The V may represent the valley, but on the field it stands for VICTORY!!! Utes vs. Bulldogs

[Rocker Ute]

If we are being honest, QB development has been and continues to be a major concern at the U. For a guy who has supposedly been neck and neck with Wilson this whole time, the gap seems pretty big. KT has had a lot of reps and time on the field to still be struggling as he is. That being said, I want to give him a 'first game jitters' benefit of the doubt.

I'm also hopeful that they draw up plays specific to him this next week. It felt like we had a number of plays against USU that felt like plays designed for a right-hander run by a lefty.

So we'll see. Hansen has gotten some PT on special teams if you've noticed. I'm guessing he'll get a few snaps against Fresno regardless of Wilson, it may be the last opportunity all year.


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[Damage U]

Ole Miss had 215 yards rushing on 35 carries (6 yards per carry)

I'm not sure KT will be required to air it out much.

I'm sure Booker is licking his chops at this game. I expect big numbers from him.

[chrisrenrut]

I don't know if Booker will have a big game. If Fresno knows there is no passing game, they put 8 in the box and dare Kendal to beat them with his arm. And our run blocking hadn't been great so far.

[Old Standing ute]

What will you all be watching for this Saturday against Fresno State? Here's my list:


1. Can the o-line get some push and open holes for Booker? If they do, the Utes' chances for winning improve exponentially.

2. Will our WRs (other than Covey) be able to get open? If they do, will Kendal be able to get them the ball?

3. Will Kendal show more patience on pass plays before taking off and running?

4. Will we pressure the Fresno State QB? We ought to be able to.

5. Will our kickers pull out of their slumps? (KW's term, not mine.)

I'll also be mildly interested in whether Chase Hansen gets any reps.

I watched a replay of USU. O line is OK when they go hat to hat straight ahead, but they often pull & expect the person on the wrong side of Defender to somehow get in front of him; or they pick the wrong D to block--ending up in a 2 team on a D, leaving another D alone who makes the play.
Not sure if it is a design error or they just don't know who to block. But when it is block the D in front of you, they can open a decent hole.

[Utebiquitous]

Old Standing, Maake and other smart football guys,
Your observation about the O'line brings to mind a question/observation I have. It seems to me through two games that when Travis/Kendall just do a standard hand off to Booker - no option, just straight ahead running, that there seems to be a hole or two to run through. On the option plays there seems to be less running room. Does this tie into your comment on going hat to hat straight ahead? I'm frustrated by too much option in the run game and too little just give the ball to Booker - no reads, no razzle-dazzle, just straight ahead running up the gut or off-tackle.

[DrumNFeather]

Interesting blog post today on the Pac 12 on Booker and Fresno St. Says he thinks they did him dirty with some clearinghouse issues out of high school after he posted a 28 on the ACT. Called him the day before he was to come to school and told him he was a non-qualifier. He had felt the whole time that they were trying to push him towards the JC route anyway. Apparently a staffer that was held over from Pat Hill's staff tried to chat with him prior to last year's game and he wasn't interested.

Run for 200+ Book! Show those Dawgs!

[LA Ute]

KW seemed to say that K. Scott will be getting more balls thrown his way. The WRs generally will, he said. I doubt we will see that unless the running game goes nowhere.


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[Brian]

KW seemed to say that K. Scott will be getting more balls thrown his way. The WRs generally will, he said. I doubt we will see that unless the running game goes nowhere.


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I keep hearing that.....
I guess I will believe it when I see it....

[Utebiquitous]

That's interesting Sancho,
I totally agree with you on Kendall. He did take a while. I probably need to give these guys a break and realize we're early in the season and they need the reps to improve.

That said, I just have to admit my bias for a more pro-set offense.

[Old Standing ute]

Old Standing, Maake and other smart football guys,
Your observation about the O'line brings to mind a question/observation I have. It seems to me through two games that when Travis/Kendall just do a standard hand off to Booker - no option, just straight ahead running, that there seems to be a hole or two to run through. On the option plays there seems to be less running room. Does this tie into your comment on going hat to hat straight ahead? I'm frustrated by too much option in the run game and too little just give the ball to Booker - no reads, no razzle-dazzle, just straight ahead running up the gut or off-tackle.

There are different kinds of options--Utah rarely runs the pitch option like AFA. Instead QB can give to Booker or keep himself in hope that D end will dive inside to take Booker.
Problem at USU for example was USU blitzed outside on our left & Tevi slid out to take blitzer. Left guard did not also slide out but double-teamed down on nose-guard leaving left D end free to disrupt play.
Another time they pulled center on a run to the right & expected LGuard to take tackle who was in gap to his right--so he had to time snap perfectly so he could move to his right to cut off tackle when play was going right. He did not make it & D tackle is in disrupting play.
Another time they slipped L tackle Tevi past his man to get to LB & expected Marcus-Williams FB to block the D-end who had a running start. He could not handle the bigger D end & this disrupted play.
The blocking for each play is different, but when they want they just go straight ahead & block that D player it seems to work better. The O line is not yet to a point where they can pull, slide, cover for each other.

