Red, Blue And Pigskin

The Game Summed Up In One Play

This week the Byu Cougars defeated the UConn Huskies 30 - 13 in a game summed up best by 1 single play.

The play came at the end of the first Byu drive of the 2nd half. The Cougars had taken the opening kickoff of the 2nd half, and had moved the ball from their own 28, to the Husky 34 yard line, and looked like they were driving for an opening half score. Suddenly the drive stalled after a few too many running plays, and the Cougars faced 4th and 1. A quick out pass was called, and having not noticed the defender sitting on the play, Mangum threw the pass. The Husky defender jumped the route, snagged the interception and streaked down the sideline with only Mangum between him and a pick six. Yet for some reason, rather than try to challenge Mangum, the defender jumped out of bounds to avoid even a touch by Mangum and the Cougar 37 yard line.

You see, the Cougars had thoroughly dominated the game statistically in the first half. Which was the first 8 plays of the drive moving the ball 41 yards. But questionable play calls, and a RB rotation that failed to recognize the hot hand, (The drive stalling, resulting in 4th and 1), as well as just sloppy play and dumb mistakes by the Cougars (the Mangum interception) had allowed the score to be much closer than it should have been.

But despite the fact that the score was 7-7 at that time, in no way did it ever feel like the Cougars were going to lose this game. The Cougars clearly outmatched the Huskies. And this was never more obvious, than when the pansy Husky DB didn't even try to challenge Mangum. When he weakly tried to juke, and then hopped out of bounds, instead of even letting Mangum put a finger on him, it was clear, the Huskies weren't ever a match for the Cougars, and Byu would eventually just continue to physically, and mentally wear them down, and put the game away.

I Need Another Word For Trap Game

It's not that I think the game this week for the Cougars against East Carolina is a trap game per se. Instead I think this next game is the first of two in a row that would be a good spot for the annual Bronco egg laying game. The Pirates are one of those teams that Byu honestly should beat, but are just good enough to take advantage of mistakes and squeak out the victory.

East Carolina isn't really good at any one thing. They're unsettled at the QB position, employing a 2 QB system. It's not a 2 QB System where both options are really poor, it's more the epitome of the old saying "If you have 2 QB's, you have none" as neither has really taken a hold of the job. However that hasn't stopped the Pirates from scoring 49, and 35 the last two weeks.

East Carolina has also been there before. They're often one of the Group of 5 teams in the conversation to play BCS Spoiler, or (last year) make the NY6 game, though they're never actually able to pull it off. This year alone they've already beaten Virginia Tech, and gave Florida quite the scare in the game where Florida Head Coach Jim McElwain could be seen laying into Rb Kelvin Taylor.

Defensively, the Pirates aren't quite so good. The Pirates give up about 402 yards and 29 points per game.

Statistically speaking, the Pirates are essentially a poor man's version of Byu. All very similar stats, with ECU being better offensively, but just a little bit worse defensively. Though it's cliche, this will be a game that will be won, by whichever team can keep from hurting themselves the most.

Utes 1, Bye 0

So how does a team win while on bye? Well first you have to make a big impression the week before, like the Utes did in their duck dismantling. After that, you have to have everyone else work for you. Such as.

Week 1 opponent Michigan shut out their second straight opponent, meaning not only are the Utes the only team to beat the Harbaughs, but the Utes 24 points, is more than the next 4 Khaki opponents scored combined. Actually the 17 points the Utes scored in the first 3 quarters, is more than the next 4 opponents combined.

Next it helps to have a crazy week in the polls. Something along the lines of 4 unbeaten top 10 teams losing, with 3 of those teams losing by double digits. If one of those losses is to the only other undefeated team in your division, that's a bonus. The losses in front of you, combined with Michigan's performance, and the goodwill of the duck hunt, allows you to, incredibly, move up to #5 in the polls.

Finally you need your next opponent to win, causing them to stay unbeaten, setting up 1 of only 2 matchups versus ranked teams this week, and the only one involving a now top 10 team, which gets the attention of College Gameday to come to your school.

So yea, for a week where the Utes didn't actually do anything, except rest on their laurels, it turned out to be a pretty good week. It also means, break time is now over, and while the Utes are a little bit overrated, it's time to go out and earn the attention they've received so far.

The Unexpected Spotlight Bears Down

Nobody expected the Cal Bears trip to Rice-Eccles Stadium for the Utah Homecoming week to be the spotlight of College Football, but somehow that's exactly what it's become. In the 3rd year of Head Coach Sonny Dykes system, the Bears have already manage to match last year's entire win total.

