Utah at #21 in USA Today Preseason Poll

[Utah]

#21 – It’s about time we have Preseason recognition

[leftyjace]

I’ll take it. Ahead of UCLA. Nice.

[homer]

Replacing entire O-block, a special back and team’s best DBs is gonna be a major challenge. Factor in a challenging home/away schedule, dropping arguably the two weakest North opponents, and I don’t see how we end the season ranked.  

[Anonymous]

Probably a top five dline though, no more 5 down lineman Scalley please.  Oline is concerning me the most by far, Utah tends to reload pretty good corners.  

[Utah]

We will see a LOT more 5 down linemen. It’s not really a 5 down linemen defense. It is similar to what USC and TCU run, which is a 5 down lineman, 3/4 defense hybrid. What it does is it allows you to use an extra DE as a LB/hybrid. With the glut of DL and the lack of LB’ers, this isn’t a bad idea.

We do need to get better at it, but it is a great move and could form an unreal defense especially with our talent we have.

Imagine this:

Anae, Tupai, Lotulelei, Mokofisi, and Fitts on the DL.

Then, you have Luafatasaga at LB.

Then, you have Ballard, Hansen, and Blair behind Luafatasaga. With Johnson and Smith at the CB’s and Guidry at NB.

So much you can do with that. You have Anae, Luafatasaga, Hansen, and Ballard who can fill LB roles.

You have an incredible DL.

It all comes down to if we can find some CB’s. Johnson is LEGIT. Shah has done wonders with kids like Smith (Rowe, McGill, Allen are all in the NFL). Guidry could be an amazing NB. Plus Boobie is a SR.

[noneyadb]

Scalley is recruiting to better support the 5 down lineman. He isn’t going away from it.

[Utah]

Agreed. For anyone that doesn’t like it, go back and watch 2015 and 2014 vs Arizona. Then go watch 2016. That is where the 5 down linemen excels. It is so versatile. 

You can go more 3-4 against the spread teams and 4-3 against the pro-style teams. 

Essentially, if you move the MLB in a 4-3 closer to the line of scrimmage, you have a five man front. 

Conversely, as soon as you drop a DE into coverage, you are now running a 3-4 defense. 

The five man front is a hybrid between the two defenses. It’s a great idea, especailly if we keep recruiting the secondary and DL as we have. 

We just need to get better at i. 

[Anonymous]

Didn’t seem to work at all last season. SUU and TDS-P seemed to blow it up. When Fitts went down it was even worst. 

[noneyadb]

SUU and TDS? Maybe if you said UCLA blew it up I would agree, but Jamal Williams had 60 yds rushing. SUU never even sniffed the redzone.

[Anonymous]

SUU most of their yardage was from the five down lineman defense  Granted they were on broken plays if I remember correctly.  TDS-P I remember it being used and then flushed by half time.  I will watch it again but I remember watching those particular games live and thinking how awful it was.  A few other times when it was used and again it failed.  Utah’s dline seemed to be at its best when it played four man front straight up Pease style.  

[Anonymous]

Forgot about the first play Tauteoli. Pick six with yep five lineman. I stand by that statement though I remember being in chat and frustrated with the five lineman formation.

Also I could argue just on that pick six it could easily be Taysom Hill as the formation causing the turnover. Damn his arm sucked at anything over five yards.

[noneyadb]

Lowell Lotulelei (93) is good. pic.twitter.com/aQq3gTXp3v

— christian (@slotfade) November 7, 2016

[Anonymous]

I still can’t believe Dimick wasn’t invited to the combine. Watching some of the film it is largely the deficiencies of Pita T who is just not very good at sealing the edge. 

[noneyadb]

I didn’t understand Paul not being drafted last year, and I don’t understand Dimick not getting an invite this year.

[Utah]

Here is a decent article explaining the 5-2. 

Defense, defense, defense

Essentially, with a 5-2, you have a DE lined up in the LB’s spot in a 3-4 or you remove a Nose Tackle and bring in a CB and you are now running a 4-2 defense. 

It’s just a way to easily move from a 3-4 to a 4-3 using DE’s instead of LB’ers, which fits us better. 

[Anonymous]

What immediately comes to my mind is that Utah doesn’t have the linebackers to do what USC is able to do.  USC linebackers are the best in the nation typically so that just makes me wonder if it is sustainable. 

[Utah]

Here would be my retort: This fall, we should have two four star LB’er starting. Luafatasaga and Ballard.

We definitely don’t have the depth of USC, but our starters are on par. Also, we struggle to recruit LB’er for whatever reason and this defense allows us not need as many LB’ers.

[Anonymous]

Tauteoli killed it early in the season. I think injuries really kept him from continuing an upward climb. Luafatasaga started to get in game shape by the end of the season but I always said he would be great this season because Juco guys never seem to come in D1 shape. 

[noneyadb]

Ballard is a 200 lb Safety. He isn’t a LB’r. Likely see Thompson as that 2nd LBr

[Utah]

For the record, I don’t think we end up ranked either. I have us at 7-8 wins this year. BUT, we deserve to be ranked preseason. What, we are the 8th most successful team the last three years? We have the second most wins in the PAC-12 the last three years. 

So, we should start the season ranked. I don’t think we end the season ranked, but we have earned this pre-season ranking. 

As far as the OLine goes, we do return three starters (Lo Falemaka, Barton, and Uhatafe). That is solid. This isn’t a complete rebuild job. This is a reload job. As good as Bolles was in the run game, he was equally terrible in the pass game. While we may never have a tackle as talented as him, we should have a lot more tackles that are better than him while playing at Utah.

So, I’m not too concerned about our OL. Harding is a great coach, he has his guys there, he returns three starters (and Uhatafe is legit. He is a great guard) and he has talent there. We will be ok there.

The real concern in the back 7 on defense. That and our QB play. Those two will determine if we get 7 wins or 9 wins.

[Anonymous]

This schedule looks so difficult that it could be a terrible season. 9 wins doesn’t seem realistic to me. 

[Rick]

Uhatafe is a returning starter and so would be Lo Falemaka at center had he not gotten injured.  Also Jackson Barton has started several games for us at both RT and LT.  I do agree that we have a lot of holes to fill but we also have had several strong O-line recruiting seasons as well and Harding is a damn good line coach.

[ladyinred]

It’s also about time they stopped overrating UCLA. They seem to usually be somewhere around the top 15, then never end the season ranked.

[Author]

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