I figured that we are far enough into 2017 to stop posting into the 2016 thread.
This is a pretty interesting rule proposal. It would allow freshman to play in up to four games without burning their redshirt. I'm sure DHC fully endorses such a proposal.
http://www.sbnation.com/college-foot...bowls-redshirt
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Early signing period in December was approved this afternoon. I think this helps a school like Utah who have problems when the bigger schools start pushing a recruit late in the process.
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I'm not so sure. Doesn't just this move forward the poaching date?Originally Posted by Dwight Schr-Ute
Yes, the USCs of the world will know the deadlines and will adjust their poaching accordingly.
I think what it does is make schools put their real offers on the table. On Dec. 19, USC sends scholarship papers to 5*. USC's backup plan to 5* is 4*, but they don't send him scholarship papers because they cannot take both 5* and 4*. Utah sends scholarship papers to 4*. It is possible that 4* will sign with Utah because he is uncertain that USC will have a place for him and he now knows that he is a top priority at Utah and a backup plan at USC. Of course, this same scenario can play out between Utah and USU.
But the pool of 5/4 is much smaller than the pool of 4/3. Sure, Utah can get dinged by the rule by the Utah States of the world, but we'll tread water. If we can pull guys out of the 5/4 star pool, that will help us take a step forward. I'm very much out of tune with recruiting news, because it's largely an oxymoron. But I think we'll benefit from this over time.
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Over/ under is 6.5
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"Be a philosopher. A man can compromise to gain a point. It has become apparent that a man can, within limits, follow his inclinations within the arms of the Church if he does so discreetly." - The Walking Drum
"And here’s what life comes down to—not how many years you live, but how many of those years are filled with bullshit that doesn’t amount to anything to satisfy the requirements of some dickhead you’ll never get the pleasure of punching in the face." – Adam Carolla
If I were a betting man I'd take that. Bill Riley said the same thing.
"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 agree. I'd be shocked if we didn't win 7 games.
Mandel released his new college football prestige rankings:
http://www.foxsports.com/college-foo...erarchy-052517
He has Utah in the "knights" category, which is basically a catch-all for programs that are not football powers but are relevant. It's a mish-mash with programs that won before the modern era (CU, UW, BYU), programs that have been in a national title hunt in the past decade (Utah, TCU, Baylor, Louisville), programs that are consistently good but never great (GT, Pitt, KState), and programs that have stunk for a long time but still have a smidge more cachet than the true nobodies (UVa, NCState, Syracuse).
Athlon released its preseason PAC 12 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th teams. Utah with 1 offensive player (Uhatafe -OL) on third team, 5 defensive players (Hansen and Lowell 1st, Fitts 2nd, Mokofisi 3rd, Luafatasuaga 4th) and 1 specialist (Wishnowski 1st). No other team with 1 or fewer offensive players. Washington with 6, USC and Stanford both with 5 defensive players.
https://athlonsports.com/college-foo...onference-team.
So, I guess my question is whether there is anyone on the offensive side of the ball with the ability to move into the top 3rd of the league at their position. Absent an injury to one of the 4 NFL bound QB's, I don't think it happens at that QB. RB is a possibility, especially since they list 8 guys. My feeling RB will be a collaborative effort throughout the season due to injuries, ineffectiveness and turnovers. Shyne will be limited early due to his ACL. Moss has the ability but was inconsistent, has injury problems (including spring) and turnover problems. I see the other guys as change-up guys and not every down backs. WR - Singleton could be that guy. TE - Handley if he can stay healthy. Of course WR/TE production assumes that we stick with the plan to throw the ball 35 or so times a game after September. OL - Bolles was an anomaly because he came in with a lot of hype and notoriety. Otherwise I think OL grow into all conference players over the course of years.
Let's hope that the sum of the offensive parts is greater than the individual talent.
I don't think Singleton will be a top WR in this conference. The competition is just too stiff. Top WRs in the Pac-12 are future early draft picks.
I don't think we have any future NFL WR's on the roster. The only way any WR/TE reaches that level is by sheer volume due to a change in the offense. I don't think the guys listed from WSU are NFL guys. They benefit from the number of balls thrown to them over the course of the season.
Is Penn State still a king?
Any team that can score on seven straight drives against a very good USC team in a big bowl game has to be considered at least an At-Large king.
Bob Stoops to announce his retirement. From Oklahoma. In June.
Last edited by Dwight Schr-Ute; 06-07-2017 at 01:17 PM.
That's where I'd have them.
I don't think we are any worse than last year, but the schedule is BRUTAL and we probably only get 7 wins.
The 2017 Media Guide is out and here are a couple of my observations.
