Tavion Thomas

[BleedsRedUte]

Thinking about Thomas and how it is too bad he can’t hang onto the ball when he looks to be the best running back.  At 6-2 and 220 lbs.  he is a good looking athlete and only a Sophmore.

I don’t know if Kyle will continue using him at RB and hope he starts securing the ball better, or if he will be benched this next game.

My thought is to do a “Kyle” and convert Thomas to Defense.  He may be very good as a DB or linebacker, and he will get to play rather than sitting the bench.  Of course he has to have the right temperment to play defense well, and he would have to learn a lot, so it may be late in the game for this year.  Just a thought.

[mfaulk80]

I think Kyle putting him back in after the fumble shows that they believe in his upside as a RB. He’s not switching positions. There is obviously going to be a lot of coaching and work into addressing his fumble issues, but they’re not giving up on him.  

Even before this last game, however, I’d argue that Micah is the more exciting back (RB1). 

[chinngiskhaan]

As long as Thomas is clearly the #1 or #2 RB in terms of talent, he’ll play. The strange thing for me in regards to Thomas is the way he holds the ball. After Ty Jordan fumbled and cost us an opportunity to win a football game, he hugged the ball with two arms as tightly as he could every time he was about to get hit. Thomas, as far as I can tell, has not learned his lesson. He fumbled in the Weber State game, and continued carrying the ball like he didn’t care if he fumbled it or not.

He needs to learn that not giving up turnovers is the #1 priority for him. He will eventually learn that lesson.

No, we do not need to switch him to defense. Why would we switch arguably our best running back to defense? That is an absolutely ridiculous thought. Fumble problems might be the simplest problem to fix in football, no reason to throw a kids future away because he isn’t holding onto the ball in the right way.

[Hellhound152]

He has horrible fundamentals (he doesn’t cover the points or tuck the ball) and it is exacerbated by his height.  Thomas aside, in yesteryear the first team Utah defense would have exposed these issues in camp and if he was fumbling every day he wouldn’t be getting touches.

The Utah defense relies on chaos plays and there have been none this season.

[Yergensen]

Word is fumbling isn’t Thomas’ only limitation. Pass protection is another thing he’s working on. In our first 2 games, I can’t remember a pass play with him in the backfield. Opposing teams will pick up on that pretty quickly, if they haven’t already.  Hope he gets it fixed, we need him.

BTW – Bernard is averaging 10 yards per carry.  That’s pretty good last time I checked.

[Cesar Chavez]

MY MONEY IS ON MICAH BERNARD AND THAT IS IT!

[RedLine]

WHY ARE YOU YELLING TROLL?

 

[Cesar Chavez]

BECAUSE I DIDN’T THINK YOU WERE A BYTER!, THAT HURT!

[noneyadb]

Simpkins had a ton of fumbles during his time at Utah. He played every game and wasn’t moved to CB. Shouldn’t be a reason why they move Tavion if they didn’t move Simpkins.

[GameForAnyFuss]

Thomas is too good to switch positions or not play. Until he gets the ball security issue fixed in practice, he’ll play in situations where a turnover isn’t totally devastating.

[Yergensen]

This team can’t afford or compensate for Thomas’ fumbleitis until it is fixed.

[UteFanatic]

Thomas’ upside is too substantial to give up on him as an RB. He’s still a work in progress and has a lot of time to prove he can be a great Utah RB.

It’s east to forget that many of our great running backs had fumbling issues in the beginning.

[EagleMountainUte]

Thomas isn’t switching positions. Bernard is the number one and like Hellhound said you know when Thomas is in that it is going to be a rushing play. Bernard is the most versatile player on the offense right now. Yes more than Covey.

[UtTroutHunter]

Thomas’ fumbles are even more concerning due to the that they occur on plays where he isn’t even taking a solid hit. Additionally, the ball seems to rocket out on his fumbles, with the ball ending up five yards aways from him. On the BYU fumble, it almost look liked he intentinally tossed it down field.

[UtahUtesRock]

Everything I’ve heard when Whitt and Mcdonald talk about Thomas is that they believe in him and are going to keep working with him on ball security and have no plans on shelving him. He’s gonna get reps at running back. 

[Central Coast Ute]

Honestly, I like not giving up on a kid. But he’s gotta get that cleaned up.

[Trailgoat]

Higher risk for fumbling since TT will be hit in the backfield 9 out of 10 times he gets the ball. The BYU fumble in the backfield looked like the defender hit his arm not the ball.

[MFury]

Didn’t Moss have a couple fumbles in first few games?

[SOWhat]

I think that his height is part of the problem. I am on the taller side 6’3”,it is harder to tuck the ball, generally speaking a taller person has also got longer arms, so tucking the ball on your arm there can be a space at your elbow, hence it is easier for a defender to get a hand in there. He needs two cradle the ball with both arms, even if it slows you down a little going through the line. I do have hope he’ll concentrate on doing that. As y’all remember Joe Williams had fumblitis also, he got a second chance do to injuries. I think it’s 50% technique and 50% concentration.

Let’s hope he can learn to concentrate, that leads to learning by repeation, once he’s done that it becomes muscle memory.
Let’s also hope he’s a fast learner, though we didn’t see much improvement yet. If he has aspirations for the NFL he needs to learn quickly, a problem like this can get in your head and make it harder to correct, you can overthinking, and that leads to worsening the problem instead reaction you get hesitation, he may be in that mode now, I hope no we need him.

[SOWhat]

Also,
GO UTES!!!

[SOWhat]

Don’t you love auto correct.

[Author]

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