Monday, April 18. 2011Red, Blue And Pigskin
Unfortunately, this does not signify that College Football is upon us. However, 15,000 fans came out to Rice-Eccles Stadium this past Saturday, to get their first look at these Utes, as the Utes closed spring camp with their 8th annual Red/White spring game.
There were many things for the Utes to display in the game. Who was going to be the new RB? How is the new offense coming? Is Wynn's job in danger? Will the Utes have a pass rush? I was among those 15,000 fans, and while I came away with a face as red as the Ute jerseys, I also came away with some thoughts on these questions, and the Utes in general, as they prepare to enter the Pac-12. Onto the Game
Defense was the theme of the day, as the Red team defeated the White team 7-0. The lack of offense, isn't to surprising though considering, there were many starters not playing (Jordan Wynn, Devonte Christopher), and that the Utes were installing a new offense. Also it's very typical for the Defense to be farther along than the Offense at this point of the year. While points were at a premium it doesn't mean there wasn't any offense, as both sides were able to gain yardage. The drives just weren't converted into points. Wynning? One major concern though was the QB situation. The game showed without a doubt that Jordan Wynn is your starter in 2011. QB Tyler Shreve was the winning quarterback for the Red team, while last year's 3rd stringer Griff Robles was the QB of the White team. Neither QB made a great impression. Shreve, was a highly sought recruit in 2010. However after an altercation where he assaulted his High School coach, the Utes pulled his scholarship. Shreve went through Whittingham's requirements to earn his way back on the team, and ended up grey shirting last season, before coming in this year as a Freshman. Shreve is the better of the two backups, and showed that he has a strong arm. However, his accuracy, and form still has a lot of work that needs to be done. On the day Shreve outdueled his counterpart by going 9 of 20 for 122 yards. He connected with WR Dexter Ranson for a 15 yard Touchdown late in the first half. Both he and Griff Robles threw an interception. Robles went 11 of 23 for 74 yards. While the passing game wasn't working for Robles, he did show the scrambling ability that many will remember from his limited action in 2010. Both QB's struggled in many of the same areas. Neither QB did a great job of leading the receiver, or reading the defenses that well, or looking off of their primary target. Shreve solidified his spot as the number two quarterback in 2011. Assuming Wynn is healthy there won't be much of a competition in spring. Even though some fans, stupidly were calling for Wynn's benching last year, especially late in the season while he was struggling as he played with an injured shoulder, truthfully Terrance Cain is not a QB who should have seen playing time against anyone other than the UNLV's, and San Jose State's of the world. While this year's backup QB situation seems dire, it isn't any worse than last years. The big difference is that competition will be much better. The good news is that Whittingham recognizes the issue, and will have a new QB be part of the program during fall camp, to hopefully shore up the hole. The New Offense A lot has been made about the changes to the offense for the Utes this season. First off they brought in Norm Chow as the offensive coordinator, and secondly they have decided to make some changes to the style of offense at the U. When he was hired, both Chow, and Head Coach Kyle Whittingham both talked about a desire to introduce more pro style offensive elements into the system. Specifically more West Coast style elements. Does this mean the Spread Offense, that has been so successful at Utah is going the way of the dodo? Do we really have to suffer through the dink and dunk doldrums of the West Short answer: No! New Offensive Coordinator Norm Chow barks out the offensive play calls. On the first play of the game the Utes went for a deep pass. They also went deep another 3 or 4 times during the game. Unfortunately none of the passes connected. When the Utes weren't throwing deep, it wasn't feast or famine. While the Utes did have a number of shorter passes, the majority of the passes were still of the 8-15 yard variety. The main West Coast elements that could be seen Saturday were the location of the QB under center, and the running game. Utah QB's have lived in the Shotgun for the past 7-8 years. This year, the offense incorporates a QB under center. This means that the QB must take the snap, drop back, and read the defense, all at the same time, instead of getting the ball in 5-7 yards behind the line and making their reads. The good news for Utah fans, is 2 of the 3 QB's, and both of the top 2 