This game is a perfect opportunity for Julian Blackmon to redeem himself twofold

[chinngiskhaan]

While I won’t be watching, this is a big opportunity for him. He is a major reason we lost to WSU last year, and a major reason we just lost to USC. If he can show up in a big way that will go a long way toward redemption for him. I hope we win, and when I watch the recorded game I hope I see him making big plays and at least tackling guys after he wiffs on the PBU or INT. I don’t think it will happen, but we’ll see.

[AgouraUte]

Our two safeties last year were much better than him

[gUrthBrooks]

I’m pulling back the reigns a little. While he underperformed against USC’s top talent, He’s only played in 3 games as a starting free safety, and has two picks? I think he can improve his angles and performance.

[highlandute7]

Agree with Hammer.

Plus – we don’t know if he was even fully heathly vs USC. He sat out ISU due to injury vs NIU. I agree he was out of position a few times at USC but this again goes back to him only being in the position for 3 games so far. All things that can be corrected.

[EagleMountainUte]

He wasn’t healthy. Whitt talked about it in post game. Felt it took enormous willpower to play at all. 

[UtahUtesRock]

So how healthy should we expect him to be for this game?

[EagleMountainUte]

Idk based on what happened, he took a helmet right to the knee/upper shin of his leg. He sat for IDSU because they didn’t need him. USC they definitely felt like he was better than a backup. Nurse didn’t do him any favors either. He had a fairly large leg brace on and I remember two of the big plays that in my mind should be picked or batted down by him he stumbles. It might bug him all season so who knows. 

[chinngiskhaan]

This is so stupid. If he wasn’t healthy enough to not lose the game for us, he should not have been in the game. I don’t buy it. What was his excuse for making the same basic mistakes last year?

[EagleMountainUte]

Sample size isn’t large enough for me to view it like you see it. I also don’t hold it entirely against him with the usc game because of injury.  Fair to say? Yes.  Will you see it my way ?  Probably not but I am not seeking your approval. 

[chinngiskhaan]

If you play in the game whilst injured, I don’t want to hear about it. If injury makes you a terrible player, don’t play. If injury makes you incapable of sticking your hand up in he air in time to redirect an object in the air, then you shouldn’t be playing FS with that injury.

[gUrthBrooks]

@chinngiskhaan….2nd team all PAC 12 last year. I understand you have high expectations, but I think he’ll get better and has a lot of talent, currently.

[chinngiskhaan]

I’m not claiming he won’t get better, but he was a massive disappointment at times last year as well. We lost at least two games last year because of his strange lapses in athletic ability.

It’s like one of those strange recurring dreams where you are back on the court in high school, about to make the game winning layup but for some reason you just can’t get the ball to go in the damn basket. That is what his game reminds me of. If it’s a big moment, the ball is thrown away, and he has every opportunity to make a seemingly simple play, I just get this feeling in my gut that I’ve seen it before, and it isn’t going to work out in our favor.

Not only does blackmon not make the winning layup, the ball manages to somehow bounced off the backboard so hard that it goes into the other team’s basket, resulting in a win for the other team. I think that is the best way I can describe how I feel about Blackmon right now.

[chinngiskhaan]

If he didn’t have issues with the same stuff last year I might agree with you. If he isn’t healthy enough to not give up huge TD plays, he shouldn’t be playing. If he is telling the coaches he’s G2G when he isn’t, that’s his fault.

He has major issues with tracking deep balls thrown toward the sideline, and those issues have lead to at least 2 huge losses.

[Yergensen]

Don’t we have a much larger sample size, if his DB experience translates to some degree?  And what we know from his DB experience was he got beat by his man too often.  As a DB he had help over the top.  As a Free Safety he is the help over the top.  This conversion made me nervous from the start.  Im guessing he gets moved back to DB at some point this season and Hubert steps in at FS.

[chinngiskhaan]

blackmon clearly has the tools to get it done, he just… doesn’t sometimes for whatever reason. He is absolutely better at safety that he was at corner.