I bet the other 7 were thrilled at the news.Originally Posted by U-Ute
I bet the other 7 were thrilled at the news.
Official schedule:
9/23 vs. USC
10/1 @ Cal
10/8 vs. Arizona
10/15 @OSU
10/22 @UCLA
10/29 vs WAS
BYE
11/10 @ASU
11/19 vs Oregon
11/26 @Colorado
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“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.
Looks great to me. Only back-to-back road games includes the conference's weakest team. The superpowers USC and Oregon are far apart. The weakest teams OSU and CU are spread out too. We get two of the conferences five new QBs (USC and Cal) early on.
Toughest stretch of two games: tie between UCLA/@UW and @ASU/Oregon.
There's no real murderer's row of three games thanks to the bye week.
USC on a Friday. ASU on a Thursday (which means two extra days to prep for Oregon).
None of the games are a surprise, and the sequence doesn't help or hurt us. I still think 8 wins is a good season, but getting to a bowl game has to be the #1 goal.
Just look at basketball. Four years ago Loveridge was a game-changing recruit. Next year he might have been a walk-on recruit, if he was targeted at all.
It wasn't even that long ago that we would have KILLED to have Travis Wilson as our QB, and now we only complain about him. (I'm talking about the late 90s, early 2000s -imagine having TW in the MWC instead of Darnell Arceneaux and Lance Rice)...
Troy Williams interview on a SLC sports talk station:
http://kfanav.s3.amazonaws.com/20151...lliams-WEB.mp3
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"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I don't think I agree with this line of reasoning. With Loveridge, it was the first meaningful in-state signing since Majerus was HC. He's been an important player since he got to campus. If he's a part of the 2016 class he's still a scholarship player and probably a part of the 8-man rotation.
As for Wilson, he had a fine pedigree coming into Utah, but he's not better than Alex Smith or Brian Johnson. Mike McCoy did some fine things for us in 1994, I don't know that Wilson is better than him.
That said, Wilson gave us a pretty good 2014. None of the numbers really stack up against anyone nationally (60% completion, 18 TD's, 5 INT's, 6.97 YPA), but he's a huge reason we went from not going to a bowl game to finishing the season ranked.
My point is McCoy was solid in '94, Alex had a stellar year and a half from '03 through '04, and BJ had some success in '04, was injured in '05/redshirted '06, was decent in '07, and was great in '08. Jordan Wynn/Terence Cain were decent enough in 2009 (esp the bowl game) and into 2010, but injuries
In between we had a lot of bad QB play. There is a huge gap of 8 years between McCoy and Alex, and a few dropoff years between Alex and BJ (although Brett Ratliff had his moments).
Travis Wilson hasn't been our most prolific qb and has made hus share of mistakes along the way, but on the last football game of his career on Saturday he will show us what he can do to a G5 Defense.
LOL. Loveridge was highly recruited and would be today.
USC will be without Cravens next year, he's entering the draft. Good news.
“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.
Manning is transferring. Good luck to him.
Whenever i think of him, ill remember how low rated former morning host Monty was trying to convince everyone that conor was hands down our best option.
Yeah, hopefully he's able to go do what Brett Elliot did somewhere else.
“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.
Troy's interview was pretty good, but nothing spectacular, mostly just "player-speak".
I thought his JC and HS OC's interview was far better, more revealing. He coached him in both HS and JC, which is pretty unusual, and those are lower levels of football, but a couple of things stood out:
1. Williams is one of those hyper-competitors who wants to win in everything, from basketball, to tiddly winks, to rock-paper-scissors. The stories we hear about Michael Jordan having this personality type, the card games on airplanes... we all know what happened in the late 90s vs the Jazz. MJ and Kobe had a will to win that elevated them above their talent level.
Example: Williams threw 6 first half TDs in their JC championship game this year, and told his coach he was going to throw 10 for the game, when the coach had to settle him down, add some sanity. He desperately wants to get revenge against UW and show everyone in the PAC-12 what he can do.
This could either be really good, or it could go bad.
2. When asked to name Williams' best football attribute, his OC said he can instinctively see through what defenses are trying to do to disguise their scheme. He knows where to go with the pass. His OC said he quickly can see that while it looks like a game of chess, underneath it's really a game of checkers. One of things that took Wilson a while to develop was reading defenses.
Massive difference between JC ball and the PAC-12, but those are some interesting ingredients. We'll see.
I'm also keen to see how Brandon Cox emerges. A-Rod told me when BC was a freshman to keep an eye on him.
Just heard Doman on the radio, saying he thinks it will be hard for Utah to improve offensively because of the culture. He said he listened to KW's post game interview, and that he thinks it is really hard for the offensive staff (identified ARod by name) to do their jobs because KW does not let the offense play opportunisticly. Said the defense and special teams both play to be opportunistic, but the offense is the opposite. He was referring to KW's comment that he shut down the offense when we were up 35-0, and threw out the game plan, but said that is indicative of the general philosophy.
Said it was obvious from the first snap that there is a talent and athleticism difference between the U and the Y, esp. Utah's defensive players. Said Utah should have 3 or 4 qbs on the roster every year who can play the position, but doesnt. Said we should have receivers who are as skilled and athletic as our db's but we dont. Said Utah needs to upgrade on offense as it has on defense.
Said it will be difficult to improve the offense or recruit the skill players we need unless the culture changes. Said that will be hard going forward. FWIW.
