Goon just Tweeted that OT Jordan Agasiva had "unforeseen" issues with academics and will arrive in SLC on May 15. Also, Orlando Umana is already with the program, joining Corrion Ballard and Tyquez Hampton from this class that will play in the spring. Also that Wallace Gonzalez has decided to step away from football.
Last edited by Dwight Schr-Ute; 03-07-2017 at 11:23 AM.
TE's:
Fakailoatonga
Handley
Falemaka
Hekking
A few off the top of my head.
That is a good list.
Chad Hekking has all- conference potential at TE (though probably not until his Jr or Sr year). IIRC he was a RS last year.
As a HS JR he was big (6'4", 220#), strong (bench 10x @ 225, squat 425), and fast (...For his size, 4.9s 40yd). He played QB in HS, and also played basketball and ran 110 hurdles in track. Now he is listed at 240#, and has Coach Elisaia building him up.
And his brother Brock (who plays LB for the Chargers) posseses perhaps the greatest powermullet in history.
Last edited by NorthwestUteFan; 03-07-2017 at 04:38 PM.
Buy them again, maybe Hekking will turn out to be a spectacular LB or DE..m
I think basketball disappointment created a black hole for spring ball info. Hans Olsen was there the whole time and had some comments, but I haven't seen anything else substantive that isn't being one of the pay sites. Monson has some fluff piece in the Trib that was probably written three weeks ago and has no practice details. DesNews is a little better, but Goon was in Vegas, so besides a few quotes, no details. Can anyone point me in a better direction?
I'm not listening, but I can only assume that Olsen talked about practice on the radio this morning. Some of his more interesting Twitter comments:
Fotu could be better on the o-line than d-line. Also thinks he's needed there more than the defense.
LBs will take a huge step forward.
Thinks Bateman may be the best fit at QB for this offense.
Also said that he'll withhold comment on Repp at DE until it plays out. Makes me think it wasn't pretty.
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Also, speaking of spring and rosters, I listened to the most recent 4th and Long podcast with Andy Phillips and Tom Hackett. I haven't listened to Hackett as an official 700 employee but it will be interesting to watch what happens there. The kid is a straight talker and will provide a very honest point of view from his perspective. I can't imagine Bill Reilly making half the comments he did. Andy and Tom went through the spring ball two deep and talked about the position group. Tom about laughed out loud when Andy suggested that Domo's skills would be missed in the back field this year. Neither were very rosy about our kicking game next year.
Andy also went on a bit of an interesting rant against Hill. He compared him to Holmoe who apparently works hard to have a good relationship with all his student athletes to Hill who doesn't even acknowledge student athletes when passing in the hallway.
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I posted this on another site:
Disclaimer: This is what I saw. Take it for what it is. I mostly watched QB’s, then WR’s, then DB’s, then RB’s. I noticed little to no DL/OL/LBer. Also, if anyone saw/heard differently, I’d love to know what.
First, in warmups, Troy Taylor spent the entire time walking the whole field, talking to everyone. Offense, defense, everyone. Most coaches stay in their area, but he was everywhere.
We run a different formation/base offense. Our TE’s spend a lot of time as FB’s. The QB’s line up in shotgun with the HB beside them. But, 2-3 yards in front and offset, we have an H-Back/TE/FB. I like it a lot. It’s fantastic. It’s almost like our OC is intelligent, see our talent, OL, and RB’s, and realizes there is a way to put them in a better position to suceed. I love it.
We ran that so much, I’d say it is our base offense. I followed the QB’s around today. In their position drills, Batemen looked to be the best. He throws a very, very pretty ball. He is big as well. He just looks like a QB.
They had Huntley and Williams on one end, who were throwing to WR’s running down towards Bateman. He was alone on that end, throwing the WR’s back to the other end.
Troy Williams is Troy Williams. I think what we saw last year is what he is. He is quicker and lighter on his feet, but he also misses some really easy throws. He just looked like Troy Williams. That is why I’m not sure he starts for us (again, this is ridiculously pre-mature, it is one practice…the first practice at that). BUT, he looked like what he looked like last year.
Tyler Huntley. He looks good. He throws a nice ball. I’m not sure what to say other than that. Ask me specific questions, but he looks good.
On deep ball drills, Bateman was by far the best. I think Huntley was next best and Williams was the least accurate. But, Bateman was the best by a large margin.
On timing drills, Williams was the best. He had the best anticipation, got the ball our the quickest. Huntley was the second best. Bateman waited too long. He waited for the WR’s to make their breaks, get open, then he threw it in there. The throw was pretty, tight spiral, and fast. But late.
Lots of fly sweeps. Lots of fly sweeps.
Tyquez Hampton…he was a beast. He is HUGE. He looks like a JR WR. Great hands. Caught just about everything his way, had one drop.
