QB

[Utes 69]

agree or disagree!
QB by committee is not the best option, we have seen this with the Utes over the past years and NFL as well.

it simply does not work, another lack luster year in store for the Utes on offense if Thursday night was the plan going forward.

[MineralUte]

Strange take – it was only QB by committee because Rising was out. Don’t know why Utah would play multiple quarterbacks for more than another game. Once Rising is able to play we shouldn’t see the other quarterbacks until the game is out of hand.

[EagleMountainUte]

That doesn’t answer the question. Rising is out so why go with the committee?
We are all hoping for the triumphant return of Rising but it doesn’t make sense of what Utah will do offensively.

[Roy Rangum]

Until rising is back, my guess is that Barnes gets the majority of downs with Johnson coming in for special situations (probably at least a few downs each game).

While generally I agree that QB by committee is bad, in our current situation, I would be ok if Johnson got more than just a few snaps.

[AlohaUte]

Agree completely, I for one hope that (if Rising is out) Barnes is the starter and Johnson only plays the occasional down in the Wildcat. The problem I saw with Johnson is either that he can’t throw well or the coaches don’t trust him to throw. That makes him one dimensional and stalls our offense.

[EagleMountainUte]

Surprised by the thumbs downs on this.
QB by committee made that game closer than it needed to be. A win is a win and Utah handled Florida well enough. I for one am sick of inferior competition hanging around. Which kind of leads me to my question of was it because of the rotating QB or is it just trademark Utah football.

Hard thing for me is the first game is always rough to examine and the amount injury Utah had it is hard to find fault in the Win.

[2008 National Champ]

It wasn’t any one thing. Ludwig ran his usual predictable first game offense and Florida was stopping it. First down rollout to tight end for nothing. 2nd down handoff for a couple. 3rd down throw it short of the sticks and hope your receiver makes something out of nothing. Punt.

After the first scripted plays, there wasn’t a lot of variety to the play calls. Just played it safe and hope Florida would make a mistake which they didn’t. Really, he only took 3 chances: the first play, the Vele throwback which should have worked and the orbit sweep that got blown up. I don’t think it mattered who was under center in the 2nd half because it was going to stay as vanilla as possible.

[DataUte]

I agree qb by committee usually isn’t good in general. I think Barnes would have played more with NJ just coming in for plays, not series, if we didn’t jump out to a quick lead. From there, we had the luxury of giving NJ reps. Would have been nice to throw, but we also wanted to run the clock and definitely wanted to avoid an INT. Nate bobbled 2 snaps as it was.

[ProudUte]

As for me, I would not have switched QB from one series to another. But, Whitt and Lud must have had their reasons. I suspect that they wanted to get NJ some real game experience, which is a good thing for the future. What happened was more about the long-term and not just winning that game IMO.

If it was me, I would play Nate in specific situations, i.e., short yardage, red zone, etc. But, it’s not me.

Also, going back to a question about the Weber game. I would play Rising until we had a solid lead and then I would turn the offense over to Johnson. He is likely our future and we need him to get experience with the entire offense.

Go Utes!!!

[ukiyoronin]

I was under the impression they are doing this because Johnson is the future and the more we get him into the game, the better he’ll be next year. So people don’t like it when we let him develop and people don’t like it if we don’t. Lose lose apparently.

[EagleMountainUte]

What other team in the top 25 does it that way? I feel like I watch more football than I need to but I have never seen a team try to give a guy experience the way Utah did.

[RedRocks]

Ever hear of Ohio State University? Ohio State to play Kyle McCord, Devin Brown…

[Utes 69]

just remember one wrong hit and Rising is out!

[UtesRule]

The Florida game was more of an anomaly than what we should expect going forward, as I think they were trying to get an idea of how both QB’s would play in a real game situation. Just my opinion!

[Utah]

Here is the problem: Both Barnes and Johnson suck.

I posted earlier, but outside of the 70 yard bomb, the offense did NOTHING with Barnes at QB. Nothing. And te 70 yard play would have worked with Johnson as well, so that wasn’t a Barnes special or anything.

