Tuesday, September 3. 2013Red, Blue And Pigskin
The state of Utah houses 5 Division 1 football teams, with Utah, Utah State, and BYU in 1-A and Southern Utah, and Weber State in 1-AA. 4 of those teams played division 1A opponents this past week, with 3 of those games being against out of state foes on the road. 2 of them lost, but it was in against an in-state opponent, leaving just 1 of the 5 division 1 football teams in this state to lose to a non in state opponent.
And with that countdown out of the way, let's review what went down in the first week. Beware The Cupcake
First things first, big props to Southern Utah, and the 7 other members of Division 1-AA who proved why these crappy prostitution games are a terrible idea. Southern Utah beat 1-A transitional South Alabama, Samford beat 1-A transitional Georgia State. In more traditional upsets Towson beat UConn by 15 points, Eastern Illinois beat San Diego State by 11, McNeese State beat South Florida by 31, and Northern Iowa beat Iowa State by an 8 point margin. There's a tossup though for biggest upset of the week. First up Eastern Washington, who had given Washington and Washington State, finally moved out of the state of Washington and found success against a BCS team. Eastern Washington defeated 25th ranked Oregon State 49 to 46 in a game where they managed to accrue 625 of the 1152 total combined offensive yards in the game. The other option is two time Division 1-AA defending champion North Dakota State Bison, trailing Defending Big XII Champion Kansas State by 4 points with just over 9 minutes to go in the game, in Manhattan Kansas. The Bison received the punt and put together a 18 play 9 minute drive down the field to punch in the winning TD with just seconds left in the game. While there were plenty of examples of Division 1-A teams digesting their cupcakes without any heartburn, these 8 above show that unless you are an Oregon against Nicholls State, or Georgia Tech against Elon (Elon actually requested, and received a running clock for the fourth quarter), there's plenty of risk in these crappy games, with very little upside. This is particularly of interest to the Utes this week. Five And A Half Hours Later The honeymoon's over. I'd say that didn't last long, but anyone who was forced to wait out the 2 plus hour weather delay during the BYU/Virginia game, and then actually watch the rest of the game would probably disagree with me. Entering the season there had been a lot of talk about BYU's new "Go fast, Go hard" offensive philosophy. But as I warned a little while ago, the Cougars had already been down this road with Robert Anae, and they already knew what his offense was. Go fast, Go hard, are great buzzwords, but essentially all it meant, was the same offense, just more of it. Now granted there were some extra issues in this game that may have had an effect on the offense. The big one, was Cody Hoffman being out with a hamstring injury. This should be worrisome for Cougar Fans as WR's and hamstrings can end up being an all year issue. Second the obvious, the two hour rain delay, the wet field, wet ball, and rain during halftime and third quarters. The problem with these excuses is that the offense was pretty bad in the first quarter before the delay. After about the first 20 minutes, real time, or so the physical effects of the delay are gone. The real problem with the wet field, and wet ball, is that the Cougars never took advantage of what those two effects can give you. Contrary to popular belief, a passing game has a better advantage on a wet field than a running game does. The reason for this is it's hard to make quick changes, and while WR's would still have a problem with cuts, defenders have an even tougher time, because not only do they make the cut, but they have to do it reactionary. With a running game, it's mostly about angles. If you are going to run it though, take advantage of the wet field with misdirection plays, reverses, etc. Get a defense going one way, and switch directions (reverses work great because the runner isn't changing direction.) With no footing you'll get slippage on the defense. Byu could never get much of a passing game together with Taysom Hill going 13-40. A good reason for this might be because of their absolutely horrendous OL. Their OL was consistently getting blown up at the line of scrimmage. The defenders were constantly getting a push multiple yards in the backfield. This could also be why the Cougars didn't want to call any misdirection plays. They may have worried about the OL's ability to sustain blocks. All of which makes Jamaal Williams' day all the more impressive. He had plenty of runs that got stuffed, but eventually he was able to fight his way to an 144 yard day on 34 carries. Williams did have some ball handling issues, with a couple fumbles, and the most important missed drop of the day. We'll get to that later. A Tough Hill To Climb Hill was dreadful during the game. Not just his numbers (13-40 175 yards 1 TD, 1INT), but