Charlie

The Friday game was a great crowd, Sunday game never are so much. We could fill the top dozen rows with youth groups like some do but that fills the parking lots as well.

I’d more then venture that very few coordinators could dip to 2 walk-on QBs, lose a dozen key players and win 8 games in a power conference. Maybe some examples of those that did as well with the injuries we had in 2023 could help us understand this point.

It is very hard to be forced to play multiple QBs. To bring another QB into a game the other team is not prepared for is an anomaly. Even Barnes looked serviceable in two Rose Bowls for that reason. However, that can change quickly with teams having a week to prepare for him. Next, we sometimes see a team change QBs, like Arizona did this year,…[Read more]

At the beginning of the year I thought the same thing. Then I started paying more attention to his fouls. At least 1 or 2 per game are complete BS. Possibly they are mercy calls for the other team. There is contact and so it must be the big guy. Yes, he does know he is big. That said, one problem is his moving screens and he is anxious to make it…[Read more]

The new guys don’t mesh right away. Some of us can wait to see it come together. Be patient and don’t try to view the team as a finished product minute by minute. Watch the team change game by game.

Florida State also struggles just going 1 notch down the QB picking order. Complement it with a couple of other missing pieces on the team and a top 10 team looks like outside the top 40. Many don’t understand how hard it is to loose several key players and maintain expected outcomes.

Exactly. The Cotton Bowl shows us what happens to a top 10 team than goes deep into the QB room for a starter and sends a couple of players to the NFL draft before the bowl game. Imagine what Ohio State looks like if you add Utah level injuries.

Missouri had an awesome WR, Luther Burden III. I wondered if he could be any relation to Luther…[Read more]

You might consider what you were told was based on a healthy team with Rising and Kuithe making it back to the field. That was the excitement. Take those numbers off any team with high expectations and you begin to see what Utah accomplished.

Only a guess. In HS a QB can go very far with simple physical skills. As a duel threat QB it is easy to see his running ability may be his best skill. College will demand good decision making that needs to be quick. Possibly that was not developed in HS as running skills alone can bail him out. My thought was Rising and the following QBs paired…[Read more]

I think Jackson’s potential is very high, however some may adjust that value down some if the athlete has injury issues. Others may not make adjustments off of potential, I just think that is a possibility some will. I also like Bernard a lot but it is also possible that his max value is reduced by not being available this year. Myself, I think…[Read more]

It is always a gamble even at the middle school and HS level. The same gamble around very good QBs that stay healthy looks good but when all the good QBs have injuries it can look bad. Thompson, Jackson and NJ all have skills you want on a team beyond QB but they all seemed unlikely to become QB1 at a ranked school. Barnes, I don’t know. It…[Read more]

I suppose I was thinking Hansen and Covey were correctly encouraged to consider a position change away from QB. Because I could not recall a QB encouraged to change that went on to success elsewhere I was falling short of absolute. I have heard Whitt discuss the value of HS QB as athletes because often the best athlete on the team is asked to play…[Read more]

I need to take umbrage with the description of absolute. There have been a few QBs at Utah with the question of athlete or QB. Some HS QBs have had all conference years at other positions. Some QBs have been encouraged to look at other positions. Some have left the program to continue the QB role other places. I am wondering how many QBs that left…[Read more]

Sad to loose a RB but in today’s world of NIL he is very hard to value against risk management. The potential is clearly very high, however he runs violently in a way that has a high likelihood of injury. An option with less risk would be a RB that avoids direct contact with quickness. As for the NIL investment, it can go to zero in a single play.…[Read more]

It was a dead play but Hurts got free and threw to Covey that was in motion, R to L, but not deep. Was 7 yards approx. but was also a very nice first down.

Going forward, Utah fans will be fine. Fans of winning will struggle much more. Not all of us are one or the other and even as a mixture of both it is hard to see yourself as a fan of winning. Both like a quality product on the field but the differences come into play during adversity. A fan of the UofU is more likely to see this year as less then…[Read more]

There is a lot to how poor a team plays that is not in the bowl they expected. Utah has feasted on this themselves in the past.

The OL was not able to replace the missing pieces. Several times it looked like an OL ran the wrong play leaving a free runner for a big loss. Northwestern stacked the box and shut the run game down for the most part. Barnes was unable to make quick decisions and threw many very poor passes. All a formula for no offense.

What I have seen in bowl…[Read more]

Long, long time Bills fan. Kincaid is doing fine.

Jericho Johnson