A few thoughts on the Spring Game

[UteThunder]

I’ve been too busy lately to sit down and watch the Spring game but finally got around to it. 

Huntley looks much improved. He does look bigger, as someone else mentioned before, but he will always be slight. He’s just not a big frame guy. I was most impressed by the touch on his passes. He wasn’t just rifling the ball in there every time. He also looked very poised in the pocket, more patient and not such happy feet like we’ve seen from him in the past. Hopefully this is actual improvement and not just a product of him knowing the defense couldn’t touch him.

Shelley looks about as good as he did last year. A decent backup, but I hope we don’t need him for any long stretches. His cross field TD throw was great though.

Rising I wasn’t too impressed. Other than his build, I would not guess he was a 4 star recruit. I hated seeing how much they ran him. It doesn’t seem to be his strength.

RBs Thank god Moss is coming back. Brumfield and Green did not play like potential starters and DHC didn’t seem to get much work (hopefully that’s because he has shown the coaches he has nothing to prove).

Kickers . . . they were on the field.

Overall I thought the offense looked at least decent, maybe even good, but it’s always impossible to take anything from the Spring game because several starters were out on defense, and the defensive play calling was so vanilla.

[Trailgoat]

Rising has a quick release and cannon. He is a prototypical P12 back, not a 5’11”, 180 lbs. I hope he gets eligibility this year, Utes will need him early. Unfortunately hard to not overlook the past 10 year trend of poor QB development. Be prepared for Shelley playing by week 3-4.

Agree, not impressed with Green or Brumfield. Both are MWC level backs. Utes need steller defense to win close games. Utes will lose three games on hype alone. One of KWs weaknesses is playing as the hunted. I would love to see the Utes live up to all of this P12 Champ hype…sorry, too much history says KW will lose to UW, ASU, USC at LA and out coached by his buddy Leach.

Four losses and maybe five if the Utes start flat against BYU as usual in their first 2-3 games. I have watched this team for many years and under KW’s rein no matter how much talent there is he finds a way to lose games and get outcoached. Just keeping it real Ute fans…hope I am wrong and KW shows he can beat Petersen, Leach, Edwards and Sumlin. Go Utes!

[chinngiskhaan]

Thanks for the laugh

[Chidojuan]

History of football losses is bastardizing baseball and football. We’ve beaten Petersen before, and with Gaskin and Browning gone, breaking in a new quarterback against this DL will be tough. SC has switched to the air raid, we’ll see how it does against potentially the best secondary in the conference. Leach hit the Jackpot with Falk and then Minshew, let’s see him prove he can do it again. Having TDS first may wake us up early. Traditionally we’ve had slow starts early in the season. Maybe they’ll get fired up. TDS lost their best DE, and while Tonga is good, he’s not Fotu. Between Huntley, Moss, Fotheringham and Thompson, Covey, it could get nasty early for them.

[Anfernee]

That’s a pretty bad, uninformed take. Best to leave it on the trail for a goat to eat.

[Charlie]

You need to consider the year for the RBs, don’t compare Fr to Sr when looking at the future. Brumfield compares well to spring Moss before his So year. Often spring plays are called to look at what players are working on including new things. The focus may even be working the OL with things they are not getting right or downfield blocking setup or the other side of the ball. This is not a sample of what to expect in Sept. Brumfield will follow in Moss’s footsteps and no, we do not have a stable of MWC backs. Rising running likely had more to do with watching the defensive backups react to that than anything to do with hoping he is a running QB. Most plays were not about what you were focused on.

[Redblood]

Trail – We finished the season prior to post season at 9-3 with all those shortcomings you say KW has. Do you think we will be worse than last year? If so, what do you base it on?

Last year we were all saying we were a year away in terms of talent, yet we won the South. Then we were we were worried the juniors would leave. None left. I don’t remember a time when we returned this much talent. I’m worried about the OL but don’t expect us to be worse than last year. Do you?

[EagleMountainUte]

Pace has a protege.

[whitlessham]

A little over the top but some valid points.

1. History has shown that Huntley is good for about 6-7 games a year –  valid point

2. Green and Brumfield being MWC talent:  I tend to agree with this. The RB positon value earlier then any other position. Either you got it or you don’t.  By The end of a RB’s first full season, you know if he’s the real deal or just mop up duty.  It’s not like after the 50 rush attempt the light goes on and they become significantly better.

KW is a poor coach when being hunted: I couldn’t agree more, I saw trainwreck written all over the Northwestern game,  

 

[chinngiskhaan]

Rising has had very little in terms of reps because he may not be eligible this year. This spring shows us nothing in terms of his ability.

[BD]

I attended a spring scrimmage and got a good look at Rising up close. While he may not be really tall, the guy is well built. He should be able to sustain some hits – looking forward to watching his career. One really good thing about Rising is what OnlyU said in another thread – that the players have really warmed up to him – so some leadership capabilities might be a strength for him also.

A few years ago, I also attended a spring scrimmage when Huntley was a freshman, and I got a close up look at Huntley. Boy was he skinny – his legs were two toothpicks. I worried that he would not only get injured, but end up in the hospital. So his progress in weight gain is good to see.

Whatever short comings the team might appear to have now, I am happy with the progress the team has made over the past numerous years. I remember attending the spring game when Donovan Isom and Connor Manning were the QBs. Manning threw something like 3 or 4 interceptions, and Isom had a whopping 15 passing yards or something like that. The team has come a long way from that!

[Duhwayne]

On Rising, the most relevant question is did we come out ahead on Rising vs. Indiana’s newest transfer. I have yet to hear anyone say we aren’t ahead of where we were.