just his overall performance. While he did have a couple good runs, overall in the run game he wasn't as explosive as he was last year. It seemed like his knee brace was bothering him. Because of the porous OL he, and Williams both, ended up taking some big hits. In the throw game, he was worse than the numbers suggested. Many of his passes were just bad, and he never really went through read progressions. Of course this is only his third game of action, and he was without his #1 WR, and in pretty terrible weather conditions. With the aforementioned caveats mentioned, and re-emphasizing the small sample size, I have to wonder if Hill is what he is. We've seen him for 2 and a half games now, and all those seem to have gone through the same pattern. For most of each half, the offense with hill seems to sputter, with the occasional good gain before a punt. Mostly Hill runs, but when he does pass it's sporadic, and very hit and miss. Give Hill credit because he doesn't consistently under or over throw, he's very good at mixing up the over and under throw. And than approximately once per half Hill gets into a quick rhythm. He'll start with some quick passes, and all of a sudden he gets a drive going that scores. The next drive though, it's back to the inconsistency. Which leaves the ball in the hands, and mostly Kyle Van Oy to try and save the game. Against Virginia, BYU was the one who got Van Oy'd by Virginia Anthony Harris who was a beast. Harris blocked a punt, and intercepted a pass, which led to Virginia's two Touch Downs. He also was in the backfield during the fumble that led to Virginia's Safety. Speaking Of That Interception All of the above issues with the offense, and the yet mentioned issues with the defense aside, this game turned on a very terrible coaching decision. I don't know if it was Bronco, or if it was Anae who decided to call the pass play with just over 3:00 to go, up by 4, and at their own 34. Before I begin explaining why it was such a bad play call, I'll get the qualifiers out of the way. It was a good pass, and Jamal Williams should have caught the ball. Had it been completed, first down or not, nobody would really be saying much or even thinking twice about the play. Nobody would be saying anything even if it had just gone incomplete. Coaches call the plays, but Players have to execute, which they didn't. Now that's out of the way here's why it's a terrible decision to make that play call. Obviously players didn't execute, and instead of catching the pass, the ball bounced off of Jamaal Williams' hands, into the arms of a Anthony Harris, who lateraled to a teammate who was then able to set the Cavaliers up at the 12 yard line. Secondly, Virginia had no offense game to speak of. Early on in the game, the Offensive line for the Cavs were pushing around the defensive line of the Cougars, especially up the middle, to get good chunks on the ground game. However once the Cougars realized that the Cavaliers passing attack was less effective than the Cougars own passing attack last year with an injured Riley Nelson, they were able to shift some linebackers and stuff the run. There is a reason both teams punted at least 11 times, and it wasn't really because of the rain. It's because both offenses were in a competition to out suck each other, and Virginia was clearly winning that battle. Virginia also only had 1 timeout left in the game. You run the ball, you keep the clock moving, you punt the ball the next play and Virginia, whose longest drive of the game was 47 yards at the end of the half aided by a prevent like defense for BYU, would then have to go around 70 yards to score a TD, with only 1 timeout and probably less than 2:30 to go in the game. Yes it was a low risk pass, but with the ball as wet as it is, crazy bounces happen. The ball should have stayed on the ground. Bronco should have put his trust and the game in the hands of his Defenses, instead of in the hands of a Sophomore QB playing his 3rd game, who had been pretty bad that day. Moving Forward I mentioned last week how much like two years ago BYU Follows up a trip east against a bad BCS team with a game against the Longhorns. Much like two years ago, it was a pretty crappy game that was just begging for Kyle Van Oy to take over the game and save BYU. Unlike two years ago, Van Oy wasn't able to produce the miracle, as Anthony Harris beat him at his own game. Maybe that means the Longhorn game might have a different outcome? Unfortunately for Byu that different outcome is likely to be Texas still wins, but by more than a point. Granted not a lot can be taken from Texas' 56-7 victory, because in all honesty New Mexico State should be in the lower half of Division 1-AA. That being said, Texas still looks to be much improved over the mediocrity of the past few years. For the first time since Colt McCoy left, the Longhorns have an upperclassmen quarterback they like in David Ash. Of Course this is the same David Ash who was part of the trifecta of terrible the