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Jamarcus Russell would look good against the Lobos. I wouldn't spend too much time touting him when it took and entire 1st half to get going.
Thursday, September 23. 2010Red, Blue And Pigskin
Do you realize we are already a quarter of the way through the season. Ahh glorious football, why must you be so fleeting. At least that means we still have three quarters of the season to go. So what happened this week in the quarter pole game? Well the cougars showed up for a quarter, and the Utes spotted the Lobos a quarter before destorying them for the other three quarters. History repeated itself twice this week, once from last year, and once from just last week. Finally, the BYU QB situation has figured itself out, but after watching the games the last two weeks it really may not matter.
The Night the Lights Went Out
As the Utes and Lobos were in for the Halftime break, it started to get dark enough that lights were needed at the stadium. Only one problem, the lights wouldn't come on. Before home games, New Mexico has a huge blow up Lobo that they put at the end of their tunnel to let their players run out of. Only before the game the Lobo wouldn't blow up, and instead just sat there deflated. The staff had to drag the dead deflated Lobo off the field. The football gods are a humorous bunch who are into symbolism. The Lobos, the team this time, is a dead deflated group. The Utes absolutely destroyed them 56-14, despite a sloppy first quarter when the offense took a bit to get going. The Utes fumbled on their first possession, and tried fumbling again on their second possession, if not for Brad Clifford getting the ball. There was no fight from the Lobos the rest of the night, until the Utes put in their second and third stringers. The Lobos have now been outscored 180-31, and rank at the bottom, or near the bottom of most statistical categories. For the third straight week, I wonder how it is that Mike Locksley was able to enter the season as Head Coach, let alone why he isn't let go immediately. It's sad to see the Lobos in such disarray. The Utes Badly Need a Wynn Last year, I was all for Redshirting Wynn, under the premise that Cain was effective enough as a QB to lead the team, despite the lack of flow the offense had with him in there. Then Wynn came in during the Wyoming game, and the Offense completely changed. It opened up. In the last two games, Cain has been the starter in replace of an injured Wynn. Cain's numbers have been terrific. On the year he is 33 of 43, for 455 yards, 5 TD's and 0 INT's. Cain is proving to be a very efficient QB, and can manage the offense. The problem is, there is just no flow or rhythm to the offense when he's in there. In each of these last two games, the Offense has been nearly stagnant for the majority of the first half, before waking up in the second half. Cain does look more comfortable as the QB than he did last year. It's nice to know that if he's needed, the Utes have a backup who won't lose them the game. I just don't think that in the important games (TCU, ND, BYU), that Cain would be able to go out and win the game. That's why, despite the efficient manner in which he has led the team the last two weeks, Wynn is this team's QB, no matter how much media try to generate a QB Controversy. With the Iowa State game coming up in 3 weeks, and San Jose State being the last game before the Cyclones, look for the Return of Wynn, but don't look for a full game out of Wynn. I would expect Wynn to play about a half, to get the rust off. Then Cain can come in. Watch for it though, because with two more pass attempts, Cain becomes the national leader in passing efficiency. Shaky, Rattle & Roll History repeated itself for Shaky Smithson this week. After his 205 total yards last week, he topped himself in New Mexico. This week, though it was all special teams. Well all but 1 rushing yard. Two kickoff returns for 83 yards, and 4 punt returns for 140 yards, including a 73 yard TD, gave Shaky his second consecutive Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Week award. Shaky now leads the nation in punt return yardage, by a margin of 69 yards. He's second in the nation in punt return average. And he's tied for first in punt return TD's. Not too bad for a guy who wanted to burrow through the ground to find a place to hide after his fumble in week 1. Since that week 1 debacle, the only real complaint one could make about Shaky, is that stutter step he has a tendency to make during returns, when he's trying to find a lane. Scrimmage Season Continues Again, not a whole lot to look forward to this week, as Shaky, Defensive Player of the Week Lamar Chapman, and the Rest of the Utes welcome San Jose State to Rice Eccles Stadium. Much like UNLV, and New Mexico, this shouldn't be much of a game. Although the Spartans did give the Terrance Cain led Utes a scare last year in California. This is another chance for the Utes to tune up, with a possible Admiral Ackbar sighting in their near future. Hopefully the Utes can take care of business early. Give Wynn a chance to work off some rust, let Cain get his two passes in to become the most efficient QB in the nation, and get some more work for Robles, and the other young guys. Who knows, maybe we can get another Vakapuna TD for the Utes. No Fui! Much like last week, the main goal, is to work on some issues, and come out of this game healthy. Week 3 Strikes Again Last year in week 3 BYU Welcomed in Florida State. In a game that coach Bronco Mendenhall later admitted he didn't take as serious as he should, the Seminoles absolutely humiliated the Cougars at home, snapping their 18 game home winning streak with a 54-28 victory. This year week 3 once again saw BYU facing the Seminoles, this time in Tallahassee. Although the score was closer, the domination was no less prevalent. Florida State moved the ball at will on the ground, while the Cougars could must almost no offense. Save for two drives at the end of the second quarter, the Cougars offense seemed to have missed the plane flight. FSU meanwhile racked up 427 yards of total offense, including 278 on the ground. Seminole QB Christian Ponder continually caused problems for the Cougars with his ability to run the ball. Meanwhile Seminole RB Chris Thompson wishes he could always play BYU as he had a 13.7 yards per carry average, aided greatly by an 83 yard TD run. Defensively the Cougars were an absolute