It was a lot of fun.
– Julian Blackmon is such a bright, engaging kid. He’ll be successful in whatever he chooses to do, but if in 30 years he’s the Governor of Utah, I won’t be surprised. Seriously. He has some people skills that extend far beyond football.
– In the meantime, Blackmon’s fellow safety Tyrell Burgess said JB has had no problem making the adjustment to the back end of the defense. They chatter a lot about the details, and I’m sure Scalley is glad to have these two as player-coaches, so he can focus on the rest of the defense.
– Burgess said he prefers Safety to playing NB, where he was before, because he likes getting into the box, “except I get my feet stepped on just about every day”.
– Jaylen Dixon has put on some muscle, looks like he took the fumble in the bowl game personally. Jason Shelley is a quiet kid, but he has that unflappable confidence we all saw last year.
– Nick Ford is a budding superstar, a true renaissance man. He’s another guy who has a very bright future in whatever he chooses.
– DL coach Sione Po’uha said he walked into an embarrassment of riches, coaching the DTs. He looked as happy as he did after the Fiesta Bowl.
– Jordan Wilmore looks like he’s all business, ready to play right now. DHC looks like he’s put in a lot of hard work in rehab. (I wouldn’t sleep on DHC.)
– Huntley, Covey & Leki Fotu had long lines of autograph seekers, as did Blackmon.
– I had a long talk with a likely starter at WR about the WRs, our DBs, team speed, etc. Josh Nurse at CB has a serious advantage in that WRs can’t separate at the LOS because he’s so long. Tarike Lewis is like one of our prototypical CBs from the MWC era, in my estimation an Andre Dyson like talent. Jaylon Johnson is at a different level. DeVaughn Vele is the surprise WR breakout talent, though he’s just a FR, seriously pushing for snaps. He may not start, but he has a serious future.
– The fastest guys on the team are Guidry, then it turns into an argument. Dixon, Terrell Perriman, Jaylon Johnson, and the 2019 Oklahoma 100m champ freshman JT McCloud (who is about as fast as Kaelin Clay, 10.4x). When Whit said they should get the men’s track team put together because we’d pretty good in the sprints, he wasn’t kidding.
– Ali’i Niumatalolo, whose dad Ken is the coach at Navy, was still giddy and enormously grateful for the scholarship award.
– Leki Fotu is as big as Ma’ake Kemoe’atu, or Paul Soliai. He’ll make some nice money, next spring.
Fan Fest is turning into a really fun event. The fans & their kids get to meet the athletes, this year dominated by football, and the players get attention they may not have be exposed to, not like this.
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