My practice report.

[Utah]

Disclaimer: This is what I saw. Take it for what it is. I mostly watched QB’s, then WR’s, then DB’s, then RB’s. I noticed little to no DL/OL/LBer. Also, if anyone saw/heard differently, I’d love to knw what. 

First, in warmups, Troy Taylor spent the entire time walking the whole field, talking to everyone. Offense, defense, everyone. Most coaches stay in their area, but he was everywhere. 

We run a different formation/base offense. Our TE’s spend a lot of time as FB’s. The QB’s line up in shotgun with the HB beside them. But, 2-3 yards in front and offset, we have an H-Back/TE/FB. I like it a lot. It’s fantastic. It’s almost like our OC is intelligent, see our talent, OL, and RB’s, and realizes there is a way to put them in a better position to suceed. I love it. 

                              HB QB

                              FB

WR         WR       OL OL OL OL OL         WR

We ran that so much, I’d say it is our base offense. 

I followed the QB’s around today. In their position drills, Batemen looked to be the best. He throws a very, very pretty ball. He is big as well. He just looks like a QB. They had Huntley and Williams on one end, who were throwing to WR’s running down towards Bateman. He was alone on that end, throwing the WR’s back to the other end. 

Troy Williams is Troy Williams. I think what we saw last year is what he is. He is quicker and lighter on his feet, but he also misses some really easy throws. He just looked like Troy Williams. That is why I’m not sure he starts for us (again, this is ridiculously pre-mature, it is one practice…the first practice at that). BUT, he looked like what he looked like last year. 

Tyler Huntley. He looks good. He throws a nice ball. I’m not sure what to say other than that. Ask me specific questions, but he looks good. 

On deep ball drills, Bateman was by far the best. I think Huntley was next best and Williams was the least accurate. But, Bateman was the best by a large margin. 

On timing drills, Williams was the best. He had the best anticipation, got the ball our the quickest. Huntley was the second best. Bateman waited too long. He waited for the WR’s to make their breaks, get open, then he threw it in there. The throw was pretty, tight spiral, and fast. But late. 

Lots of fly sweeps. Lots of fly sweeps. 

Tyquez Hampton…he was a beast. He is HUGE. He looks like a JR WR. Great hands. Caught just about everything his way, had one drop. 

Fulks. Has hands of stone. It’s too bad. No catch is an easy catch for him. If he catches it. 

Ballard is a beast. He is very, very, very good. Holy cow, he is good. Our safeties may not take a huge step back. Marcus was amazing, Ballard isn’t as good, but he is a long ways from bad. He had a lot of plays today and an INT. 

Anae made a lot of plays. A lot of plays. Leki Fotu is HUGE. 

Siosi Wilson, Singleton. Both had some amazing plays, both had some terrible plays. Let me take that back, Wilson had some great plays. Singleton had a lot of drops. Kenric Young seemed to hurt his hamstring…again. 

Tyrone Smith. He is HUGE. Tall. Long. Athletic. Shah screamed at him once, “You are big like a big man and move like a little man!” It’s true. He had some BIG mental mistakes on 2 or 3 plays and gave up TD’s…BUT, he had a lot more amazing plays. Come this fall, he will be a starter at CB and in a year or two, he will be a first/second round draft pick. He will be great. He is by far our best CB already. 

Our redzone issues…remain. We have problems there. We move the ball well down the field, get into the redzone, and accomplish nothing. I don’t think we scored a single TD starting in the redzone. 

Caleb Repp is big and fast. He will do good things as a pass rusher this fall at DE. 

We played a lot of 5 man fronts that evolved into some 3-4 as well. 

Zack Moss…he looks GREAT. He can catch, man can he catch. He is fast, big, and quick. He looks good. Calves the size of my head. Thick as a tree. I think he will be very, very, very good for us. 

Troy McCormick looked solid at WR. Some drops, but quick, looks thicker and some good catches. 

Samson Nacua at WR. Man, he looked good. Smooth. Made it look easy. There is a reason they moved him, and it was the right reason. 

We rotated a lot of WR’s throughout the practice. I think we do that all year. I bet 8 WR’s play a lot of reps. 

Alec Dana looked really good as well. Caught everything in sight, big, fast. Our WR’s look different than in year’s past. We did have drops, but it seemed to be from the old crew (Singleton, man he dropped a lot, Young, Fulks. Even Wilson had some drops, including a TD). But Dana, Simpkins, Hampton and Nacua have a lot of promise. They looked good. They run hard. Holliday yelled at Singleton and Young for dogging it a lot. Yelled at Dana once, and Dana came back strong and recieved praise as well. 

