When the news broke, someone close to the family said he wasn’t interested because he’d already transferred and adjusted to a new program once. The other reason was his family is decently well off, so the money wasn’t a big factor for him.
I doubt very much we were offering the same for him, especially as 2nd on the depth chart.
Vaki’s touches, afaik, were the same packages from previous weeks. Oregon would signal Vaki was on the field and key in on him, since they knew he was getting the ball. That included a safety being assigned man coverage. Vaki didn’t play a lot of snaps, which likely was because of Oregon’s offense shredding Utah’s defense early on. It seems despite Whitt’s comments earlier in the week regarding analytics, they wanted him playing on defense more.
Bottom line is we showed up with the same offense we had against Oregon St / Cal / USC. Oregon actually took us seriously and shut it down.
I feel bad for Jackson. He’s sorely needed, but he needs to rest. Us playing injured players makes me more sympathetic to Rising/Kuithe rumors and our coaching/medical staff potentially rushing people out there.
Yeah, they got torched. Credit to Oregon and Nix being accurate and decisive. They’ve got a ton of playmakers.
It’s extra challenging when your offense can’t sustain drives. But, our offense is also a reflection of our defense-first mentality, so I don’t think the offensive woes give the D a pass.
It’ll be interested to hear if there’s any accountability for the defense, or if it’s the usual “we couldn’t get anything going on offense” deflection.
We have an identity. It just takes NFL caliber skill players to out execute the other team.
Otherwise, it’s predictable and ineffective.
Also-I don’t believe we’d be any better with a transfer QB. I think Utah is a tough place for a QB to develop and thrive.
Love Barnes. He exemplifies Utah’s ideology. It seems like his decision making is improving, save for a few obvious plays, including the pick six (ouch).
Tangential, can we get Johnson out on the field somehow? Seems like his athleticism should be able to fit somewhere on the field.
Is it just me, or does he look faster than when he played at the U?
Punt on first down. They’ll never expect it.
Plus it gives our defense more chances to score.
Okay I love our Utes, but I chuckled listening to this. Not a direct quote, but what was going through my mind:
“The defense kept us in the game! Somehow we couldn’t find a spark on offense, despite us calling 80+% run plays with the occasional third and long pass-play from a QB who doesn’t have great accuracy, while bringing in another QB to only either hand the ball off or run himself. But, once we were in desperation mode at the end and let the running QB throw, the offense finally started clicking!”
But seriously the play selection and coaching on offense needs to take some accountability. When you beg teams to stack the box and face zero consequences, why act surprised that your run game goes nowhere.
If the focus on offense is taking care of the football, any time we punt it should be measured as an expected, acceptable outcome. You’re not trying to score, you’re trying not to lose.
But, we’re 2-0 and I expect we’ll get better. Go Utes!
You might say it’s a load of crap.
Yeah I remember Whitt saying Grady could throw the ball 70 yards.
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