Longhorns put out at Quarterback two years ago, As was the one who seemed to inspire the offense the most back when he was a freshman. The other big difference between this game and two years ago, is it's being played in Provo, but then again the psyche of the BYU fan base may be a bit wounded right now, so I'm not sure how much of a home field advantage it will be in the long run. I do think the BYU Fan will help power the Cougars early, and may even see the Cougars holding a 3 to 7 point lead entering the second quarter, before they eventually get overtaken by the Longhorns, making the Cougars enter the bye week prior to the Holy War with an 0-2 record. Better Than Advertised Turns out Aggie fans had good reason to put their faith in Chucky Keeton. Entering the season Keeton was the consensus best qb in the state, but that was mainly due to Wilson's lack of experience, and nobody really knowing what Hill had. If Keeton continues to perform the way he did against Utah he'll easily retain the title. Continued performances like that will also mean he'll have to think hard about whether he wants to come back next year to defend that title. We all know Keeton was dangerous on the ground, and last Thursday was no exception, as Keeton ran for 85 yards on 15 carries. Keeton also managed to turn multiple sacks into "you can't get me" positive plays for the Aggies. Utah's defensive line had a pretty good game, especially Nate Orchard, Trevor Reilly, and Tenny Palepoi, who were all over the field, and quite often in the offensive backfield. Unfortunately for them Keeton kept their nights from being great, simply because they couldn't keep a hold of him. The biggest difference between Keeton last year and this year, though, was with his arm. He's a much more confident passer than he was a year ago. He also was looking downfield as he scrambled to try and keep the passing options open. On the night he was 31 of 40 for 314 yards and 2 Td's. The Utes may have won the game, but Keeton stole the show. It's too bad that Keeton plays for the Aggies, and his chances to make a national splash are limited. He'll get another opportunity in three weeks against USC, and one more chance against Boise State, but other than that, he just won't get the publicity he deserves. Whereas if he were in, say, Kyle Station, he'd probably have a nickname, like maybe Chucky Football, but definitely wouldn't be such a head ache. Steps Forward, Steps Backward Utah meanwhile saw improvement over many areas than the matchup a year ago. Especially at the quarterback position. While Wilson had good numbers on the night (17 of 28, 302 yards, 2 Td's) the biggest improvement came in the throws he was making. There were multiple times where Wilson made a pass that a year ago he wouldn't even have attempted. A few times he even managed to throw the WR open by passing to a spot, instead of passing to a man. That's not to say that Wilson didn't still have his struggles. During the middle portion of the game, when the Utah offense seemed to stall, it was partially because Wilson was still having troubles making a read quick enough. Part of it was due to the relentless, not stop blitz pressure of the Aggies. Wilson spent a lot of time scrambling, and much like Keeton, Wilson was always looking downfield to make a pass until the last possible second. The negative though, was that Wilson seemed to struggle when passing on the move, and many times would under throw, or throw behind a target who had come open. I will say though, that I was impressed at just how difficult Wilson was to bring down, not because he'd escape with his legs, but just that he is a force and a half to get to the ground, even when the defense did get their hands on him. Another area on the team that saw great improvement was the defensive line. I mentioned earlier how Nate Orchard, formerly Fakahafua, Nate Reilly, and Tenny Palepoi actually did a decent job of getting pressure, despite the lack of sacks. What I also noticed was that this defense did a good job of moving laterally from side to side, something that had given them fits quite a bit in past year. But one giveth, and one taketh, and the takeaway from the improved lateral movement seemed to be that the Utes were getting absolutely slashed by the slot receiver running up the field. Two of Utah State's scoring drives were fueled by the TE, or Slot Receiver getting down the field and finding the soft spot in the Zone. Utah better hope it's secondary can get it together so they can go back to the Man press they prefer, because that zone could get torched by the speedier spread teams in the Pac-12. The biggest disappointment of the night though, was the Utes inability to get the hard yards when necessary. Their first score they failed twice within the five to get a TD on the ground before going to the air. Late in the game they were stuffed on three consecutive runs from inside the 4. If the Utes don't find a way to grind out the tough yards, they will really struggle