my grades for the game

[chinngiskhaan]

given my hopes for this game which I detailed in another post, here are my grades for the game.

QB, A-: Cam did good. He’s clearly not 100% with his running ability, but he did good. Should have had 1 pick. Missed on one or two throws that I saw. Wilson has potential but he needs to take what is given to him.

RB, Incomplete: I don’t feel like SUU presented enough of a challenge to grade anyone, and that is being generous (to Glover at least). I would give them a C, but nobody got seriously hurt, so I’ll be nice and stick with an I.

WR: B+: If they can play this well against better competition, we’re going to have a fun year. No drops (that I saw), guys were open and involved, but not quite involved as they could be. I wanted to see Singer or Money catch a bomb or two. No injuries gives them a grade boost.

TE: A: plenty of TDs here and no injuries.

OL: B-: Fano got beat like a drum a couple of times, so did some of the other guys. Need to improve here. No injuries keeps them out of C territory

DL: B-: Vimahi injury sucks, but at least we have tons of depth. We lost contain several times. Got pressure but didn’t get home as often as I would like.

LB B: Maybe it should be higher, I’m not sure TBH. No injuries is good.

Safety B: Gillman seems good enough but he needs to WRAP UP when he tackles. He missed a tackle or two trying to truck guys when he easily could have wrapped up. That s**t is going to cost us this year if he doesn’t knock it off.

CB: F: I know this sounds harsh, it isn’t the poor guy’s fault… but the CBs HAD to stay healthy. 1 more injury here and we are cooked (unless the Big12 is awful).

EDIT: In case you were wondering, my 1 desire for this game was NO INJURIES. I’m not saying the injuries were avoidable, or they were anyone’s fault. I just wish they didn’t happen. That is all. My grades aren’t necessarily a representation of how I felt the team performed.

[Uteanooga]

I thought Cam looked like his old self. He paced to the sideline with speed and took a run up the middle with a hit at the end. He was never a juke-out type of runner. 5 TDs in the 1st half.

Cam also gets a grade bump for running out on the field to get Wilson’s shoe. That was awesome. I don’t see any grade other than A for Cam.

Wilson looked pretty rough. Obviously he has a lot of potential but he is going to have to learn how to throw completions without throwing interceptions- and that is by no means something that will be easy to learn. Some talented QBs never learn it.

The O-line needs work. If Southern Utah can intermittently abuse them, the B12 lines are going to really hurt them. The talent is there but they need to get things together. Fortunately they have a few more games to do that.

Stanley out of the backfield for TD completions twice with the same play was hilarious. That dude has wheels and is going to be a major threat. Not sure about the rest. They seemed to have a bit of tendency to put the ball on the ground- that will definitely need to stop if Utah is to have a great season.

Kenan Johnson’s injury is a gut punch. Along with Damuni, that makes two defensive starters out for the season Such is football. Hard to know how many such injuries the Utes can absorb without dramatically degrading the defense.

Fortunately the cupboard is not bare. And Zemaiah Vaughn looked great. Calhoun has his chance now.

Overall it was a fun night and I give the team an A.

[Rick Walker]

I just wanna say this about Isaac… his junior season was rough in a similar way, it was the first time he ever had meaningful high school minutes and he threw a lot of interceptions including 4 against Farmington in the semifinal game. However, last season he looked like he had completely settled down and figured out how to throw it downfield with very little risk of an interception. My hope after this game is that something similar happens and that he just needs to get ahead of the curve and let the game slow down for him and he’ll be a total gunslinger after that.

[Ute Dub]

An F because of an injury? Probably best to delete your account.

[ProudUte]

I thought the same thing Ute Dub. Now we are grading injuries. Johsnon’s injury sucks, but the CBs played well IMO.

[chinngiskhaan]

No, “we” aren’t grading injuries. In the first sentence of my post I CLEARLY stated that my grades were based on my hopes for the game from another post. In that post I made it clear that the only thing I wanted was no key injuries.

This isn’t hard guys. At least it shouldn’t be. Its just reading entire posts and thinking them through BEFORE forming opinions. Give it a try. You might like it… Maybe I’m giving you two too much credit.

[ProudUte]

I read your entire post, and I disagreed with it. That’s okay. I don’t expect anyone to share my opinion, and you shouldn’t either. I appreciate you taking the time to post your thoughts. I enjoy a respectful debate about the Utes.

[chinngiskhaan]

To a poster who said I should delete my account you replied “I thought the same thing.” That doesn’t sound like respectful debate to me. Am I misinterpreting your comment? If you were specifically referring to the other part of his post, that would indicate that you, like that poster, clearly did not take the time to actually understand what I wrote. I said the grades weren’t an indication of level of play, or me blaming anyone, I just felt bad for the guy.