Blackmon played well. Guidry will have a chance to start at NB, but Blackmon is out to win that job as well. I don’t think we see much of Boobie at NB. Blackmon had some really good plays, tight coverage, pass breakups, etc. He and Smith looked good. 

Huntley. We play different when Huntley is in. We run RPO’s more with him. Huntley can run. He can throw. He has all the tools. He needs experience. For example, in one stretch, he pulls the ball and runs for 15+ yards. The next play, goes through his reads and hits his third option for a big gain. Next play, is flushed out of the pocket, scrambles right, throws an amazing throw for a 5 yard gain. A real bullet. THEN the next play happens. He gets pressured again, forces a throw and it is picked off by Smith and would have been a pick six. 

The tools are there, he just needs experience. That is what will cost him the job. 

Davr Hamilton and Johnny Capra got into it a little bit today. Some choice words, “football words” I told my kids, some shoving. 

In 11 on 11…it wasn’t bad, but it looked a lot like last year. Troy ran with the one’s. Huntley ran with the two’s. Bateman got one series. Troy would make a good throw, miss an easy throw. Move the offense then stall out in the redzone. 

Huntley was solid as well. Actually, he came out on fire and then cooled off as the series went by. But, he can run. That is one thing he can do that the other two can’t do. If he can learn to not force plays, it wouldn’t shock me if he wins the job. 

Bateman didn’t look that great in his 11 on 11. As good as he was in individual drills, and he was the best one, he was the worst in 11 on 11. In his one series, he had a ball tipped and intercepted. 

Now, to be fair to him, he only got one series and Williams and Huntley had 4 or 5 each. 

Wow, that’s a lot. Sorry for any spelling mistake/grammar. 

Off one practice, I’m not sure that Williams is our starter. Bateman and Huntley can just do other things better. Troy will have a fight on his hands to keep the job. NOW, remember that I am a “leave the incumbant as the starter” guy. I always backed Travis, never really thought Thompson had a chance to win the job because Travis was so steady. 

But, Travis never had Huntley and Bateman behind him. Those two can do things. I reserve the right to change my mind on this, but as of right now, I wouldn’t bet on Troy being the starter. 

[AgouraUte]

Thanks for the update!

[ironman1315]

Sad about the redzone issues. *sigh. But good thing is at least we haven’t regressed.

[Utah]

The redzone is misleading though. Moss had some good runs in the redzone, Huntley had some good runs in the redzone as well. Passing? Same as last year. But, the good news is, it is March and we haven’t regressed. 

I think we get a better idea of the redzone when pads come one. 

[Utahute72]

Interesting, I’ve read about six different practice reports and all of them had a different ranking for the QBs. The one conscensous is that Bateman is better on the long throws and Huntly/Williams were better on the short to medium routes. Most have said that Williams seems to be better and quicker with the reads.

[Utah]

That’s funny. Even though the rankings are different, we are all saying the same things. Batemen better on long throws, Huntley, Williams better on shorter throws, Williams gets the ball out quicker. 

I guess you can take that to the bank. 

Honestly, if Utah was playing this week, Troy would be the starter and it’s not close. BUT, we are a long ways out from that game. 

I wish there were more open practices. 

Who have you read? If you have read Swinney’s take on the QB’s (and I have not), then Swinney will let you know what the opposite of what is going to happen. If Swinney has Huntley #1, then Huntley is screwed. lol. 

Another thing to consider is that Williams is running with the #1’s. Huntley is with the two’s and Bateman is with the scrubs. 

[Utahute72]

Swinney was one of the takes.

[Utah]

I should take that out. That was unneccesarily mean of me. I’m sorry if Swinney reads that. 

[SkinyUte]

Great report, thanks!

[jamarcus24]

It surprises me that Troy is the guy with the quickest release.  From what I’ve seen of Troy Taylor’s offense at EWU the routes are quick and precise and set up for the QB to make the throw on a one-step drop.  That was not Troy Williams last year.  I always felt like he spent too much time staring down his routes and had a long wind up.  That was probably due more to the scheme since Roderick seemed to love the 10-12 yard hitch routes right along the sideline.  I thought that the QB with the quickest release would eventually end up our starter but it’s one thing to be quick and another to be quick and accurate.  Looks like Troy still needs to work on latter.

Thanks for the write up.  Keep em coming… as often as you can.

[Utah]

Here is why I don’t think Troy will be the QB come fall (in a totally way too premature take): 

He is the quickest with his release right now. I don’t think that is a talent issue. I think Bateman’s problem is he doesn’t know the WR’s. I think Huntley’s problem is he needs to learn to trust the routes, as Troy does right now. 

As soon as Bateman or Huntley gets comfortable enough to make quicker reads/throws, I think either one blows by Williams and takes the top spot. 

[Author]

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