Fulks. Has hands of stone. It’s too bad. No catch is an easy catch for him. If he catches it.
Ballard is a beast. He is very, very, very good. Holy cow, he is good. Our safeties may not take a huge step back. Marcus was amazing, Ballard isn’t as good, but he is a long ways from bad. He had a lot of plays today and an INT.
Anae made a lot of plays. A lot of plays. Leki Fotu is HUGE.
Siosi Wilson, Singleton. Both had some amazing plays, both had some terrible plays. Let me take that back, Wilson had some great plays. Singleton had a lot of drops. Kenric Young seemed to hurt his hamstring…again.
Tyrone Smith. He is HUGE. Tall. Long. Athletic. Shah screamed at him once, “You are big like a big man and move like a little man!” It’s true. He had some BIG mental mistakes on 2 or 3 plays and gave up TD’s…BUT, he had a lot more amazing plays. Come this fall, he will be a starter at CB and in a year or two, he will be a first/second round draft pick. He will be great. He is by far our best CB already.
Our redzone issues…remain. We have problems there. We move the ball well down the field, get into the redzone, and accomplish nothing. I don’t think we scored a single TD starting in the redzone.
Caleb Repp is big and fast. He will do good things as a pass rusher this fall at DE.
We played a lot of 5 man fronts that evolved into some 3-4 as well.
Zack Moss…he looks GREAT. He can catch, man can he catch. He is fast, big, and quick. He looks good. Calves the size of my head. Thick as a tree. I think he will be very, very, very good for us.
Troy McCormick looked solid at WR. Some drops, but quick, looks thicker and some good catches.
Samson Nacua at WR. Man, he looked good. Smooth. Made it look easy. There is a reason they moved him, and it was the right reason. We rotated a lot of WR’s throughout the practice. I think we do that all year. I bet 8 WR’s play a lot of reps. Alec Dana looked really good as well. Caught everything in sight, big, fast. Our WR’s look different than in year’s past. We did have drops, but it seemed to be from the old crew (Singleton, man he dropped a lot, Young, Fulks. Even Wilson had some drops, including a TD). But Dana, Simpkins, Hampton and Nacua have a lot of promise. They looked good. They run hard. Holliday yelled at Singleton and Young for dogging it a lot. Yelled at Dana once, and Dana came back strong and recieved praise as well.
Blackmon played well. Guidry will have a chance to start at NB, but Blackmon is out to win that job as well. I don’t think we see much of Boobie at NB. Blackmon had some really good plays, tight coverage, pass breakups, etc. He and Smith looked good.
Huntley. We play different when Huntley is in. We run RPO’s more with him. Huntley can run. He can throw. He has all the tools. He needs experience. For example, in one stretch, he pulls the ball and runs for 15+ yards. The next play, goes through his reads and hits his third option for a big gain. Next play, is flushed out of the pocket, scrambles right, throws an amazing throw for a 5 yard gain. A real bullet. THEN the next play happens. He gets pressured again, forces a throw and it is picked off by Smith and would have been a pick six. The tools are there, he just needs experience. That is what will cost him the job.
Davr Hamilton and Johnny Capra got into it a little bit today. Some choice words, “football words” I told my kids, some shoving.
In 11 on 11…it wasn’t bad, but it looked a lot like last year. Troy ran with the one’s. Huntley ran with the two’s. Bateman got one series. Troy would make a good throw, miss an easy throw. Move the offense then stall out in the redzone. Huntley was solid as well. Actually, he came out on fire and then cooled off as the series went by. But, he can run. That is one thing he can do that the other two can’t do. If he can learn to not force plays, it wouldn’t shock me if he wins the job.
Bateman didn’t look that great in his 11 on 11. As good as he was in individual drills, and he was the best one, he was the worst in 11 on 11. In his one series, he had a ball tipped and intercepted. Now, to be fair to him, he only got one series and Williams and Huntley had 4 or 5 each.
Wow, that’s a lot. Sorry for any spelling mistake/grammar.
Off one practice, I’m not sure that Williams is our starter. Bateman and Huntley can just do other things better. Troy will have a fight on his hands to keep the job. NOW, remember that I am a “leave the incumbant as the starter” guy. I always backed Travis, never really thought Thompson had a chance to win the job because Travis was so steady. But, Travis never had Huntley and Bateman behind him. Those two can do things. I reserve the right to change my mind on this, but as of right now, I wouldn’t bet on Troy being the starter.
I say this with this caveat: If we were playing today, Troy would be the starter, hands down. Troy looks the same and the other two have flashes where they just do things better.
I've been saying all winter that I don't think Huntley starts. After one practice, I think he has a shot to win the job.
Last edited by Utah; 03-11-2017 at 11:34 AM.
Good work, Utah. Thanks.