QB's, on the depth chart, are more suited to this system, having come from it in High School. The other big change involved the running game. Utah will employ more of a downhill running game. Specifically the Utes have thrown out the terrible illiterate zone read running play. This is very good news! The zone read hasn't worked at Utah for many years. Especially post Brian Johnson. The reason for this is the QB's we had weren't a fit for that running system. Jordan Wynn is a pocket passer, not a scrambler. Terrance Cain was a scrambler, but he didn't have enough of a grasp on the offense to correctly read the play. This meant that every time the zone read was ran, the QB handed the ball off, therefore removing the defenders requirement to make a read. Now it's a standard play action, downhill running game. Something that the QB's, are more suited for. Assuming that the players can grasp the system, and get it to work, this offense seems to actually be the best of both worlds. It incorporates the pro style elements of successful offenses, while at the same time keeping the high powered, spread the field mentality of the spread. The Biggest Disappointment of the Game Outside of the Quarterback position, the biggest offensive hole is at running back where seniors Matt Asiata, and Eddie Wide III graduated. Add to that the medical retirement of Sausin Shakerin due to concussions, and the fact that Tauni Vakapuna, Shawn Asiata, and Beau Burton have all left the team due to either medical issues, or family issues, the Utes are full of question marks at the position. To address the running back concerns, the Utes recruited the #1 high school recruit from the state of Utah, Harvey Langi, as well as one of the top Juco players in the Nation John White IV to play running back. They also have Lucky Radley coming off of his red shirt year. At the beginning of Spring it was assumed these would be the three names you'd hear most. However as Spring camp went on there was another name, that was making waves. Even getting mentioned by ESPN as a potential 1,000 yard rusher. It was Thretton Palamo. He was a walk on. As a freshman Palamo helped lead the University of Utah's 2010 Rugby 7 squad to a major upset of Cal Tech for the National Championship. Coach Whittingham convinced him to come tryout for the football team, and he has spent the Spring making a name for himself. Including being the leading rusher in the previous scrimmage. His name has been mentioned as the possible #1 back for the team. He was the one player I was most excited to see during the game. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see him. Oh he was in the game, but he was used as a decoy. He touched the ball a total of 3 times during the game, and the rest of the time, was used during play action. I was not the only one disappointed by this, as many around me where excited to see what all the excitement was about. Could it be because the Coaches figure they know what they have with the guy? Did they not want him knocking out any more defenders as he's done twice already? Could it be, that since he's such an unknown they want to limit what people see of him to keep a surprise? I don't know, but I do know that I was really disappointed not to see him. Toting the Rock Even though we didn't get to see the Rugby Menace, doesn't mean we didn't get a good look at the possible future of Utah running backs. Since there are no incumbents at the position all of the main contenders were on display. Making the best impressing was true freshman Harvey Langi. Langi, who was the #1 Utah prospect this past winter from Bingham High had 12 rushes for 63 yards. While there has been some concern about his upright running style, the two things I noticed about him that I liked the best were that he rarely was brought down with the first hit, and that when he did get tackled he always seemed to fall forward, an under appreciated aspect of a running back's game. As impressive as Langi was during the game, and he certainly looked like he could handle the load of being the starting back, my hope is that one of the other two running backs can step up enough to team with Palamo, and therefore allow Langi to red-shirt this season. As much of a stud as Langi looks to be, he's still a true freshman. Give him another season to develop, and he'll be a beast. Either way Langi looks to possibly be the next great Ute running back. The first thing that stood out about both John White IV, and Lucky Radley is how small they are. Both are listed at 5'9" on the roster, and seeing them out there, I wonder how many inches were added to their numbers. Of course being small in stature doesn't necessary preclude success in College Football. Especially in the Pac-12 where 5'9" LaMichael James, and 5'6" Jacquizz Rogers have dominated the league