Respectful debate ended when I was told to delete my account. I’ll give the poster the benefit of the doubt and assume they are intellectually capable of understanding the words I wrote. Making that assumption means the only other option is they (and you by association) did not actually read what I wrote.

Am I wrong? If I am, please explain where I went wrong.

[ProudUte]

No, I don’t believe that you should delete your account. My bad! I was responding to the the “F because of an injury” part of his post. I certainly do not believe you should delete your account. I apologize.

[chinngiskhaan]

I appreciate the apology.

[ukiyoronin]

Glad we can all move on now that your ego has been sufficiently taken care of. Sheesh

[Ute Dub]

lol.😂

[Ute Dub]

Yeah. Grading injuries is worthless. Guys need to get reps in the first half of the first game. There’s little the coaches or players can do to prepare for this. A new transfer starter has to get reps with a new defense. Next man up!

I think Zemaiah Vaughn gets better every game and he looks like an NFL talent. I’m not excited for the younger guy ya to step up.

[chinngiskhaan]

or maybe you could learn to read without jumping to conclusions? Yeah, that would probably be good.

I made it very clear that my grades had little to do with actual performance. In the thread about what we wanted from this game, I made it clear what I wanted was no injuries, ESPECIALLY at CB. In this post, I made it clear that I wasn’t blaming anyone for the injury, and I felt really bad for the guy… but him getting injured was the worst possible thing that could happen to that position group other than ZV getting injured, hence the F.

[RedUte14]

your post sucked. sorry dude.

[chinngiskhaan]

That doesn’t bother me. What bothers me (and perhaps it shouldn’t) is when people get offended because they don’t take the time to actually understand what I’m saying.

Hate my opinions all you want. If you are fine with guys getting hurt, that is your prerogative. Personally, I hate seeing guys get hurt. Did I express that in an unconventional way? Yes I did, but I explained my reasoning multiple times. If you didn’t like the way I chose to express my disdain for injuries, good for you. No need to apologize.

[Yergensen]

A lot of good. First game, so some rust and some bugs to work out.

Oline was disappointing both in run blocking and pass pro. Against SUU that can’t happen.

Hard to assess the run game given OL did not dominate an FCS line, but Bernard and Stanley had the juice while Mitchell and Glover (once again) did not. The solution here might simply be to get Bernard and Stanley more touches. At least last night our speed and all purpose backs ran between tackle better than our “big” backs.

Loved having Cam back, love his fearlessness and toughness, but he can’t be running downfield taking hits anymore. IMO has to adjust to extend plays in the pocket and throw it away if it’s not there. We learn to live with that because the alternative is no longer worth the risk.

[GameForAnyFuss]

I don’t feel like SUU presented enough of a challenge to grade anyone

This should have been your statement on every position group. We can draw absolutely zero conclusions from that game.

[chinngiskhaan]

Right… but my grades were primarily based on what I WANTED TO SEE from that game, NOT in game performance. I made that clear in my post. You are correct. This game tells us nothing about our team other than revealing that Cam is still good, but not as mobile as he once was. Kuithe is closer to 100% than Cam (in my estimation).

[Tednab]

.. one conclusion is cam is a BAMF

[GameForAnyFuss]

One other conclusion is that every time Cam takes off running, I involuntarily let out this little yelping noise.

[SteelUte]

Grades for this game are tricky. It will be good to see this team go against some legit competition next week.
Cam looked good. He’s going to have a special year, I just know it, same with Kuithe. Let’s just say it, these two are grown men playing against boys. Stay healthy! We should trust that our run game will come along. Bernard and Glover should be really good, and Stanley is a fast wildcard option back there. Defense looks good as always. Really sad to see a new transfer get hurt, I hope it’s not season ending. All in all I’d give the team a B+ last night.

[SteelUte]

Grades for this game are tricky. It will be good to see this team go against some legit competition next week.
Cam looked good. He’s going to have a special year, I just know it, same with Kuithe. Let’s just say it, these two are grown men playing against boys. Stay healthy! We should trust that our run game will come along. Bernard and Glover should be really good, and Stanley is a fast wildcard option back there. Defense looks good as always. Really sad to see a new transfer get hurt, I hope it’s not season ending. All in all I’d give the team a B+ last night.

[Tyler Henry]

I have been disappointed with Fano, the OT. I understand he is young, but he has not lived up to the hype yet. He seems to have a big personality off the field, so I hope he settles down and puts more into practice. I was thinking about him potentially moving inside, that may help him develop.

[RedUte14]

stanley is a running back and he had 150 yards receiving….

[Author]

Posts