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Utah has a tendency to play down to the level of their competition

Welcome Cyclones Fans! Forums Utah Utes Sports Football Utah has a tendency to play down to the level of their competition

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    • #16088
      2
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      But they also have a tendency to drag their competition down to their level. No one likes it, but it sorta works out.

    • #16091
      Tony (admin)
      Keymaster

      Insert the “team A gets team B to play team A’s game” commentary….

    • #16093
      5
      UtahUteGuy
      Participant

      I love it.  Love down and dirty, slog it out in the trenches football.  This is what Kyle Whittingham builds his team to do.  Good running game, strong O-line and D-line, slow down the game, run the clock.  It’s a chess game full of patience and frustration.  Ute fans become confused because we have some athletes who are capable of breaking out, but this is a trap that Kyle wants to avoid.  He knows that when it comes to athleticism, he’ll never overcome the USCs and UCLAs of the world, so he makes those teams play to our strengths.  Kyle can recruit big, fast line talent, especially with the built-in pool of Polynesian talent he has to draw on.  Thus, he focuses on how to make the line talent the focus of our offensive and defensive style.  This frustrates our opponents, but also maddens our fans who constantly want us to go for the glory plays.  That ain’t happening under Kyle’s watch.  Sorry, but we’re always going to have games like OSU while Whittingham is coach.  That’s just the way it is under his regime.

      I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think his style of coaching is fun and full of intrigue.  I’m on board with this approach going forward.  It provides way more entertainment to me than the WAC past, where the scores would be 54-52.  I would much prefer a score of 19-14 against a team with PAC-12 talent.

      • #16111
        2
        Utah
        Participant

        This guy gets it. Nice post. 

        If we try to go athlete vs athlete, we will be a 6-8 win team. If we can play to our strengths (big, athletic linemen, RB’s), we have a shot. 

    • #16121
      Texasute
      Participant

      I agree that Coach Whitt’s style is the best approach for a geographic challenged team like Utah. The other option is to go gimmicky which works for a short time and then ultimately others figure it out. Play tough in the trenches football and you always have a chance against the teams with better athletes.

      I just wish Utah would figure out how to put inferior teams away. That 19 – 14 game last Saturday should never have been that close.

      • #16125
        Tacoma Ute
        Participant

        That’s my only problem with him is when he plays not-to-lose as opposed to putting a team away. 

      • #16136
        Utah
        Participant

        Why was OSU such an inferior team on Saturday? The fact that no one could throw takes away a lot of advantages Utah had in that game. Then, our OL was severely limited due to the RB and C. So, if you take away the ability to throw the ball with the weather, then you take away a lot of our playbook due to the Center position being so injured, then throw in a RB that hasn’t played in a month…

        Were we really that much better than OSU on that day? 

    • #16124
      Tony (admin)
      Keymaster

      Right. If we cold put teams away early we could rest starters and give the 2nd and 3rd string some game experience.

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