To me, next year all depends on huntley. Can he improve his accuracy on throws 10-20 yards. He seemed to have better accuracy before his injury, and they brought him back too soon. Most important, can he run the offense better, integrate other skill players esp. Moss better, and be less self reliant. I hope a years experince will show a lot of growth re game management.Originally Posted by Utah
I hope Taylor sits down with Huntley and goes through all his run options and run/pass options plays and they digest how much better the Utes could be and how much more Huntley can be on the field if he doesn't try to do everything himself. ARod did that with Travis on interceptions after the last 5-7 season and Travis cut down the number of interceptions significantly and the Utes improved to 9-3.
Kyle has said publicly, at least twice that I've heard, that They want Moss to have more carries and Huntley fewer. I imagine they will try to pound that into Huntley.
(Kyle also said he wants Tyler to put on 10-20 pounds so he can survive as a QB who loves to run.)
"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
Taking a look back at 2016 and 2017 offensive statistics. The offensive line was a complete overhaul for 2017, but I would say that the addition of Carrington made the WR group significantly better than the 2016 group and Moss was not as explosive as Joe Williams. Overall, the statistics are pretty comparable. What are reasonable expectations for 2018?
2017 2016
W/L 7-6 9-4
Points 29.54 29.85
1st Downs R 133 144
1st Downs P 136 118
1st Downs Pen 30 23
Rush Attemps 526 570
Rush yds. 2,123 2,782
YPC 4.1 4.9
Pass Attempts 427 399
Completions 261 212
Yards 3,242 2,817
Ave. per Att. 7.59 7.06
Touchdowns 40 46
Interceptions 14 8
Fumbles lost 12 17
3rd Down Conv. 35.23 38.34
Red Zone 63 54
Touchdowns 33 (.52) 27 (.5)
I have noticed an interesting development over the past few years and that is the use of outside trainers by current college football and basketball players. Aspiring high school kids have used trainers for years to help them develop and to make contact with college coaches, but during my time working closely with Utah football (2005-2012) I cannot remember any players working with private trainers while they were members of the football teams. Players preparing for the NFL draft did so, but that was after the season ended. I wonder how college coaches feel about this. I bring this up because there have been a number of tweets from former BYU player Jordan Pendleton who has been working with recently returned missionary Cole Fotheringham. I also remember a story about Samson Nacua, Julian Blackmon and Nacua's younger brother working with a former BYU WR.
There was a tweet about Covey working out with Pendleton as well. I think it makes a lot of sense for guys like Covey and Fotheringham who have to get back into shape post-mission, but I would think that once players are fully integrated with the program that the strength and conditioning stuff should be handled by the program.
So, I took this off twitter and thought it would be fun. Favorite all-time Utes.
QB: Alex Smith;
RB: Chris Fuamatu-Maʻafala;
WR: Steve Smith;
TE/Utility: Henry Lusk;
OL: Asiata;
DL: Luther Ellis;
LB: Gionni Paul;
CB: Andre Dyson;
S: Robert Johnson;
K: Louie Sakoda;
P: Tom Hackett;
KR/PR: Erroll Tucker
QB: Alex Smith;
RB: Mike Anderson
WR: Bryan Rowley
TE/Utility: Dennis Smith
OL: Jordan Gross
DL: Luther Ellis
LB:Kautai OlaveoStevenson Sylvester
CB: Sean Smith
S: Eric Weddle
K: Andre Guardi
P: Tom Hackett
KR/PR: Erroll Tucker
After thinking about it, I had to change out my LB choice.
Last edited by chrisrenrut; 06-04-2018 at 07:45 AM.
“To me there is no dishonor in being wrong and learning. There is dishonor in willful ignorance and there is dishonor in disrespect.” James Hatch, former Navy Seal and current Yale student.
Three things I'd like to see in 2018 that will improve our chances considerably in winning the South:
1. The less time the ball is in Tyler Huntley's hands, the better we'll be. Vince Young, who is 100X the runner Tyler is, never had as many carries in a single season as Tyler did last year. Huntley's sack rate of 1/10.4 attempts is brutal, almost unforgivable. Troy Williams' was slightly better at 1/13.75; as a team, Utah was 103/130 nationally in sack percentage rate. Now, to be fair, Utah has been mediocre in this state for some time -- the last time it ranked anywhere close to the top half of all of CFB was in 2010, when we were fourth nationally. And with a spread option attack, sack rates are always higher for such offenses (We were not a spread-option team in 2010 with Jordan Wynn as our QB). But Huntley is the least dynamic player we have at the skill positions -- he needs to be passing more and handing off more, and running less. 5-7 times per game to keep teams honest.
2. A game-changer in the return game. For as dominant as our STs have been under Kyle, they've almost always included a dynamo in the return game (Shaky Smithson, Reggie Dunn, Kaelin Clay, Cory Butler-Byrd). While our punt return game last year was above average based on our Pac-12 history, last year's kickoff return game was our worst ever and well under the bar we've set in this area.
Kickoff return national team rankings in the Pac-12 era (based on average yards per return)
2017: 116
2016: 20
2015: 46
2014: 17
2013: 111
2012: 6
2011: 35
Punt return national team ranking (also based on average yards per return)
2017: 27
2016: 70
2015: 38
2014: 8
2013: 42
2012: 104
2011: 52
The good news is, having Britain Covey back should help. The bad news is (and it's not really bad, because it affects everyone), the new kickoff rules could adversely affect any threat we have in the kick return game.
3. Better luck in one-score games in league games, and playing in fewer of them.
2017: 1-4
2016: 3-4
2015: 2-2
2014: 5-2
2013: 2-3
2012: 1-1
2011: 1-2
We play in too many such games, and we're losing more of them as of late. There's a lot that can be said about such a stat, and not all years should be viewed in the same context. I've also taken out the non-con and bowl games from this (which would add significantly to the totals, most of them wins). We're simply not a team that's gonna apply many pillar-to-post whuppings under Kyle, but we can win more close games, or win more games by more than a single possession. I think part of our November failures over the years hasn't been the physical strain (because everyone has injuries), but the mental strain of playing so in so many nail-biting games.
Last edited by SoCalPat; 06-04-2018 at 11:16 AM.
I'm interested to see what happens here. We ran the ball so much better when we didn't run RPOs last season. But I don't think we're ready to give up on the RPO. I hope we either:
1) Figure out the RPO and make it the core of the offense. If it's working, Huntley should mostly be passing, pitching, or handing off. The 5-7 carry quota will happen naturally as Huntley learns to read the defense and as the offense learns to play RPO.
or
2) We abandon the RPO altogether.
What I hope doesn't happen is a hybrid where we sometimes are RPO and sometimes more traditional. I just think that sounds like a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none scenario.
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