The Bears just happen to be led by Jr QB Jared Goff. Goff is by far the best QB in the nation, and will be the #1 overall draft pick in next year's draft once he declares. While Goff's numbers are aided greatly by Sonny Dykes Bear Raid offense that likes throw a lot to 5 and 6 WR sets that spread out the field, Goff isn't simply a system QB. Goff has a quick release, and is the type of QB who has great footwork to move around in the pocket. Goff is also a smart QB who doesn't throw many interceptions. Despite starting as a true freshman, Goff only threw 10 interceptions his freshman year. A number that dipped to 7 last year. Though he is on pace for more this season with 4 already. On the year Goff has 1630 yards, and 15 TD's. That's over 3 times as many yards as Utah's Travis Wilson.

Goff, and the Bears offense will get not only their yards, but also their points. Even if Utah's defense is drastic increase from anything the Bears have faced this year. For the Utes, the key will be not to let those plays happen to often, and to not let Goff get into, or stay in a rhythm. The Utes defensive backfield, will need to grow up in a hurry as Goff will test a group that has shown a tendency to let the WR's get behind them. To help them out, the front 7 will need to make Goff uncomfortable. Defensive coordinator John Pease will need to come up with a variety of looks and schemes to pressure Goff, hopefully without the need to send extra rushers. A big key to the game with be Jared Norris, who will probably be green-lighted to go after the QB on any play where he doesn't have an obvious coverage assignment.

The biggest change for Cal this year is that they no longer have to score 50 points to win games. That's not to say their defense is all that good. The Bears now only need to score 35 points to win games. This means that the Utes offense will have an opportunity to show some consistency. In the past few years, we've seen Travis Wilson have a good game similar to what he did two weeks ago (although we've never seen him look that good.) Where Wilson has struggled is being consistent, and having 2, 3 or more good weeks in a row. The Utes won't need him to be as good as he was in Autzen stadium, but if the Utes are going to be able to withstand this Bear offensive attack, they will need a good game from Wilson and the rest of the offensive players. This is not the kind of game where Utah can just hand the ball off to Booker and stay in it. This week will be the week where we start to see if the visible difference in Wilson's demeanor this year is simply a mirage.

All This For A Football Game

It's funny how schedules sometimes work out. There is a lot going on off the field this week for Utes. As mentioned above, this is the Homecoming week for the Utes, which already comes with a lot of off the field festivities surrounding the week. Additionally, the Utes announced during the offseason that they were going to sport throwback uniforms during this year's homecoming game.

After the Michigan game, the people in charge of Rice-Eccles stadium decided that the quality of the field wasn't as good as they expected and decided to move up a project to replace the field that was previously scheduled to occur during the offseason. Instead management decided the nearly month long span between the Utah State game, and this week's game would be the perfect time to get a new field installed. As such, the Utes will also be unveiling a new turf this week.

Then there's that other thing you might have heard about? My daughter's favorite Saturday Morning program will be broadcasting from the University. In addition to the main College Gameday taping, which will begin about 5 a.m. Saturday Morning and the President's Circle, the College Gameday crew will also be filming other segments on Friday.

This will be Gameday's 3rd visit to Rice-Eccles stadium. They were previously here for the 2004 Holy War when Utah's victory made them the first ever BCS Buster. The 2nd trip wasn't so sweet for the Utes as the Gameday trip for the 2010 matchup against TCU saw Utah get routed. It was an extremely ugly loss, but it still wasn't as ugly as those Digi-Camo uniforms the Utes wore that day.

For the record Corso picked the Utes in 2004, and the Horned Frogs in 2010. Combined with picking TCU when Gameday was in Provo, Corso is undefeated with headgear picks in the state of Utah.

Chronicling The Drive

This week's episode of the Drive featured the Utes matchup in Eugene, and Oregon State's loss to Stanford. The star of the episode was Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham during his two locker room segments.

The first segment was pre-game and showed just how much the mentality of Utah is changing. Utah has gone from the fly in the ointment to being a P5 school, but sometimes it seems the mentality is still that of David versus Goliath. Whittingham was having nothing of it, feeling that after some of the giant slayings of the past few years, this was now a battle of "Goliath versus Goliath".

The second segment came during halftime. With the Utes up, and in control, Whittingham didn't want his team to go complacent, instead affirming that it's a 0-0 game, and they had 30 minutes to go out there and take it. Granted the 30 minutes, it's right there in front of you, you just need to go take it mentality isn't anything new, but it's the type of comments that are usually made when you're in a close game, but behind. It's the foot on the gas mentality man have claimed Whittingham has lacked recently.

When To Watch

This week, the Cougars will start our Saturdays by kicking off at 5:30 p.m. mountain time and will be televised on ESPN U.

As that game winds down, you can then switch over to ESPN at 8:30 p.m mountain time, for a little #Pac12AfterDark as the Utes and the Bears will get ready to close out the college football night.