[Applejack]

Scott is interesting. He's by all accounts a great teammate, leader, and guy. He's a fan, coach, and player favorite. So. yeah, we want to get him the ball. On the other hand, he's not an elite WR. It's not like we are forgetting to run plays for our All-American here. When we do run plays for him, he is not wide open. Instead, he relies on toughness and positioning to go get the ball draw a PI.

Fixed it for you.

The fact of the matter is WE DON'T HAVE WIDEOUTS. There are things we can do to hide this fact-throw to Covey, run a ton of play action, or throw to Covey. But it's a problem that will bite us in multiple games this year.

[LA Ute]

There are different kinds of options--Utah rarely runs the pitch option like AFA. Instead QB can give to Booker or keep himself in hope that D end will dive inside to take Booker.
Problem at USU for example was USU blitzed outside on our left & Tevi slid out to take blitzer. Left guard did not also slide out but double-teamed down on nose-guard leaving left D end free to disrupt play.
Another time they pulled center on a run to the right & expected LGuard to take tackle who was in gap to his right--so he had to time snap perfectly so he could move to his right to cut off tackle when play was going right. He did not make it & D tackle is in disrupting play.
Another time they slipped L tackle Tevi past his man to get to LB & expected Marcus-Williams FB to block the D-end who had a running start. He could not handle the bigger D end & this disrupted play.
The blocking for each play is different, but when they want they just go straight ahead & block that D player it seems to work better. The O line is not yet to a point where they can pull, slide, cover for each other.

Very interesting stuff, OSU. Thanks.

[LA Ute]

Fixed it for you.

The fact of the matter is WE DON'T HAVE WIDEOUTS. There are things we can do to hide this fact-throw to Covey, run a ton of play action, or throw to Covey. But it's a problem that will bite us in multiple games this year.

We have four fast freshmen who people think will be good wideouts eventually. Problem is, they're freshmen. If they don't progress really, really rapidly this season (unlikely) you're right, we'll be bitten repeatedly.

[mUUser]

...WE DON'T HAVE WIDEOUTS. There are things we can do to hide this fact-throw to Covey, run a ton of play action, or throw to Covey. But it's a problem that will bite us in multiple games this year.

I guess with the emergence of Covey, the Bubba Poole experiment is officially over?

[jrj84105]

In the self perpetuating chicken and egg scenario where lack of offensive talent --> lack of production --> reduced recruit interest --> lack of talent, etc I've started to believe that the lack of talent is the initiating factor and poor talent appraisal the root cause. But which position group is the biggest issue? IMO, you get the least chances to produce a good QB with 1-2 signees per year, limited practice reps, and the propensity for guys who aren't getting reps to transfer. Even really good programs have difficulty fielding effective QBs year in and year out. It's hard to say that our QB talent has been consistently worse than comparable run first P5 teams with a lackluster offense. Our O-line has consistently struggled, but we've also been putting a fair number of linemen into the NFL, so I think scheme/coaching has been as much an issue as talent there. WR I think is the problem. You can recruit a lot of WRs to a team and spread out a lot of reps. Even most mediocre Go5 teams can put at least one decent WR on the field most years. Even GT can recruit decent WRs. I think that whatever talent appraisal strategy we use for defensive players is clearly not working at WR. This has to come back to ARod, who I increasingly think may be a very good tactician but a very bad talent appraiser. It seems like a few of Stubblefield's recent recruits (S Wilson, C Repp) may actually be able to catch passes and run routes and could be decent by next year, so maybe we're almost through with the WR drought.

[LA Ute]

In the self perpetuating chicken and egg scenario where lack of offensive talent --> lack of production --> reduced recruit interest --> lack of talent, etc I've started to believe that the lack of talent is the initiating factor and poor talent appraisal the root cause. But which position group is the biggest issue? IMO, you get the least chances to produce a good QB with 1-2 signees per year, limited practice reps, and the propensity for guys who aren't getting reps to transfer. Even really good programs have difficulty fielding effective QBs year in and year out. It's hard to say that our QB talent has been consistently worse than comparable run first P5 teams with a lackluster offense. Our O-line has consistently struggled, but we've also been putting a fair number of linemen into the NFL, so I think scheme/coaching has been as much an issue as talent there. WR I think is the problem. You can recruit a lot of WRs to a team and spread out a lot of reps. Even most mediocre Go5 teams can put at least one decent WR on the field most years. Even GT can recruit decent WRs. I think that whatever talent appraisal strategy we use for defensive players is clearly not working at WR. This has to come back to ARod, who I increasingly think may be a very good tactician but a very bad talent appraiser. It seems like a few of Stubblefield's recent recruits (S Wilson, C Repp) may actually be able to catch passes and run routes and could be decent by next year, so maybe we're almost through with the WR drought.

