Super Happy for Barnes

[GameForAnyFuss]

Flashy gunslinger? Blessed with freakish skills and athleticism? Heisman contender? Going to be playing on Sundays? No, no, no, and no.

Barnes is a farmer who loves to play football. Small-town kid. Walk-on. Willing to do whatever it takes to help the team. Humble. Got that dawg in him. This program was built on the backs of kids like him (not usually at the QB position, but still). He’s the definition of a Utah Man.

I love kids like Barnes. They’re the salt of the earth. After football he’s going to sell insurance or something like that until he gets enough money to buy his own ranch. He deserves this win, if for no other reason than he’ll be able to share the story with his kids and grandkids and show them the highlights.

[dystopiamembrane]

“…salt of the earth, straight from the bosom of the Mormon church…”

[dystopiamembrane]

Down-votes for Nanci Griffith? You monsters.

[dystopiamembrane]

She’s a legend.

[DrahtUte]

Agreed but I think you might be selling him a little short. He’s got good size, is pretty fast and throws a nice ball. He seems accurate and made mostly good decisions in his first start.

Who knows how far he can go once he gets more experience?

[thirtyfour-thirtyone]

Yeah, I thought he played very well, keeping in mind that he didn’t know he was starting until they were mostly done warming up for the game.  At some point I would like to see what he could do after a week (or more) of preparing with the 1’s.  I just hope to not see that this year 🙂

 

In my eyes, he is a legit starting D-1 quarterback until proven otherwise.

[RedRocks]

I imagine he knew there was a good chance he would be starting the game. That said, I thought he performed well enough on short notice for his first start. He seems to have a pretty low release and kind of stares down his receiver. That said, Cam has a tendency to stare down receivers as well (seems better lately, though).

[noneyadb]

That game was horrendous. Barnes stares down his receivers. Multiple passes being knocked down shows he has tunnel vision and isn’t seeing the field. He’s fine for an FCS/G5 program, good kid plays hard, but P5 level? I’m surprised he’s the backup. Any other opponent and that games an L. Wazzu is terrible. 

[DrahtUte]

That seems like a really harsh evaluation based on a kids first ever full game running the offense.

When has utah ever had a backup QB who came in and did all those things you’re expecting in their first game?

If you’re really that good at evaluating QB talent based on a single game sample size, I hope you’re on a college coaching staff somewhere. 

[BingBob]

How can a contributor like Barnes not be on scholarship? 

[Jake]

Are you assuming he’s not on scholarship because he’s a walk on? I could be wrong but I’m sure our backup QB would’ve been put on scholarship already.