with third downs, and in the red zone. Adjustments Galore This was a very entertaining game. Utah came out early, and pounced on the Aggies. But credit goes to Matt Wells and his staff, as they made some nice adjustments in the second half. They slowed the Utah offense, and were even able to take a 17-14 lead at the half, which they quickly came out in the second half and expanded to 23-14. But Utah wasn't going away. Unlike last year, when the team seemed to have no heart, this year's squad was resilient, and the coaching staff made some great half-time adjustments. They tightened up the secondary, and moved them closer to the line of scrimmage, and started to force the Aggies into quick 3 and out drives. Wilson found his rhythm again and answered the final Aggie Touchdown with a field goal drive. Then Utah decided it was time to turn the game their way and called, and executed a brilliant onside kick. New kicker Andy Phillips, who had a great game going 3 for 3 on field goals, and 3 for 3 on extra points, made the best kick of the night by trickling the ball just hard enough that it had only enough strength to tumble 11 yards. The Aggies were so caught off guard that by the time the front line had stopped their back pedal, the Utes had recovered the onside kick. The Utes then Scored a Touchdown, and out kicked the Aggies on field goals the rest of the night 2 to 1. Four Minute Offense The area that felt like the biggest difference was the play calling. Dennis Erickson called a good game. Although it seemed like it took him too long to call the first down play action pass that he had been setting up all game. The place where this was most obvious was after the Utes took a 24-23 lead. The Aggies quickly bounced back with a field goal, and Erickson switched gears. The Utes answered with a field goal, and then got a defensive stop, at which point the Utes employed their 4 minute offense. The Utes ran the ball down the Aggies throat, kept the clock running, and eventually just ground the game out. So Glad That Didn't Come Back To Bite Me I wrote this two years ago when Byu came back and beat the Aggies in a one point game, after losing the year before.
So imagine my relief when as the clock wound down, not a single Utah fan even pretended like they were going to rush the field. I'm proud of the Utah fans, for knowing that a close victory over the aggies, is clearly not a rush the field worthy game. Of course, we all know Ute fans have had their moments when it comes to rushing the field. Remember Those Div 1-AA Upsets Utah moves on from the Aggies of Utah State, to the Wildcats of Weber State, in a game that will give the Utes absolutely nothing. I hate these games. There is nothing in it for Utah outside of a W. They can't win by enough to get any respect, and if they do manage a blowout, well then it was againt Weber State. Also, as we saw in week 1, there is that ever present threat of the upset. Any film the Utes get from the game isn't really of value, because the Wildcats aren't anywhere near the level of any opponent they'll face this season. About the only thing the Utes can get out of this game is more injuries. I'll be so happy when the playoff is in effect, and theses games begin to go by the wayside. At least the Utes are helping out an in state team this year. View From The Red Zone I was ready for football on Thursday. I'm sure you were finally ready for football on Thursday. The teams sure were ready for football on Thursday. I'm not 100% convinced that Rice-Eccles was ready for football on Thursday. The sound system in the stadium was terrible last week, worse than normal, with sound cutting in and out, and going from too loud to too quiet. The Video board was showing it's age, as for about 5 minutes in the second quarter half of the screen wouldn't refresh. Heck, they didn't even have all the garbage cans in place until the second quarter. While the stadium wasn't ready the fans were, and they brought a lot of noise and energy with them. The stripe the stadium marketing gimmick looked cool, but can we please stop with them. The MUSS, and the North End Zone were pumped and ready, which makes the Utah State Offensive Line's performance all the more impressive. You can tell this is an experienced group, with 4 seniors and 1 junior, as despite the noise and the atmosphere they didn't have a singe false start all game, and for the most part played disciplined football. The rest of the Aggies, not so much, but the OL was impressive, and is definitely a benefit for Keeton. Jake Heaps Tracker So I didn't realize when I looked at the schedule last week that Kansas' game against South Dakota wasn't until this week, but Heaps still won the first week simply by not being involved in that offensive mess in Charlottesville. Heaps gets to officially begin his post BYU career with a walk over game against South Dakota that will tell us approximately zero about the rest of his season. Trackbacks
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