Observations from an old Ute fan

[ProudUte]

I loved our offense in the 1st half. We were creative and produced better than we had all season.
UW’s coaches made adjustments at the half and increased the pressure on Barnes.
I love what Vaki can do. He is so fast and is strong as well. I personally think he should be playing more on offense, but that’s just my opinion.
I think this may have been Glover’s best game as a Ute.
When Barnes took the big hit, he was never quite the same.
The offensive PI call against us made no sense. It seems like the worst call I have seen all season.
Our corners are not good at tackling. They try to take guys down, by throwing their body at the runner. I noticed that Oregon’s corners wrap up and hold on.
We miss Barton.
Jackson not being 100% hurt us yesterday as well as it has all season long.

This will be the season that could have been but wasn’t because of so many key injuries. Oh well, all of this could help make us a better team next season.

[Milton Vanderslice]

These are great thoughts. I think that hit to Barnes was the game-changer. We were about to score, and he didn’t look the same after that.

[EagleMountainUte]

It was like three straight offensive possessions I felt that we all saw the overload on the left side. Utah didn’t do much to counter it.
The questions I had at the time was, is it the limitations of Barnes? Is the missing guys? Is it Ludwig missing the obvious and pounding his head into a wall? Is it all of the reasons?

After the block fg and inept play calls again all I could think was this defense doesn’t deserve it. Flashbacks to 2019 and 2015. Such a damn shame. It’s why I love Utah football though. No quit from that defense. They push themselves up all of that second half and did a damn fine job as far as I am concerned.

Props to Mokofisi recognizing that goal line fumble. Unfortunately it only saved 4 points, still thought it was impressive.

[Utah]

Barnes biggest limitation: he doesn’t go through progressions. He’s a one read QB.

BUT, we did see him go one read then dump the ball off yesterday.

There’s nothing wrong with Barnes. He is what he is: a walk on QB.

He’s played above what he should be playing. Credit to him and credit to Ludwig for coaching him up/calling plays that Barnes can succeed at.

BUT. The coaching staff royally f**ked up the Rising situation. They should have brought in a transfer QB, even if it wasn’t a big name.

And Rose getting hurt was devastating.

[EagleMountainUte]

They screwed up or Rising lied. That is the only explanation. I can’t fathom where their brains were at in early February.

[highlandute7]

I can’t disagree with anything Proud, other than the fact that Whitt said after the game that he didn’t think UW made any ‘wholesale changes’ at half. That might be a different take after watching film but something certainly changed.

Too bad Vaki wasn’t trailing to pick up the ball on the INT. He would have be the one to take it back.

[2008 National Champ]

ahh, the fabled “halftime adjustment” conundrum. Halftime is 20 minutes. At least 5 minutes of that is the team warming up on the field for the 2nd half. Another 5 minutes at least is everyone lining up to go to the bathroom and rehydrating. That leaves about 5 minutes for each position coach to reiterate the same things they’ve been telling their group after each drive based on what they’ve been seeing in the 1st half. Add in a minute for the Hc to remind everyone to treat the game as zero-zero and come out hard for the next 30 minutes of clock time.

I love that people think in the course of that 20 minutes wholesale changes can be made. Basically, everyone just takes a breath and you focus on what has worked so far and where you’ve been getting beat. Then back out to the field and try to do better.

[Utesbyfive]

Agree, I have heard it again and again from coaches and players that halftime adjustments are basically invented for TV. They don’t have time to revamp the game plan.

[2008 National Champ]

So much of what is heard during a broadcast is just filler. The talking heads get maybe an hour with each head coach during the week but make it sound like they’ve been in meetings and watching practice.

Don’t get me wrong, it can’t be an easy job to pretend for 4 hours like you are knowledgeable about both teams. But they get caught up in catch-phrases trying to make informed proclamations based on single data points. And the urinalists in the press conferences aren’t any better. At least most of the talking heads have actually played at a high level before.

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