Today’s Conversation with Covey

[MDUte]

I look forward to these interviews every week…so insightful! My 2 big take aways from today’s convo:

1) Gabe Reid should be making his decision within the next 2 weeks. Utah is still high on his list and Brit’s best comparison to GR is Maxs Tupai. He said GR’s biggest thing (like most any other player) is just wanting to go where he feels the coaches want him the most and believe in him the most. He said that Gabe and Karene are definitely close and it’s a big draw for him to get to play his final year of college football with his brother. 

My question. Why wouldn’t our coaches want GR and completely believe he’d be the perfect fit on the other side of Fillinger? Especially since Xavier Carlton didn’t work out at DE and the fact that we have such an excellent opportunity to get GR, I don’t see why we wouldn’t go all out to bring him home to Utah? I totally trust our coaches whatever ends up happening…I am just really hoping we get him!

2) According to Covey, we are in good shape at WR “as is” without bringing in anyone else from the portal. He said Utah could bring a WR in from the portal but they don’t have to. And then Covey went on to explain how Ludwig’s offense doesn’t ask a lot from the WR position. I think we all know this as there’s been a lot of talk on the subject over the past couple of years about our “throw game”. But it was still good to hear Covey acknowledge this fact. And since our offense now heavily features the 2 (and sometimes 3) Tight End sets, this lessens the role of the WR even more in the offense. Having Vele, Parks, Solo, Dixon as well as the addition of Peppins is more than enough for an effective rotation when you might only have 2 of these WRs on the field at a given time. Covey also said that guys like Vele and Dixon are super talented. 

My thought. Knowing all of the above, I would much rather see us use our excess scholarship(s) (we’ve saved for portal transfers) to load up on quality depth in the Secondary, DL, & OL. And I’d even rather see us bring in a really good punter or kicker versus another WR. I’m sure there are many on here who would disagree and that’s fine…but I’d love to hear what everyone thinks.

[ProudUte]

Good post.  I agree.

[chinngiskhaan]

We don’t need WR… if we had a covey type and a bunch of TEs we’d be fine.

[UteBacker]

Man, I’d sleep better if I knew we had SOME kind of deep threat.  Not expecting our WR’s to do anything other than block takes away quite a bit of the field.  It worked this year, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but it seems to me throwing at least one long completion a game would help keep the opposing defenses a little more honest.

[Hellhound152]

We do, he is a body catcher which means while the db is making up the 5 yards he is beat by he can adjust and intercept the deflected ball.

[Yergensen]

Why wouldn’t we want GR?  One reason is 1 year rentals could block better young talent from playing.  Happened with Brewer and Rising as well as McKinney and Bishop.  Would have happened with Bowen and Lloyd.

I don’t know much about GR, what does he give us that we don’t already have?  

[Utesbyfive]

We might need a 1 year rental this year. We already got one in Diabate. I think the window for the Utes to make some noise nationally is now.

[Yergensen]

Win now is a valid reason.  However, some young talent impact and win almost immediately (Lloyd, Jordan, Bishop, etc).

 

[Hellhound152]

Bishop was injured…  Lloyd was just the “other backer” in 2019…  Jordan was special but with the benefit of hindsight who did he really take carries from?  A couple of guys who couldn’t break the lineup at Tulane, Fresno St. or get out of the portal.

You stockpile talent where ever it comes from and the cream rises…

[Johnny]

I went running today. Cold as f**k with head winds. Yet, a friend of mine shared a comment from Diabate saying how badass Utah is. Most of us have no idea what these guys are thinking.

[Charlie]

For the most part we only want 1 year players that have a very good shot at starting, otherwise use the players in the program. Portal players with multiple of years to play can be developed. Always of interest would be deep threat WRs or good CBs. The secondary can always use depth. But whatever spots left available will be used on someone, probably best available. Any punter better than what we have should be brought in. Depth at edge rusher is also needed.

[Johnny]

Please share the link or how people can hear. We don’t need speak easies FFS. 

Brit about halfway through

[UtesRule]

There are other WR’s in the room not mentioned that could have an impact in the future. I’m especially interested in Munir McLain.

[2008 National Champ]

That’s a name I am very curious about. Highly regarded recruit at SC who couldn’t get on the field at Utah? Was it injury, out of shape, not as good as his ranking? The fact that I didn’t hear his name after he committed was surprising and makes me wonder if it was a waste of a scholarship as you want all your transfers to be instant impact instead of depth.

Curry, at the time he transferred, would have been instant impact. He just had the bad luck of 2 other guys transferring in who showed more. But at the WR position, there was obvious need so McLain not getting any run is worrisome. Howard was as good as projected when he was healthy. I hoped that McLain would provide the same value.

[Utesbyfive]

I’m not sure McLain didn’t get a red shirt last season. Again, if that’s the case, we’ll probably see him in the non-con games and he’ll be given a shot along with Cope.

[Utesbyfive]

I’m interested to see if Makai Cope can crack the rotation. I’m guessing he red-shirted last season, so we should probably expect to see him in action this year.

[FtheY]

Same. He has the size and was a big get for us at the time. Hopefully we’ll see more of him and O’Toole. 

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