We are a pretty young team.The Utes have 17 scholarship seniors, this does not include Cooper Bateman or Cody Ippolito. I don't know if they will be awarded scholarships or not. Several will not be rotation players: Christian Drews ( walk-on who was recently awarded a scholarship and will play mostly special teams), Jameson Field, Kyle Fulks ( I hope he can provide some help returning kicks and at WR, but I am skeptical that he will do much at WR), Marcus Sanders-Williams (back at RB), Kenric Young (See Fulks).
There are only 6 scholarship returned missionaries and signed two guys who will leave on missions before enrolling. To the best of my recollection, Utah currently has 2 guys on missions, Covey and TJ Kautai and it is possible that Kautai has returned and gone somewhere else. These numbers seems low from years past. Is it a trend? Are we recruiting fewer LDS kids who plan on taking missions? A guy I know commented on how many transfer missionaries BYU is getting. While I know that Utah wanted and was interested in most of them, none of them are guys that we cannot replace with equal or better talent in the regular course of recruiting. BYU, on the other hand, needs those guys, because they cannot replace them in the normal course of recruiting.
Our pass defense was 6th in the PAC 12 a year ago and our total defense was 6th. Our pass defense should be better.
We were 4th is scoring defense, but I wonder if that was in part due to the offense not turning the ball over and putting the defense in a vulnerable position.
We were 50% scoring touchdowns once we reached the redzone (27/54). The opposition was 62% (23/37). We reached the redzone 17 times more than the opposition, but only scored 4 more touchdowns. We scored 14 offensive touchdowns from outside the redzone. The opposition scored 13 touchdowns from outside the redzone. We gave up a lot of big play touchdowns.
We scored 73 points in the 1st quarter (opponents 95), 111 in 2nd (opp.61), 92 in 3rd (opp. 62) and 112 in 4th (opp. 93). Interesting that 1st and 3rd were our lowest performing - why so flat coming out of the gate and out of half? Does the oppositions offensive output in 1st due in part to our lack of offense? Does the oppositions output in the 4th due to more conservative defense?
We fumbled 32 times and lost only 17. We only threw 8 interceptions. The opposition threw 18 interceptions and lost 13 of 22 fumbles. We lost the turnover battle against BYU (6/4) and CU (4/2). We were even against Oregon St. and ASU. Can we win the turnover battle in 2017?
We need to score more touchdowns when we reach the redzone. We need to continue to win the turnover battle. We need to be better at pass defense. If we do these things, we can have a successful season. To me, that means 8+ wins.
However, this season will be determined by the development of the OL and on finding a reliable field goal kicker. I am concerned that Barton is our best option at LT, because I think he lacks the necessary athleticism to play against elite defensive ends. I think the same may be true of Uhatafe at RT. I believe we have the same level of talent on the defense as in years past. I expect Troy Williams to be significantly better this year then last and if he is beaten out by Huntley or Bateman, then QB play will be better. I am a little concerned about RB because Shyne is coming off a significant injury (I watched the Arizona game on PAC 12 today and there really was no reason he needed to be in the game at the time the injury occurred although both Moss and McCormick were out with injuries), Moss seems to be injury prone and Henry-Cole, while excellent in Spring, is unproven. Behind them are a Marcus Sanders-Williams and a true freshman. I think we will be better at WR and hopefully Handley and Siale can stay healthy. Siale is the total package at TE and can really create problems for a defense.
I think we get to 6 wins and I believe that 8 is most likely. We will need to have good fortune on the injuries and the quirky bounce of the ball to get more than 8.
I believe the following are also all missionaries:
Vimahi
Suguturaga
T. Pututau
F. Pututau
K. Bills
C. Fotheringham
S. Lauaki
J. Maea
RJ Hubert
Wow. I totally missed on that. The burning question is how many will enroll at BYU.
The first three already rejected Kalani once. Don't know why they wouldn't reject him again.
All of the guys listed rejected Kalani once, but he really only had a short time to try to recruit the 2016 signees. Fotheringham is interesting because he is a TE and there is a question of how much Utah will use a TE moving forward with the Troy Taylor offense. Vimahi is listed on the roster this year, so maybe he plans to play a year first. All of the guys you identified signed LOI's with the Utes with the exception of Hubert. It will be interesting to see if the Utes ask any of the 2016 guys to sign LOI's in December.
Great breakdown.
It seemed like our D struggled a bit more last year than normal. Rookie DC? PAC-12 OCs getting a good handle on Utah's variant of the 4-3? Just crazy good PAC-12 QBs dropping dimes? Maybe some combinations, maybe other factors? I don't know, but I think Scalley has us playing better D, this year.