rushing for the past few years. Both Radley and White show the burst that is necessary to make up for their small stature. However White would probably be the favorite of the two, as he showed more of an ability to run up the middle. In the Pac-12 the outside runs that the Utes used to live on might not be there as much, due to the speed of defenders. White started the Spring as a bit of a disappointment, but has really come on as camp continued. One thing is for sure, the running backs will be something to watch. Defense Wins Championships As mentioned earlier, the Defense ruled the day, keeping the offenses out of the end zone save for Shreve's lone touchdown pass to Dexter Ransom. It's not uncommon to see the Defense ahead of the Offense in spring. The secondary is an area of concern for the Utes, as they are once again needing a complete restocking. The lone returning member of the 2010 secondary is true sophomore Brian Blechen. Last year at Safety Blechen wreaked havoc for opponents. In 2011 he will still be wreaking havoc for the Defense, only he'll be doing it as a Stud Linebacker. That means all 4 defensive backfield positions will be filled by new starters. I'd be lying if I said this didn't concern me. However, the Utes have shown a proclivity to produce Safeties and CB's over the years, so for now I'll give Whittingham and company the benefit of the doubt. During the spring game the secondary came away with 2 interceptions, and multiple batted balls. One thing to keep in mind though, is that it's hard to get a full read on the defense, because of the scaled back offense being ran, especially since the Offense wasn't playing many players who will be starters. Once again the Defensive Line will be stacked with talent. Especially with Derrick Shelby healthy. Shelby, by the way, looks lean and mean. It was hard to recognize him at first. This should greatly help his ability to rush. Of course while the Line was good against the run in 2010, there was a distinct lack of pass rush by the defense. Since blitzing was disallowed during the game, it was nice to see the defenses come up with 5 sacks, and 3 tackles for loss. All of which came from either the Defensive Line or the Linebackers, or I should say 1 Linebacker. Trevor Reilly is a Beast! Palamo, Langi, and Shreve may have been the names garnering attention before the game, but when it was all said and done the player of the game was LB Trevor Reilly. Reilly, a sophomore in 2011, saw some playing time in 2010 as a DE. He had a few good moments in the later half of the season, but he wasn't someone on most people's minds this year. Reilly was a menace for quarterback Tyler Shreve. He brought him down for 2.5 sacks, as well as deflected one of his passes. What didn't make the stat line, were the many times he was in the backfield forcing Shreve to scramble, or many of the other near misses he had attempting to bat down a pass. Reilly also was responsible for the sole "Holy Crap" play of the game. On one of the pass plays, Red Team RB Lucky Radley went out to block an oncoming Trevor Reilly. Reilly hurdled Radley and continued his pressure on Shreve. While Radley did not get the sack, his hops did force Shreve to stop his passing motion, and threw off his rhythm with his WR. All day long if there was a White defensive play being made, it seemed like Reilly was involved. Currently Reilly is slotted to be the backup stud linebacker behind Brian Blechen. He's not going to supplant Blechen, however if he keeps playing the way he has this spring, don't be surprised to see the coaching staff find a way to get both Blechen and Reilly on the field together. And if that's the case, the middle of the field will be a place that no opposing player will want to be against the Utes. Thus Begins the Long Drought And now we come to the long drought. Spring practice is over. Coaches can no longer meet with the team until August. From here on out it's up to the players to workout on their own. News will be scant. Four long months await us until fall camps start in August. How is Wynn's shoulder healing, and can he make up for missed time? Will Palamo continue to make waves? Who's going to be our starting Runningback, Safety, or Cornerback? With Dave Kruger moving to DE, will we see a D Line book-ended by Krugers? These are some of the questions that remain. And while it was just a small taste, Spring camp is going to have to be enough sustenance until August, when the first ever Pac-12 Utah Fall Camp begins. When it does, so shall a weekly version of Red, Blue And Pigskin. If you want to see some of the other pictures I took at this Saturday's scrimmage you can do so here, otherwise until August my friends. P.S. How much do you love those Pac-12 Logos on the field? Trackbacks
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