mess. Many times they would meet the Seminole ball carrier with an opportunity to make a great stop. Instead, Cougar defender, after Cougar defender missed a tackle. It was not an uncommon site to see a Seminole break four, five, or six tackles on a single play. Offensively BYU was able to actually get some movement on the ground. Di Luigi gained 93 yards with a 5.2 yards per carry average. Unfortunately for the Cougars, the Air game was non existant, and with the defense unable to make a tackle, they couldn't focus on the run as much as would have been needed to win. Though some good news came out of the Week 3 curse. The football gods may have decided to save the Cougars from their head coach. Indecision Decided Through three weeks the two qb system has been an outright disaster for the Cougars. The two QB didn't cost them a win versus Washington, and while the Cougars would have lost anyways against Air Force and FSU, the two QB system was terrible. After the debacle against Air Force, Coach Bronco Mendenhall separated himself from any QB Decision while driving a bus over his assistants. So after the 4th drive when Riley Nelson didn't see anymore playing time, and Heaps was the QB solely many had hoped that Bronco had finally come to the realization that anybody not in the Nelson family knew, Heaps was the QB to start. Then came the weekly conference call with reporters during which Mendenhall stated that he was leaning towards playing both QB's again. This call was at 11 a.m. on Tuesday. It's interesting that Mendenhall was planning to be playing both QB's, about the same time that Riley Nelson was planning to have season ending surgery. An hour after the conference call, Riley Nelson announced that he had a torn labrum in his non throwing shoulder, and would have season ending surgery. All jokes aside about Nelson's non throwing shoulder being both of them, and all questions aside about Bronco's disconnect with his team, Nelson's injury, as unfortunate as it is for him, may be a blessing in disguise for the Cougars. With Nelson benched, this becomes Heaps' team. His comments after the news came out are very telling. Heaps came to BYU to be the man, he didn't want to split time, he didn't want to be in a two QB system. In the long run this is what's best for the Cougars. Even in the short run this is what's best for the Cougars. But just because Heaps is the QB doesn't mean this team will immediately get back to the winning ways of a few years ago. Heaps has a few issues. First he's a pocket QB, which means he's not much of a scrambler. With the Cougar OL this year, that may be a problem. One benefit about Heaps being the man, is that Playboy All-American Tackle Matt Reynolds can stop flip-flopping between the right and left side of the line, and instead take his spot as the protector of the blind side. Heaps also has a tendency to lock onto his primary receiver, and not make check downs. This can lead to the Defense keying on the QB and getting interceptions. He also needs to learn to throw with some touch. He's a gunslinger, and he's can really rocket the passes in. In shorter passing situations touch is nice. Finally he takes too long to make a decision. With a good OL this is a bad idea. With the Cougars OL this is a terrible idea. It helped lead to a bunch of sacks in the FSU game. It's also the biggest cause of Heaps fumbling in that game. The good news is that all of these are typical for young QB's, and can be fixed over the next little while, as Heaps gets playing time. The bad news, judging by the WR's and RB's it may not matter who the QB is. Here's an idea, Catch BYU WR's and RB need to catch the freaking ball. WR O'Neill Chambers may be a lost cause, but the rest of the WR's and RB's have had a serious case of the drops so far this season. Drops kill drives. Drops kill QB Confidence. Drops kill QB and WR chemistry. Much like the BYU Defense has had a hard time holding on to opposing players, the Offense seems to have a hard time holding on to the Ball. Some of the drops may have been caused by the fact that they had two completely different types of QB's throwing to them. It's hard to go from a Soft Touch, to a Rocket Pass. Whatever the reason, if the ball keeps hitting the turf, the offense will stay near the bottom of the Rankings. BYU gets to play Admiral Ackbar This week Nevada comes to BYU. The Wolf Pack are favored by 4 points. They also feature an outstanding triple option "pistol" offense. QB Colin Kaepernick may be the most difficult of the 4 running QB's that BYU has faced this season. Rushing wise Nevada is 5th in the with 302 yards per game. Passing wise they aren't so bad, ranked 29th with 258.7 yards per game. Their 50.7 points per game is 4th. Considering Nevada's strength is BYU's weakness (rush offense vs. rush defense), this game could easily be another loss for the Cougars, which is why many are predicting it as such. I say beware. As terrible of a job as Mendenhall has done so far this season, he's still a decent coach. He's also a proud coach, and being embarassed two weeks in a row can't leave him feeling all that well. If BYU falls into the same issues they've had the last two weeks it could be a 3rd straight loss. However, if BYU can show some pride, hold their assignments, and make a few tackles, they could be the one springing the trap. Boise's Road to Glendale Boise State got back on track this week, after their week 2 loss without playing. Although beating up on Wyoming won't help much in the long run, they at least beat the Cowboys on the Road, by more than Texas beat the Cowboys at home. This week though comes the last of the non cupcake teams on Boise's schedule. The Oregon State Beavers travel to the Smurf Turf. Oregon State is 1-1 after an opening week loss to TCU, and a victory last week against Louisville. The Beavers are a team that gets better as the season wears on. Should Boise State make it out of this game with a victory, their schedule may not be as simple as initially thought. While still not tough enough to get them into the NC Game, Nevada, Fresno State, and Utah State have all seemed very improved this year, and may give the Bronco's a scare. Trackbacks
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Radar on :
Jamarcus Russell would look good against the Lobos. I wouldn't spend too much time touting him when it took and entire 1st half to get going.
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