Playcalling

[EagleMountainUte]

Something that really concerns me and I hope it stabilizes with Weber State and even more so with Rising taking over.
As I said I was never a fan of the dual quarterback. Against Florida it was like series to series a swap would take place. I think only after the NJ fumble was Barnes swapped in for NJ series. Maybe a few others. Against Baylor it was like the most schizophrenic play calling ever. Barnes would come in take a shotgun and it was an obvious passing down. It wasn’t until NJ took over the offense stabilized into a cohesive unit.
Which leads me to question a lot of things. Was Ludwig deliberately showing Whitt how bad Barnes was? If you remove the NJ terrible runs up the guts Jackson and Glover were average like 6.3 a carry. This is what we all thought Utah football would be WITHOUT Rising. Rely on defense, ground and pound the rock win close matchups. Just like Travis Wilson days. (I am also starting to notice how much Utah misses Rhino blocking.)
This mish mash no rhythm hard swap offense was a nightmare. It was almost like someone in coaching staff was just trying to show how bad it was. I think post game Florida Whitt even talked about not being so crazy about the hard swapping. It really felt worst against Baylor.
Idk. I may rambling and just sort of fuming after reviewing some film of Baylor. I missed chat so I felt like posting it.
I think the best example I can think of is NJ threw a completion across the middle of the field and they pulled him for Barnes. Ultimately settled for three on that drive. It was the JJ big rush drive. They put Barnes in for the RedZone. It was just so frustrating watching it again then I just asked the question who the hell made that decision? The holding didn’t help of course but still. It was just odd Barnes came in.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

The QB musical chairs game was not working at all against the Baylor defense. It’s hard to know if if the play calling was bad or the execution, or lack there of was the problem? Barnes was just not decisive in anything he was doing, moving in/out of the pocket or throwing the ball. It was mentioned in another thread where the QB (I think it was always Barnes) was doing a play action “fake” hand off when no one was in the backfield with him, or Glover was running past him on the wrong side of the exchange. Who is to blame for those miscues, who knows but the offense was so out of sync for way too long in that game and I think the constant QB rotation was a major contributing factor.

[Central Coast Ute]

Agreed on the split QB thing. I think they wanted to play Barnes but were trying to keep Johnson from transferring. I’m just relieved he didn’t leave when Barnes got the start over him.

[chinngiskhaan]

The two QB thing was hard for the entire offense because it was like we had two different offenses to run depending on who was playing QB, and that changed so often that it was hard for anyone to get comfortable.

I think the two QB thing hurt Barnes more than anyone. It has to be hard to get into a rhythm when you get taken out every 3 plays or so. In hindsight it seems obvious they were simply waiting for Johnson to prove he could make good choices and take care of the football. They never gave Barnes a 100% green light as they did for Johnson at the end of the game. That tells you all you need to know about how they felt.

I think the thing that helped more than anything was finally committing to ramming the ball down their throats come hell or high water. We started to get back into the game once we committed to playing Utah football. Once the run started working out, Johnson was able to surprise them with a couple of passes, and we were off to the races.

If we can pound the rock against anyone, we’ll have a chance to win every game this year whether Rising plays or not.

[ProudUte]

We will not be able to “pound the rock” unless we can pass. We cannot allow defenses to stack the box against us.

[chinngiskhaan]

We pounded the rock just fine against Baylor when we couldn’t pass.

[ProudUte]

Which leads me to question a lot of things. Was Ludwig deliberately showing Whitt how bad Barnes was?

This made me laugh!

The way we have been moving QBs in and out has not worked and messes up the continuity of the entire offense. I am fine with putting in a talented running QB in short-yardage situations. But, changing QBs from series to series is not working.

The good news is that it sounds like they are now going with Nate Johnson. This makes sense to me for so many reasons.

[EagleMountainUte]

It could be vice versa as well. I feel like someone on the coaching staff wanted to play Barnes. Just like someone felt Rising should wait and Brewer goes costing the team.
I am speculating is all. But when you compare the rotations of Barnes and NJ in the two games it doesn’t make sense based on the play-calling and increased disruptive rotations.
Maybe it was more of a method to convince the players. Some wanted Brewer to play until they saw how bad it was going against SDSU. (Myself included)It was so apparently bad they waited almost two series too long to put in Rising.
NJ it was the same way. Some of us saw it against Florida it took like one more quarter against Baylor before everyone has to sort of accept it.