2008 National Champ

They had to add the rule when teams like Oregon were running HUNH. They would race their subs on straight into the formation and snap the ball while the D was still trying to get aligned. Effectively they were forcing the defense to play whole drives with the same personnel while getting to change theirs at will. The rule helps mitigate that.

The Jackson/Vaki backfield is the same thing they were trying to set up with Barnes/Johnson in the Baylor game when they were both in the game at the same time. It’s been tried before with mixed success. I think Florida did it a few times with Tebow and Leak. And WSU has been running some plays with their running QB (Mateer) and Ward.

I had to…[Read more]

As are Oregon and Washington. There are more than a few teams that would be willing to give him a shot if he decides to go elsewhere.

I was checking out an Oregon fan board after the news came out and the general consensus was that they wanted Uncle Phil to back up the NIL truck for Rising.

No way of knowing how it will turn out but the Manning situation reminds me of Todd Marinovich. Kid exposed from birth to the best developmental methods of the time and who was getting specialized training from an early age. The Manning’s seem to have themselves a plan so hopefully it doesn’t turn into another cautionary tale.

Part of the reason he ended up at Texas was because Sark agreed to let him sit this year. At least, that was what I got reading between the lines last fall.

If he’d gone to Georgia or Alabama, he would have been expected to compete for the job right away since they were both losing their starters. Manning had his choice of schools and his…[Read more]

Whitt explained it in the post-game presser. They changed the rule so that you can’t ice the kicker by calling multiple timeouts. Since Utah had called timeout before sending the kick team on, SC calling another timeout with out a play running was this issue.

Becker is coming off an injury and missed one against CAL to the right. If he’s centered, he doesn’t need to try to bend it in.

On replay, it looks like SC came close to blocking the kick. I’d love to see a side angle to see if it was an optical illusion.

Klatt’s great. Johnson wears me out with his pre-planned catchphrases.

Coachspeak. The week of the UW game, they will have the best offense in the conference, an amazing defense, and the ability to win with their special teams.

That’s quite the pretzel logic. Head football coach and his medical staff apparently had no idea of the nature of star QB’s injury until it was released on a radio interview 9 months later. I guess it’s a good thing the info “slipped” out or the star QB and his doctor could have continued lying to Head football coach and his medical staff in…[Read more]

if weather affects your tailgating, you aren’t doing it right

🙂 🙂 🙂

It’s hard to get excited about what amounts to a lateral transfer. Roughly the same money Utah is currently getting with no more prestige in the competition level, at least in football. Resuming the series with the parochial school and all that entails is not a net positive since they were already on the schedule the next 5 years and 6 of the…[Read more]

he was forced to resign. i believe it was sexual harassment allegations at a previous school so he decided to “spend more time with his family”

For me it was credibility. Whitt didn’t have to tell us that Rising was splitting reps, or that he would be back at any time this season. Once he did, it is legitimate to judge the outcome. Just like it would be with any Head Coach in any sport. Whitt understands criticism comes with the position, even if it isn’t always justified.

Why do…[Read more]

The credibility comment was about injuries and who would be available week to week. It had nothing to do with his coaching ability which has been continuously lauded this year as in previous.

If he wasn’t doing the two-way thing, I would have expected Vaki to move into the Nephi Sewell hybrid role and switch Ritchie/Tao based on down and distance. It’s been a while since Utah has had linebackers in the backfield consistently and Vaki could excel at that.

so Oregon gets to be the visiting team for Game Day twice in 3 weeks. Just need to make sure the same result happens for them

Oregon State was able to stack the box because Utah had such poor execution early. It’s the same theory that Scalley uses every week: take away the other team’s bread and butter runs and force them out of their comfort zone. When Utah’s pass game kept failing on even checkdown’s, Oregon State was able to load the box. Utah did the same to UCLA…[Read more]