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Utah Utah Football Practice observations 3/26/16
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I’ve been observing spring practices regularly since Urban’s 1st year. This one was one of the more spirited ones I’ve seen, if not THE most. It started with the 1 on 1 drill where the team circles around two players who square off and push each other around. This one was one of the loudest, rowdiest I recall seeing.
Coach Shaw is a church mouse compared to Guy Holliday. Holliday can be heard throughout the stadium with gems like “Don’t stop, go get the God damned Ball” … this was shouted to Repp after he hesitated a little bit on a long pass. Had he not hesitated, It would have been a perfectly completed bomb along the sideline. Nothing goes unnoticed with Holliday, he’s not only shouting but coaching the WRs after each play. He’s all over these guys when they mess up, drop a pass or do well. For me, Holliday stole the show. I watched Holliday run from near the endzone to midfield screaming and yelling about something one the receivers did or didn’t do.
It was comforting to watch him coach because he says all the things I scream at my TV set during games.
I heard this one over and over … “catch the freakin’ ball, it’s not that hard.”
I like what I saw out of Holliday, I think we’re going to have a tough receiving corp.
During a WR drill, a coach would flip the ball to a WR, the WR would have to juke a DB to try to get past. Siaosi Wilson got screamed at dancing too much, Holliday shouted “don’t dance, you got one move.”
Cory Butler Bird, instead of juking just ran straight into Philip Afia and knocked him on his ass, it was kind of funny because everyone else was cutting, faking, juking and CBB just plowed him over like he was Devonte Booker.Monte Seabrook is playing receiver. If I remember correctly, he came in as a running back, moved to DB and this year he’s a WR. He had a good day. During a drill, he jumped over his defender on about a 30 yard pass from Cox, caught it and took it to the endzone.
During scrimmage sessions, I saw a lot of double tight end, QB under center and one running back 6 yards back.
This one:
RB Marcel Brooks-Brown (who has a new last name, something like Malania, hard to read from far away) is a beast who is extremely light on his feet. He’s the guy who got shot last year early in the season. He’s fully healed and looks incredible. He took a handoff, off tackle for a TD, untouched, no one could catch him. He also caught a pass for a long gain. This guy can separate from defenders, It’ looks a little strange because he’s built like a brick s**thouse. Think Quinton Ganther with WR speed.
Troy McCormick participated in drills but not in the scrimmages.
I like our WRs, especially knowing they are coached by Holliday. I’ve got to admit, I was skeptical about Holliday because he’s been a WR coach for something like 20 years and never moved up. The probably just loves coaching WRs, I don’t know, but I really like the dude.
There were some drops, some great catches but there is no Covey. Fulks, based on today, is no Covey. Fulks had at least one drop, seems like there were a few more. Newcomer Demari Simpkins passes the eyeball test. Fine looking frosh, caught a few, dropped a few.
Siaosi Wilson took a short seam pass for a TD, thrown by Troy Williams. It was a great looking play, a DB blitzed, came in untouched, Williams got rid of it quickly to Wilson.
Lutui, Asiata and Lo Falemaka all played center. IIRC Lutui would snap to Williams, Asiata to Cox and Falemaka to Huntley.
Evan Eggiman is a linebacker. I’m pretty sure he played DB last year but’s he now part of the LB corp.
Didn’t see Wishnowski punt, but the dude is huge. Here he is next to Phillips and long snapper Chase Dominquez (who is 6-5, 240lbs.) Wishnowski is listed as 6-2, 220.
Now for the QBs. Here’s some poor quality video
(Tony, I can’t get the video to post, maybe you can help?)
Here’s my unqualified opinion on our QBs.
Huntley, by far the best incoming frosh QB we’ve ever recruited. More often than not, our frosh QBs cannot get a pass off. They stand there, hold the ball, pocket collapses, sacked. When they do get a a pass off it’s uncatchable. None of this happens with Huntley. The young man can play. He’s a little thin from the waist down and really should, and probably will red shirt.
Cox – What I remember of Cox is that his passes were floaters. Not anymore. The dude rockets the ball like John Elway. Someone has been working with this guy because his throwing motion is not what it was. Cox looked greatly improved in my opinion.
Williams – Heir apparent and looked the part. No disappointment at all with this one. At times I remember thinking that he moved the team better than the other two. It would take someone far more capable than I to see separation between Cox and Williams. Clearly they’re close and we’re going to be happy with either one. This does not mean Huntley is chopped liver, he’s not. I can’t see Huntley overtaking either of these two, and that’s good news. I think we can put to rest the idea of throwing a another true frosh into the fire.
If I think of anything more, I’ll toss it in.
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I was at the practice too. I have cautious optimism about the offense. I concentrated mostly on the offense and didn’t pay too much attention to the defense.
I am excited about the potential of Huntley. However, I would also like to see him red shirt to gain more strength and size before pac 12 defenders hit him.
I have the same thoughts as Mumf between Williams and Cox. I too noticed that early on in the practice there wasn’t much separation between the two but later, to me, Williams was clearly better. But this was just one practice for me. I am going to try to be there on Friday for the practice if it is outdoors.
I was the lone guy on the east side of the stadium up a little ways along the 50 yard line. The brief fight involved Andre Godfrey and a receiver but I couldn’t tell who the receiver was.
I am excited about the receivers. Granted I still think they need a lot of work bit it appears they are well ahead of where they were last year when I attended practices.
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