Play calls plays calls play calls

[EagleMountainUte]

I get it fire Ludwig.

That Offensive line and most of the blocking was s**t all game. Glover had 1 blitz pickup that was good but 3-4 that show you why JJ is the number one.

But distract yourself trying to blame it on NJ and playcalling. Offensive line is gonna have a rough film week.

[CityCreekUte]

When defenses know what you are running you lose.

Hence why stealing signals is so taboo.

[EagleMountainUte]

Fano and Laumea had a rough day. I feel like 5-6 times a free guy would just run at NJ.

[Central Coast Ute]

Utah didn’t exactly make it difficult for the D to know what was going on. Unfortunately, it appears we’re back to 2015 Utah style of football. There’s no way they can keep up in this conference with an anemic offense.

[Utesbyfive]

We’re just missing too many dudes.

[EagleMountainUte]

On the O line?

[The Miami Ute]

All I’m going to say is this: if Utah’s defense continues to hold every team it plays to seven points a game, the Utes will be CFP champions. Unfortunately, that’s not likely to happen and I go back to what I’ve been saying since I found out that Rising had a torn ACL.

Kyle should have brought in an experienced QB from the portal as a life insurance policy for the team. There are people on this site that say that no decent QB would have come to Utah because of Rising. I don’t believe that, at all…in addition, Kyle could have told said QB “we don’t know when Rising will be back during the 2023 season…in fact, he might never be back due to the severity of his injury” and let it go at that. I mean folks, a third of the season is gone and there’s absolutely zero smoke signals giving any signs if/when/how Rising will be back as QB1.

We could be here on OCT 28 waiting to play Oregon with the same status quo for all we know. We all love Rising, in fact I’m wearing his jersey as I type this, and want what’s best for him and his family. I have zero problem with him staying another season, rehabbing, working with the team, etc…but you can’t plan your season on the hope that he might come back and play at a high level when there’s a better than even chance that might not happen.

Right now, the way that I feel is that Utah has a championship level defense and with just a mediocre to decent offense can make some noise. However, that’s not going to happen if we continue to have games where the offense has one TD and only 200+ yards generated.

[Tacoma Ute]

Paragraphs!

[chinngiskhaan]

I suggested basically the same thing and got absolutely flamed a couple weeks ago. I also had the audacity to predict that Pittman wouldn’t make much of a difference, and got torn apart for that as well. Yet… Here we are.

[EagleMountainUte]

I know you appreciate the nuance of this problem Miami. But I just don’t believe there was this shiny QB out there willing to come to Utah and play under that kind of scenario. It is a good fantasy but it seems like a deep one to believe in.

[Central Coast Ute]

Agreed. With Cam still here, I don’t think anyone else was coming.

[The Miami Ute]

Eagle, I don’t understand how you could say that when I showed you and others an article that explains that the majority of P5 starting QBs all came from the transfer portal. Here it is again: The Transfer QB Era is Accelerating: Over 62% of projected Power 5 starters are transfers. As you can see, if your starting QB didn’t come from the portal, your program is a distinct minority.

[The Miami Ute]

But I just don’t believe there was this shiny QB out there willing to come to Utah and play under that kind of scenario.

We’ve already had two guys come to Utah under this kind of scenario. Jake Bentley and Charlie Brewer. Bentley is the 4th leading passer in Gamec**k history and Brewer is the second leading passer in Baylor history. Neither of those guys came to Utah with the starting job guaranteed. Bentley became the starter by default because of the injury to Rising and Brewer won his spot in a training camp competition. I don’t know about you…but I’d feel a lot better about the rest of Utah’s season if we had a guy like Bentley at the helm right now.

[EagleMountainUte]

Brewer came when there was competition and Utah incorrectly evaluated him.
Rising I guess counts but his ass sat in the booth with Ludwig for a season.

[The Miami Ute]

Brewer came because Rising was coming off shoulder surgery that forced him to miss the 2020 season. Don’t you see the irony? We brought in a guy in 2021 because we didn’t know how Rising would respond after surgery. Now, in 2023, we don’t bring in a guy when faced with actually a worse scenario.

[Central Coast Ute]

Bentley also came when there was competition. He came after Huntley went pro and before Rising was named the starter. Brewer came the next year knowing Cam had no experience, was coming off of injury and there was an open competition. This year there was no open competition for QB1. Any transfers would be competing for QB2 and hence, no one came. I’m sure the coaching staff kicked the tires but seriously, without an open spot, no top tier transfer QB is coming.

[The Miami Ute]

Again, my point is that Rising suffered a traumatic injury that can keep a player out for a year or more. Yes, there are some guys come back within six to eight months after undergoing ACL reconstructive surgery. There are also guys that take 12-18 months to recover from that type of injury. Everyone is different. There isn’t a cookie cutter approach to rehabbing that is foolproof or guaranteed. What if Rising isn’t ready to go until game 10? Do you think that Whit would go into the portal if he knew that was the case?

[Central Coast Ute]

I don’t know that Whitt didn’t go to the portal. I also don’t know if any QB’s in the portal showed interest.

[22Ute22]

You’re one of the few people who agree with me, Miami. We should have gotten a transfer QB.

[UtMtBiker]

History and data tells you exactly when he will be back. Look specifically at the surgeon that did his knee and you’ll see when he’ll potentially be back. Never before 9 months (except AP) and rarely before 10, usually 12.

[Utah]

The major flaw with the “Utah should have brought in a QB” is that we were supposed to be starting Rose right now. Coming into fall camp, Johnson was QB4.

We have no idea what Rose looked like and how we’d look if he wasn’t injured.

If the coaches really liked Rose, then it’s easy to see why they didn’t bring in a QB.

[RoboUte]

“I have zero problem with him staying another season”

Please god no, tell me this isn’t possible.

[GunthersRevenge]

Totally agree. NJ wasn’t great, but when he did get some time he was able to step into his throws and made a couple of nice passes. Lots of blame to go around for the entire offense.

[fosternano]

There were some plays were UCLA were putting 10 in the box. No amount of O line play will stop that. They were cheating up all game and Utah didn’t do much to keep the defense honest.

[bopahull]

In my opinion, you can’t keep running up the middle with a back that always goes down on first contact and expect decent results. I think the play calling was totally lame and after our 2nd TD we were trying to run the clock out, unfortunately it was only 1/2 the way through the 3rd. The O line didn’t play well a lot of the time, but UCLA’s defense was really good. What we had were 2 solid defenses matched up against 2 poor to mediocre offenses.

[The Miami Ute]

I wouldn’t say UCLA’s offense is poor to mediocre…up to this game, they looked pretty decent or at least much better than Utah had during the same period (albeit, facing different competition). I would also say that in Moore they have a pretty obvious future NFL 1st RD pick. We were just fortunate to catch him in what was really the start of his college career. I predict that he’s going to have some big games against other PAC teams and what happened this afternoon will have been the worst he’ll look all year.

[Tony (admin)]

NJ seems to be better when he’s on the move. Maybe next week they’ll move him around instead of having him straight drop back.

[SaltLakeRyan]

I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of Bryson Barnes at some point…