Thoughts on the game

[AlohaUte]

1. Defense looked amazing. They are so, so good.

2. Our Punter is fantastic

3. Nate Johnson can’t throw and the coaches don’t trust him too. I don’t think he gets any playing time aside from the wildcat plays.

4. Feel good about our kicker generally

5. Barnes is good enough to get us through non conference

6. I thought Vele played really well despite the poor WR opportunities in the 2nd half.

7. The MUSS earned their keep tonight. They were amazing

[Hahnenwk]

Thumbs up on 7

[EagleMountainUte]

He goes flat footed at times and stiff. Looking at that fumble throw. His hands don’t look big enough. Like average size hands. I always think of qb’s having big ass hands.

[mfaulk80]

You know who has small hands? Joe Burrow. Give Nate some time. He started as a qb late in highshcool and basically missed spring, so he actually hasn’t had a lot of practice reps.

[The Rising Cam]

We met Nate at Fan Fest. I have pretty good sized hands and Nates are massive next to mine in the side-by-side I got of us both throwing up The U.

[UtMtBiker]

Depends on what you mean by “get us through”. I’m not so sure the same performance from him gets a win at Baylor.

[ProudUte]

We made some mistakes, but we will clean some of that up. The overall injury situation concerns me. We need to get some of these guys back.

[alexsmith]

I think if the team plays this good next week, they beat Baylor by a touchdown

[Tony (admin)]

You have to take away points for the muss putting their sign up upside down though!

[bopahull]

I know what you mean, upside down singing is always upsetting.

[Tony (admin)]

Oh, the irony of my typo.

[thirtyfour-thirtyone]

Well, Barnesjohnson scored more than enough points, and had zero turnovers, so I’m on board.

Who knows how good Florida really is, but they sure have some athletes. Our ability to stop their running backs was impressive.

[Utesbyfive]

Their O Line is a shambles. They couldn’t get any push, and their run blocking was pitiful.

[RoboUte]

and it’s only going to get worse because they’re so thin there. If both teams play that very same effort in November I think it’s 42 to 3. Florida is in a for a long season and Mertz is going to get some undeserved blame.

[UteFanatic]

Regarding #3, if Nate could just develop into an average passer he would be absolutely deadly as a QB. His speed and athleticism is elite. I’m really hoping that comes to fruition, but the lack of passing attempts does seem to indicate that he can’t do it.

[AlohaUte]

This is true, but will he really get that chance? He’ll have to do it in practice and personal training because he won’t get the opportunities in live games that he needs to improve. I’d absolutely love it if he did develop his arm though, he’d be so incredible leading this team with his arm and legs.

[UteFanatic]

I’m hoping he sees a lot of playing time vs Weber State.

[Ma’ake Kava]

My thoughts on the game:

Offense:
* Couldn’t be happier with Lud’s decision to take a shot early. That was the play of the game, IMO.
* The offensive numbers were distorted by us getting up. BarnesJohnson had more to show, not really a need in this game.
* Gator D was cat-quick and disruptive.
* Vele throws a nice ball. Just a little more air under it…
* Double-tights and NJ’s feet helped us keep the run game credible.

Defense:
* UF used a TON of offensive shifts and movement. It never burned us, but we were misaligned on D a half dozen times. We’ll see how upcoming opponents use shifts, but we’ll get better. Defensively that game was a serious mental workout for our guys.
* Van Fillinger missed 90% of camp? He’s going to play on Sundays.
* Elliss epitomizes the attitude of this defense. Have fun, play to win.
* LB Sione Fotu #12 was really good for being thrown into the fire. DT Tevita Fotu #99 is doing his best to match Leki Fotu, at least in appearance.
* The Fano brothers are really good players. Logan made one of the 5 best defensive plays of the game.
* JT quietly had maybe his best game as a Ute, Vaughn got rooked by Pearsall… twice… but came back with a key pressure on Mertz on a corner blitz that resulted in him overthrowing Pearsall in the EZ.

Glad we have 2 extra days to shake off the celebration – we’ll need it to prep for Baylor.

[2008 National Champ]

Those are FOTU’s, not LATU’s. David/Tevita is a cousin to Leki. Not sure if Sione is related

[22Ute22]

I just wonder why the defense looked a bit lost at times. Like sometimes their was a Florida WR left completely alone and our DB’s didn’t realize until 2 seconds before the ball was snapped. Seems like an easy mistake to correct during film watch though

[UtahPilot47]

Because you are not going to be perfect during the first game of the season.