I will now make my One-Note Johnny entrance. (1) KW, in his heart of hearts, doesn't have religion about the offense. (2) He's also endearingly but maddeningly loyal to his staff, and (3) insists on working with people he knows and trusts. I think those are the root causes of what you are describing. Again, I am not trying to rip on Kyle, just trying to be realistic about who he is and what we can expect from Utah football with him as the coach. He's our guy, and we are going to keep getting what we have been getting. Maybe it's all we can realistically hope for.

[LA Ute]

I'm not buying (surprised?).

We've had some highly regarded WRs come in; they just haven't worked out. I think that's just bad luck. There are so many 3 star WRs, and most of them turn into nothing. We've gone after guys who were being pursued by other good teams, so I don't think talent evaluation is the issue. We've really just had some bad luck at the position.

We were due some good luck, and it looks like Covey fits that category.

Edit: maybe we have focused too much on speed and not enough on skill at the WR position. Especially in college, route running (getting open) is the most valuable thing for a WR. We have regularly been baffled by guys with low 40 times who just can't get it done.

I hear you, but we've had bad luck at QB for years. Now we have it with WRs. Sooner or later bad luck starts to look like a pattern. There is only one constant underlying the pattern.

[USS Utah]

I guess with the emergence of Covey, the Bubba Poole experiment is officially over?

No, he is still getting catches as a slot receiver.

[jrj84105]

The QB thing has been a mess, and we've gone over all that went into creating it (injuries, OCs, systems, luck). The WR position hasn't been as bad. We've had some good WRs under Kyle. This year, though, looks tough - the worst year for the position in a long time. We had the plan/people in place - some good looking recruits - but the last few classes just haven't worked out.

Say you bring in 5 WRs in class, all of them 3 star recruits. Say the probability of success for any individual 3 star guy is 15%. The odds of getting five duds are 44%. It's not crazy to think we just had an unlucky year.

We also missed out on a highly regarded JC guy because he failed to qualify.

When looking at our PAC era, think the WR situation has been a bigger mess than QB relative to other programs. Lots of schools struggle with developing QBs, and our struggles aren't particularly out of line with other run-first, defense-minded programs despite our annual system change and injuries. Our WR performance has been consistently worse than other programs, it's not like our scheme changes included a stint as a triple option team. Basically, lots of teams are limited by suboptimal QB play. Very few teams are primarily limited by their inability to field a receiving corps.

The 15% number is sort of baloney, and you have to take into account that it would take multiple years of missing on 5 guys per year to get where we are now at WR. In fact, our number one receiver was actually part of the 2010 class!!!

Just looked back at our WR recruiting classes. Delshawn McClellon is the only HS WR recruit from the 2011, 2012, 2013 classes who is still playing WR. Holy hell, that's unacceptable. Even if we had a 50/50 chance of turning a HS WR recruit in an all American WR by his senior year, we'd have 0 AA WR (and one AA DE). I didn't realize it was so bad, but clearly the issue is that we simply don't recruit enough WR for a school that wants to run a spread offense with 11 personnel. It's pretty much that simple.

[LA Ute]

When looking at our PAC era, think the WR situation has been a bigger mess than QB relative to other programs. Lots of schools struggle with developing QBs, and our struggles aren't particularly out of line with other run-first, defense-minded programs despite our annual system change and injuries. Our WR performance has been consistently worse than other programs, it's not like our scheme changes included a stint as a triple option team. Basically, lots of teams are limited by suboptimal QB play. Very few teams are primarily limited by their inability to field a receiving corps.

The 15% number is sort of baloney, and you have to take into account that it would take multiple years of missing on 5 guys per year to get where we are now at WR. In fact, our number one receiver was actually part of the 2010 class!!!

Just looked back at our WR recruiting classes. Delshawn McClellon is the only HS WR recruit from the 2011, 2012, 2013 classes who is still playing WR. Holy hell, that's unacceptable. Even if we had a 50/50 chance of turning a HS WR recruit in an all American WR by his senior year, we'd have 0 AA WR (and one AA DE). I didn't realize it was so bad, but clearly the issue is that we simply don't recruit enough WR for a school that wants to run a spread offense with 11 personnel. It's pretty much that simple.

