt that made the statement at his press conference about simplifying things because of the portal turnover. 2-3 years to learn the offense. How many times did we hear “Rose doesn’t have a grasp on the offense yet”

[thirtyfour-thirtyone]

Lud’s offense required the quarterback to use pre-snap motions and reads to figure out what the defense was doing, and run the play (or change the play) accordingly. He then had to be on the same page with the OL. WR, RB, etc. about reads during the play to get the ball to the right place. Cam did that pretty well, and the results were good (even great at times). Other guys on the roster struggled with that system. When you “simplify” Lud’s system to make it easier for a freshman QB to run, it really sucks. It really is just a few really boring plays, that are easy for the defense to read. That’s why we sucked when we did that (Wilson’s indecisiveness and inability to hit an open 5 yard pass didn’t help). That’s also why Bottari was more effective than Wilson. He could at least run the offense.

We said all year that we would be in good shape with even a half decent offense. Well, we just imported something that meets or exceeds that description from New Mexico. I’m cautiously optimistic that our offense will be at least mediocre next year, and that will be good enough. At least Dampier will run around and do entertaining stuff.

[Ute Dub]

Utah’s running game will be much improved

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