(Also said he expect Sitake to bring a new toughness to the Y, especially in the trenches.)
Last edited by concerned; 12-21-2015 at 08:19 AM.
Is it too cynical of me to think that Doman might be lobbying for a job there a little bit?
“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.
For the last two years, Doman has all but come out and asked for a job at the U with these weekly interviews on the zone. Almost every single week.
From the way he was talking, sounded as though he did not think that being an offensive coach at the U was an ideal career move, but beggars cant be choosers I suppose.
I guess we'll find out next year how "handcuffed" the offensive staff is here. It's still a narrative that I don't completely buy. I think that in this game in particular, they didn't want to let Travis throw BYU back into the game, and with all our limitations at WR etc, I get why they tried to grind it out.
“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.
I keep hearing that Kyle has a hands-off approach to the offensive design (although it looks like he does make the major strategic in-game decisions). Maybe he needs to get more involved in designing the offense. He's rightly getting blamed for his subordinates' failures, so why not get deeper into the overall offensive strategy and identity? Just wondering, and admittedly from a low information and knowledge base.
BTW, did Kyle really say that after we got the 35-0 lead, he decided to throw the Vegas Bowl offensive game plan out the window and go conservative?
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"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I get that too, but am still puzzled at how badly our D played in giving up 4 TDs (long drive after long drive). Hindsight is always 20-20, I guess.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
--Yeats
“True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”
--John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell
I feel like Doman just quoted word for word the rantings of about a dozen different utefans posters. I don't see any original insight there that hasn't been tossed around regularly for the past two years. Maybe that means it's correct. I think it's just become an accepted narrative.
I do agree that it will be tough to improve the offense. We have an identity now, and it's tough to break out of that kind of thing.
When a team has a 35-0 lead, there are only two possible ways to lose the game: (1) turnovers or (2) complete failure of the offense to get any first downs at all. Based on the game to that point (Joe Williams 10 yard run on his first carry, converting a 4th and 1, punching in a 1st and goal, Wilson with a 20 yard TD scramble), it seemed next to impossible that we would completely fail to move the ball. Losing the game on turnovers seemed much more likely. I can't blame them for trying to run time off the clock. What I don't get - and this goes way beyond Utah - is why it's so hard to turn the switch back on once it has been turned off. Of course, in the end, we did get enough first downs to run out the clock, especially on the last two possessions of the game.
Does anyone feel like BYU has been soft in the trenches? Haven't run defense and offensive line play been the lone bright spots for BYU over the past few years?
Last edited by sancho; 12-21-2015 at 09:19 AM.
Looking at that BYU offense, there's no way we should be giving up 28 points. But we've had a hard time on 3rd/4th and long all year. It's been maddening.
Of course, no defense can be expected to hold over and over again when the offense is doing nothing.
What was astonishing is how many 3rd and long's they completed (7 or 8 in a row?), and of course the 4th and 12, where somebody fell asleep.
Once it becomes the accepted narrative, how to recruit skill players to play in that offense. That is the issue to me. Perception becomes or is reality.
I agree with you. That is now the challenge. The good news there is that a false perceived reality is easier to break than an actual reality. It will take one QB/WR combo to smash this thing. Hopefully TW2 with the new JC guy is good for what ails us.
Here is the thing that is frustrating to me with the offense.
We don't need a great offense. We don't even need a good offense. We need a mediocre offense to be successful. It is perfectly fine that the culture at Utah is defense first. It is perfectly fine to move your best talent to defense. It is what we have had success with and what Whittingham knows as a coach. He should not go away from what he knows.
However, Whittingham needs to get this offense to mediocrity and we are in great shape. I don't think I'm being unreasonable asking for a mediocre offense.
I'd love to not see a single change on the defensive staff this offseason. No reason to shake up what is working. I don't even want to see much change on the offensive staff. The only change that I really want to see is at QB coach. It is time to bring in someone with experience as a QB coach, preferably a former QB. If it is A-Rod or Stubblefield that needs to go to make that happen, just make it happen.
We did really have a good season this past year, it is time to refine the staff to fix this long standing offense problem.
I also really hope that Williams wins the starting QB job, I don't want to see Utah going with a true freshman. I'm also skeptical of Cox as he couldn't even beat out our future all-conference safety for the 3rd string job.
So I said to David Eckstein, "You promised me, Eckstein, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I noticed that during the most trying periods of my life, there have only been one set of prints in the sand. Why, when I have needed you most, have you not been there for me?" David Eckstein replied, "Because my little legs had gotten tired, and you were carrying me." And I looked down and saw that I was still carrying David Eckstein.
--fjm.com
Yeah, as far as I can tell, we only have Williams and Huntley at QB next year. Gotta hope TW2 does't get hurt.
I agree with you on QB coach. Sark is still the only real name I've heard. I guess Mitchell too, but I'm not excited about that. Maybe it's Utah who should go after Ty Detmer.
Lots of media reporting that Detmer is joining Sitake either as OC or qb coach.
Well, maybe we should look around at other failed Heisman QBs. What are Tebow, Troy Smith, RG3, Leinhart, White, Weinke, Crouch, Wuerffel, Torretta, and Ware doing now? I'd even take a runner up. Harrington?
Although Detmer just tweeted that such reports "are inaccurate at this time." Whatever that qualifier means.
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