If your son were a blue-chip WR would you want him to attend Utah? Not a baited question. Just curious. I don't know how I'd feel.

[Old Standing ute]

If you are a good WR, why would you ever go to Utah? To learn to block on the bubble screens?

Go to Wash St. or Texas Tech or UCLA or USC--where they throw the ball down the field.

Kenric Young was a Fla state champion sprinter. Tell him to run as fast as he can straight ahead & have the QB throw it in front of him & let him get it. I see him on the field, but I never see him do that, nor get the ball thrown in his direction.

[jrj84105]

If your son were a blue-chip WR would you want him to attend Utah? Not a baited question. Just curious. I don't know how I'd feel.

Absolutely, yes I would. KW is risk averse to a fault, but what has really been the impact on WRs. Dres was about as high risk/reward of a receiver as you're going to get. How often did he sit the bench after causing an interception? When we he supplanted as the primary receiver for the offense?

A blue chip WR can expect the following at Utah:
1) Immediate playing time, likely as the primary target in the passing game from day one.
2) coaching from guy(s) who know the position.
3) good DBs to play against in practice.
4) high profile conference with good in game competition.
5) a very long leash for making mistakes as there probably isn't a viable plan B.

As a WR, Dres probably got more chances to advance his career than any comparably skilled player. Even if Utah throws half as often as other schools, a blue chip in 4 years at Utah as a primary target gets thrown more balls than a guy at Alabama who may or may not ever get first team practice reps start let alone Start. If my kid was a middling DT prospect I'd send him anywhere but Utah. A blue chip WR would have a great opportunity at Utah.

[LA Ute]

Absolutely, yes I would. KW is risk averse to a fault, but what has really been the impact on WRs. Dres was about as high risk/reward of a receiver as you're going to get. How often did he sit the bench after causing an interception? When we he supplanted as the primary receiver for the offense?

A blue chip WR can expect the following at Utah:
1) Immediate playing time, likely as the primary target in the passing game from day one.
2) coaching from guy(s) who know the position.
3) good DBs to play against in practice.
4) high profile conference with good in game competition.
5) a very long leash for making mistakes as there probably isn't a viable plan B.

As a WR, Dres probably got more chances to advance his career than any comparably skilled player. Even if Utah throws half as often as other schools, a blue chip in 4 years at Utah as a primary target gets thrown more balls than a guy at Alabama who may or may not ever get first team practice reps start let alone Start. If my kid was a middling DT prospect I'd send him anywhere but Utah. A blue chip WR would have a great opportunity at Utah.

I'm sensing a back-handed compliment here....


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[Redbird]

Utes open at -14.

[jrj84105]

When Kyle converts a WR to CB, many assume it's just crazy old Kyle doing his defense thing. I wonder though. Maybe these guys are evaluated when they arrive, and it's clear they aren't going to make it as WRs, so we switch them and hope they can get something done on defense.

Exactly. The formula of recruiting unpolished multi sport athletes and coaching them up works great on defense, but when that philosophy is applied to WRs, it produces DBs. After years of jugs machines and catching tennis balls, I wonder if the coaching staff might eventually come around to the idea that catching the ball is more of an inherent ability than a learned skill. Of course prioritizing WR skill over athleticism would means having fewer backup options at DB.

[Applejack]

Utes open at -14.

Good line. Given our questions at qb (can Kentom throw?) and answers at WR (There are none!) I think expecting us to score 21 points is a stretch.

[DrumNFeather]

It's hard not to think that our guys are peeking ahead to the Oregon game. Pac 12 opener, bye week to follow, etc. My hope is for a blowout and a lot of Chase Hansen in the second half. That said, would another slug fest type performance where we pull away in the second half surprise me? No. And to me, this game has no bearing on the rest of our season. The only thing it helps us do is get half way to bowl eligibility, and keeps us healthy heading into Pac 12 play.

All that said, I'd love for this team to take the "business trip" approach to this one and get out and take care of business, but hey, we're all human. After Michigan, Oregon was circled on the calendar.

[NorthwestUteFan]

Agreed. This is the closest thing to a 'sure win' left on the schedule. Every remaining game will be a dog fight, including Colorado. For some reason we can't put them away and they always play us tough.

[LA Ute]

Now wait just a minute -- the game is on the CBS Sports Network? What's that? Do I have to watch it online?

EDIT: Never mind, I figured it out.

[DrumNFeather]

Now wait just a minute -- the game is on the CBS Sports Network? What's that? Do I have to watch it online?

EDIT: Never mind, I figured it out.

I'm glad you were able to use the guide feature on your cable/dish box to find your answer. Welcome to 2015!

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