One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
--Albert Einstein
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
--Richard Dawkins
Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
--Philo
Anyone planning on attending this afternoon's scrimmage? Now that uf.n has been resurrected, I'm sure there will be a few write ups just curious if I should expect any analysis here. Any commentary would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
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Saturday's scrimmage has been cancelled/moved to Tuesday.
http://www.utahutes.com/news/2017/4/...-canceled.aspx
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Jaylon Johnson's older brother who was listed as a starter at CB. Could be something interesting to watch.
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Very interesting. I think Utah has probably had a "Help Wanted: Graduate Transfer CBs and OTs inquire within" sign hanging at the football office. Although, between the incoming recruits and the reports it sounds like we have some good options to fill those CB slots and replace last year's underperforming veteran group. It would be kind of cool to have a Johnson and Johnson combo in the secondary.
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Because CB is never wrong.
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Watched the scrimmage today:
They threw the ball a lot. Scattered success. Williams looked better throwing, Huntley looked better running. Bateman only played at the very end, with 3rd team O against 3rd team D. He stood out but hard to tell much as level of play was really low. He & Tyquez Hampton--early entry FR teamed up for 3 TDs. (really nice throws).
Center snaps were an issue. 2nd team O line was not very good. 1st team DBs were good.
D. Henry-Cole looked good at running back. Many empty backfields & others were 1 back sets.
Kickers were bad.
O needs work.
Henry-Cole looks good today. I like his decisive cuts and let churn.
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One guy that jumped out at me was Tupai, he chased down Williams on the sideline on the first series and seemed to close pretty quickly.
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Tough to gauge anything from the spring game as so many players sit out and the coaches limit what both sides of the ball do. Personally, I would like to see Cooper Bateman get a legitimate shot to win the job.
Still, that's a chance to impress. It's not like our coaches are unaware that this guy was once very highly regarded. If he impresses, I'm sure they'll notice.
It's a tall order, though. Williams was good last year, he's way more experienced, and he was once an even higher rated prospect than Bateman.
ESPNs 3 Takeaways from Spring Ball:
So - RB will probably be fine.1. Running back Devonta’e Henry-Cole showed up well. He finished Saturday's game with two rushing touchdowns and 44 yards on 11 carries as well as four receptions for 23 yards. With the transition to Troy Taylor’s system, the offense will utilize the pass game a bit more, so the latter part of that stat line is especially important if Henry-Cole wants to be the featured back. With the offensive line playing for both teams, the coaches had a chance to gauge the progress of each back without wondering whether certain plays succeeded because Tackle X was blocking instead of Tackle Y. Henry-Cole likely will head into the fall competing with Zack Moss, who left the spring game early and was seen later with a sling on his right arm. Moss was the team’s second-leading rusher a season ago behind Joe Williams.
When I hear the coaches speak, I wonder what their level of faith is in Troy Williams. This will be interesting to watch through fall camp...2. There isn’t a clear-cut starter at quarterback yet. Though transfer Cooper Bateman (5-of-5, 53 yards, 1 touchdown) is clearly the third-string QB, he showed on Saturday that he’ll push incumbent Troy Williams (9-of-15, 73 yards) and Tyler Huntley (8-of-12, 65 yards, 1 interception) for the job. And yes, if you’ve followed Utah football of late, this is kind of an ongoing issue for the Utes. But in none of those seasons in which they completely relied on the run game to do most of the work did they have an offensive coordinator like Taylor, whose Eastern Washington team last season averaged 401 passing yards a game. This is an offense that will need an adept quarterback to get the chains moving, and so far, while there are candidates, no one seems to be a head above the rest. The summer should give each of these guys a chance to work more on fundamentals and dive further into the playbook -- Taylor was hoping to have 90-95 percent of his offense installed this season. Come fall, the sooner one of the quarterbacks stands out for Taylor, the better for the Utes.
I feel like Kyle has been pumping him up since he got here, so it's nice to see him getting some press here as well. Especially as we look to rebuild our secondary.3. Defensive back Julian Blackmon is a name to watch. Typically, coaches are either overly effusive after spring games (naming everyone down the depth chart as people who had nice showings) or vague with a standard response: “Lots of guys impressed, but no one stood out too much more than another.” Coach Kyle Whittingham and defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley were in the latter camp on Saturday when they spoke with reporters. But one name that both brought up after scrimmage was that of Blackmon. The sophomore finished with five tackles, including one for a loss, and two pass breakups. He also has shown leadership, which will be hugely important for a Utah secondary that lost so much talent and experience from its 2016 team.
“It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Jordan Fogal announced that he's transferring.
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[QUOTE=Dwight Schr-Ute;99077]Jordan Fogal announced that he's transferring.
A little surprised at this. He probably was not going to be the starter, but was not a year ago and played quite a bit.
Congrats to him on getting his degree!
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One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.
--Albert Einstein
The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.
--Richard Dawkins
Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
--Philo