Talent and speed or lack thereof

[Rick]

I have been a loyal Ute fan since I was 10 years old back in about 1975. I have seen a lot of Ute football teams over the years and some have been very talented and some, not so much. I have watched this year’s team closely all season both in person and on TV. I have heard all of the pre-season hype about this team being one of Whitt’s best and all that. What I have seen with my own two eyes is nothing close to that.

I see an overall lack of team speed in crucial positions that demand it. Our starting linebackers and defensive ends have all lost a step due to pretty severe leg injuries and some were multiple injuries. We did NOT replace the talent levels of our two safeties from last year who went into the league. Our corner and interior DL play has been decent but not amazing.

On offense, we all know about the QB play but I am more concerned with what I see at WR and TE. I have focused on our WR play since our opener and I just do not see a lot of speed and separation. I think Singer has great hands but neither he, nor Money Parks, are blowing folks doors off with their speed. You can toss in the bomb by Wilson to Parks on Saturday but that was not a play that he absolutely smoked his coverage. At TE, I feel like Kuithe has lost more than a step or two and our TE blocking is not good, especially on pass plays where we are keeping a TE in for max protection.

Add to all of this some pretty mediocre special teams play and you get yourself a 4-3 team. I am not sure a change at OC can fix the speed issue. We look slow and we play slow. If that is because the opponent knows our plays and can anticipate, then maybe a change at OC will fix some of that but you can’t fix lack of speed. I think all of the injuries we have had to star players like Barton, Reid, Kuithe, Fillenger, Fano, etc. have taken their toll. Just my two cents.

[Tony (admin)]

Good comments. Special teams isn’t getting enough of the blame. We almost never gain any field position yards due to a good punt or kick return. No stats to back this up, but I don’t see us flipping the field a lot on punts.

[2008 National Champ]

125th in punt return average (3.43) and tied for 113th in kick return average (16.5). Better off fair catching everything than risking a muff at this point

[2008 National Champ]

just having an offensive player go somewhere the defensive player doesn’t expect would be 300% improvement. And you’ll start to see speed and separation at the same time. 4.3 guys who run 6 yards and stand around look pretty much the same as 4.6 guys

[stbone]

I don’t think speed is an issue, and generally, I think speed is overrated. To clarify, by this I mean nearly everybody has top end speed, and so pure speed isn’t a differentiator. As an example of this Devaughn Vele ran a 4.47 at the combine, Marvin Harrison Jr. ran a 4.46, Jackson Smith Njigba ran an unofficial 4.53 at the combine. I am sure nearly all of our receivers on the roster have that speed.

Separation comes down to little details like getting a CB to flip their hips in the wrong direction, pushing off, precision in route running, and quickness. And, you don’t need to have all of these traits to get separation, just the right combination of them and attitude. Britain Covey got separation by being shiftier than nearly anybody else on the field, yet Dalton Kincaid leveraged his strength and size to get separation. I have wondered about our WR coach because I am not seeing as much separation as I’d expect, but I honestly also suspect that people are starting to mail it in because of the QB play and play calling.

[CityCreekUte]

I don’t agree at all with the take on the offensive side. Outside of Kuithe who I do think has lost a step I don’t think we’re lacking at all. Singer & Parks are solid. Singer in fact to me is one of those “always open” guys and we just don’t throw him the ball nearly enough.

[Rick]

But when Singer is open it is not by much. I have never seen him clearly beat his man in any significant way. Almost all of his catches are contended that I have seen. Of course, I am not counting anything from the SUU game here. I do agree with game speed over top end speed but we lack that as well. So let’s look at some of our guys over the years. Does this team have a Covey? No. A Jeremy Brooks? No. We clearly do not have a return talent of the likes of Smithson, Dunn, Clay, etc. If I look at our top 10 all time receiving list, there is not a single WR on it in this decade except Covey and he played from 2015-2021 to get to 7th all time. The only other player is Kuithe and he is a TE and has played from 2018-2024. Is it our offensive scheme that does not attract speed players, probably quite a bit. We cannot fix that without a change in OC IMO even though I love much of the work Andy has done. But we are a much slower team on the outside today than we have been in earlier years. We have to fix that or it will be our death in this conference. If it is our scheme and the fact that our competitors know our playbook better than we do then we probably did a good thing by changing OC. I’m just hoping it improves our recruiting because if we don’t change our speed on the field, I don’t see us having a lot of success going forward.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

It seems our pass plays are generic. No different formations (move Singer around) no motion to give the receiver an advantage and pass plays that take too long to develop. The defenses never look confused and know right where to go. TCU had our defense in disarray several times.

We run when we should run and we pass when we should pass. No deception. No short easy passes to get rid of the ball quick and help Wilson get in a rhythm. Maybe some new energy and game plan will help.

[SteelUte]

Kuithe has lost a step and appears out of shape. I think Ludwig has overlooked that and those wildcat and sweep plays were proof. He is a great pass catcher, but he’s not burning past anyone anymore.

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