OL is a big question, because of the four NFL draftees, but also because the scheme changes quite a bit under Taylor. Given the time limitations in college ball, is Harding going with a full overhaul, or giving the returning OL a half-step up by modifying the existing system? The OL inexperience *might* be mitigated a bit by the quick passing game. Instead of prying holes against a D that has a strong idea that we'll be running, these guys will keeping defenders off the QB for a shorter time, and running fewer traps and pulling plays... or so it would seem.
We have enough incoming - or holdover non-starters - among the WRs that I'm not worried about them. We have enough talent at RB to find some contributors. Harding has the toughest job this year, which is what happens when you have four of your guys drafted.
It would be great to have another year of Phillips, but that's not the case. Kicker is going to be a big factor, especially with a new offense. If we're within striking distance, we need to get points.
If Taylor and Williams/Huntley/Bateman get this offense producing at a higher level, we can get to 9 wins, maybe more. Otherwise, with all the changes, 7 wins feels about right, to me.
I will say that Fulks looked much better in spring ball. He caught a lot more balls and dropped very few.
One additional observation.
The Media Guide lists only 76 scholarship athletes. There are guys like Bateman, Ippolito and Liljenquist who might be receiving scholarships, but that still leaves us well below the 85 allotted scholarships. We already have 21 guys listed as starting their eligibility, so we can only add 4 more initials for 2017.
I know the NCAA passed a rule prohibiting push forwards, but do not know if that goes into effect this year. We have had a lot of guys leave the program since the end o the 2016 season:
D McClellon WR (2016) Transfer C Manning QB (2016) Transfer D Young RB (2016) Medical H Lutui OL (2016) Medical S Tu’ikolovaka (2016) USC C Smith LB (2016) M Seabrook CB (2016) A Lee S (2016) BYU B Cox QB (2016) K Huey DE (2016) Marcel Manalo RB (2016) T Williams CB (2016) T Cisrow S (2017) J Fogal S (2017) CSU A Godfrey S (2017) V Vainuku (2017) Medical
I agree about the 7 wins. Did our D struggle? I think a lot blame was out unfairly on D because our offense didn't perform in the red zone, leaving games closer than they ever should have been.
Kicker...I think we have 4 or 5 with the team right now. Odds have to be in our favor, right?
I know there are two transfers that are almost Utes. That would be two more scholarships taken.
Shah loves his CB's right now. Blackmon and Hughes, he glows about.
Here are my comparisons so far:
QB: better this year. Troy is healthy and we have a lot of depth.
RB: worse. The good news is we won't use them as much this year. Ha ha.
WR: better. Simpkins, Singleton and Wilson are all better. Hampton is very good. Fulks is better. Dana has a lot of talent. There isn't anyone as good as Patrick, but receivers 2-7 are miles better than last year.
TE: Better. Fakailoatonga is a stud. Handley is better.
OL: worse. But I do think the change in offense lessens this blow.
DL: better. Lotulelei was hurt a lot of last year. Moko is a beast. Fitts has potential to be our best DE ever (potential to be). Anae is amazing for a soph. Fotu is a monster. The kid from Snow is very, very good. Tupai is very good. Hart finally looks like he is going to take playing time. Repp, Hamilton.... I could go on and on. Our DL is freaking stacked. We could have 8-10 NFL players on this DL (not all leaving next year).
LB: Better. Luafatasaga has potential to be All PAC-12. Tauteoli is better. Thompson is better. Hansen and Blair will play some LBer.
CB: I'd say worse, Shah would say push.
S: everyone thinks push. Williams was great, no denying that. But Hansen is almost as good, if not just as good (but in different ways). Ballard is really, really good. Blair has potential. Afia has looked really good. We are much deeper this year. Our backup S, Fogal, left because we fell off the depth chart.
K: worse. Like I said, we have 4 or 5, trying to find one.
P: Better.
I think we may be better this year than last. It's too bad our schedule is so much tougher.
Last year's schedule might be the easiest we ever get, with USC early and after Stanford and Alabama.
We miss OSU and Cal.
Although we might be better as a team, our schedule is INSANE.
I agree with Ma'ake. 7 wins is a very good season. 8 is a great season. 9+...wow. Holy shoot. Taylor is a God and we need to pay him real coordinator money ($1,000,000 per).
Last edited by Utah; 07-16-2017 at 11:45 PM.
An exciting start of the season for Ol' Miss fans.
Today marks 32 days until kickoff! Let's remember when Georgia Tech scored 32 touchdowns against Cumberland!
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Rushing Yards 978
Passing Attempts 0
Well, their tactics haven't changed all that much in the last century
And here's a very lifelike re-enactment of the game.
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