So, then the obvious answer is to play Johnson, right? Well…no. Dude can’t throw. He’s been a QB for like two weeks.

We are doing this out of necessity. Rising is the starter. Rose is the backup. Barnes and Johnson are strings 2 and 3.

We can’t play Barnes all game, because we would only score 10-14 points. We can’t play Johnson all game, because then we can’t throw the ball. So, we play both. With Johnson in more plays, but Barnes needing to play enough that he can play third and long.

It sucks, but it is what it is.

[2008 National Champ]

The first play worked because Barnes put the ball between two defenders and allowed Parks to adjust and catch it in stride. We have no evidence that Johnson can make that throw right now, nor that he would have made it last Thursday. We’ve also never seen Rising make that throw successfully.

Huntley 2019 was the last time we saw a Utah QB throw deep into a tight window and put it right where only the receiver could make the play.

[EagleMountainUte]

Copium on the thumbs down @Utah.
Barnes is objectively a single read QB.
Defenses. Even potato ones like Florida eat him up.

[Central Coast Ute]

I get your point. But what do you do if you’re the coaches? Barnes is the one to help the Utes win so he needs to play. NJ is more likely the future since Rose is out and if you don’t play him, you risk a middle of the season transfer Ala Tuttle and Costelli. In this day, you have to play these kids if the starter is out or they will leave

[Tednab]

Qb is the biggest and only question mark I have with this years teams ability to get another championship .. Nate needs to be utilized because of his speed, however I am not impressed with his decision making in a QB role, he makes me nervous when he throws it.. Barns is good for his role, but if we have to rely on him for the majority of the season , don’t like our chances. Rising is our only answer imo . But what Rising will we get on his return .. we need him at a 100 percent in conference play and then they need to limit him with running the ball .. and he shouldn’t, our RBs are deep this year .. so the answer is, it’s gonna have to be by committee

[Oldskool]

I 100% do not understand all of the hate on Barnes. Dude is a decent QB who would be a starter in a lot of other programs. I think people don’t like him because he is a walk on and not some “4 star” from California. I have no doubt that if Barnes played his high school football in Cali, he would have been a 4 star QB. Unfortunately, he went to Milford HS and everyone thinks he can’t play with the big boys. When he played last week against Florida, of the holier than though “SEC”, he did a fantastic job throwing AND running the ball. Although I would like to have seen him play more, I also understand trying to get Johnson some play time too. The so called fans of football need to understand that Rising is coming off a major surgery. If he reinjures his knee, Barnes is the guy. If Barnes gets injured, Johnsons the guy with a true freshman backup. As for the 2 QB system, it has proven to not be successful if the QBs are the same. If you have a runner like Johnson, it can 100% be successful. Think Cordell Stewart with the Steelers in the 90’s. That spark for the offense can be amazing. Sorry to those of you who have no idea who Cordell Stewart is. From my user name “Oldskool”

[PlainsUte]

I thought Ludwig and Whitt did well with what they had Thursday. Big game against a tough opponent and they got it done. The difference if it were me at the helm (hah!) I would have pulled Nate after the second fumbled snap. Can’t mess with ball security and it made for a 2nd-and-long to be a 3rd-and-long that are tough to convert with Nate running/handing off, and, indeed it was a 3-and-out series and the Utah defense had to get right back out there.

It was not the fault of Barnes that the run game could not get going an any major way other than Nate breaking a few tackles and a few ankles. OL needs to work more on that as it seems they have the pass protection dialed in well.

[2008 National Champ]

They’re probably wondering why you misspelled Kordell ;)-

[Oldskool]

Well, if there is not a red squiggly line under the word, isn’t it spelled correctly? Cordell / Kordell. 🙂

[2008 National Champ]

Can’t be true. I see that red squiggly all the time and I’ve never misspelled a word in my entire life!

[Dallas]

QB by committee seems a good idea until we get Rising back or until one of them (Johnson) makes big mistakes or one of them (Johnson) has a break out game.
Seems a good idea to get Johnson good reps.

[pedro]

I liked it. Florida D had to adjust each time we changed it up. The changes didn’t negatively affect what we were doing IMHO. Our only miscues were not related to the change ups.