Utah 23, Utah St. 19

I think the big story of the night was that the ute offense did not really live of to peoples expectations. I mean Utah State dosen't even have a league and will not for at least 3 years. Where was this brilliant offensive machine that was supposed to appear this year. I can't belive the utes are picked number one in the mountain west. I doubt they will even contend for a bowl game. I think the only bowl that Mcbride will see is when you Ute fans get the gumption to do what has needed to be done for years "FLUSH MCBRIDE"!!!!!WOW you guys managed to beat the aggies by 4 points and just think if there was one less turnover. I don't think you're future is very bright.sorry enjoy the marginal win.

Utah picked first? Try sixth.

Utah's offense really didn't look too bad considering it was the first game with a new coordinator, it showed a lot of promise. Of course there's a lot of improving to do, but it showed that it will be better than the previous offense, by leaps and bounds.

What does USU being an independent have to do with anything? Does this mean Notre Dame is a worthless opponent?

One less turnover? That would have made it a +3 turnover margin for Utah..not sure how that changes the game...but if you want to play that game, what happens if Rice connects with the 3 wide open recievers headed to the endzone? The what if game is pointless.

Finally, trolly, calling this a "4 point win" looks at 3 minutes of the game when it was clear who was going to win, rather than the 57 minutes played when the outcome was decided.

> but it showed that it will be better than the previous offense, by leaps and bounds.

How so? The offense looks the same to me except the 2 back set. I'm sure the offense would be much better if we had a quarterback that could pass a pass longer then 2 yards. We mostly ran with a lot of short passes. It's the same as last year except Rice can't run like Darnell can. Rice WILL be intercepted a lot when we play a real defense.

I don't see how McBride can recruit great players at most positions but skimp out on the most important.

The play calling was diverse. When something didn't work, they switched to something else. The runners had far more freedom in looking for holes, in the old offense it was just run straight ahead, don't look for a hole if it's outside the tackle. The passing game struggled some tonight, but I half expected it to. I'm going to reserve judgement there for another game or two...I don't expect us to come out guns blazing. I think people have made a mistake in thinking this is a high octane offense. I never saw it that way, I saw it as a ball controlling, grind it out effective offense that really compliments our defense...I know people find long bombs and big passes exciting, but we've been there and it wasn't effective. I'd rather see succesful short passes with the occasional bomb thrown in, for our team I think it's more effective. Perhaps you and I differ in that I'm more willing to give this team a chance...you seem determined to look for failure first.

I liked what I saw from Ver Steeg, as well as his comments after the game. He had already broken many of the stats down, and had seen and mentioned the problems we saw. He knows what needs to be fixed and will do it, I think he was a good choice. Give the team a couple weeks and see what happens, don't expect us to hit all in one game. For all we know Ver Steeg may not even have thrown his entire package (In fact I doubt he did, I imagine he kept a lot in reserve for next week)...if in a couple weeks we're still having problems, then I'll be right there with you, but for a first game, it wasn't that bad...and I think there were many positive signs.

Quarterback. Lance did "OK" for the first game in a new offense. The reads looked like they were good - he just didn't get the ball delivered to wide open receivers a few times.

Biggest bright spot: No stupid mistakes! Hopefully Lance will get a better handle on the ball and we'll see better results. Breska needs to keep his head up and keep his head in the game.

Receivers. Cliff is Cliff, but he needs the ball thrown within 10 yards of him. Josh Lyman is a decent receiver, but dropped a gimme. Paris Jackson will definitely be a contributor. The RBs did a good job of catching the ball as well. J Waltersheid will be heard from, IMO. Noticeably quiet: Devin Houston. Noticeably absent: Dennis Smith (I have to assume he has either been insubordinate in practice, or he's given up. Dog house, in any case)

Running Backs. The triplets have arrived ! Tate, Hunter and Marty Johnson are all solid backs, run hard and catch passes out of the backfield pretty well. This is a strong position, no doubt. Noticeably absent - J.R. Peroulis.

The fullbacks did a nice job, too. Rob Sirstins, a local product (#26) and the "stealth" FB "S. Ita'Keau" (I think) both looked solid.

Corner Backs. Most of the night Airabin Justin held his own at left corner, but in the 4th quarter they began to pick on him a little bit. It was great to see Yohance Scott get that pick - he deserves it. We need Yo Scott to stay fully engaged, he's a quality athlete. D'Shaun did OK, I thought. He knows how to hit, that's for sure. Bo Nagahi is a quality athlete and will only get better. He had a nice slap down. Corner back isn't completely settled, but we have 4 players who can do a good job.

Safeties. I guess people know who Antwoine Sanders is now. If Antwoine and Arnold stay healthy it's not inconceivable that we could get both safeties on the 1st team all MWC team. Dave Revill (#35) did a nice impersonation of Robert Love, with the same number, too.

First of all it was a beautiful summer night as only salt lake can have: dry, cool, a slight breeze...perfect for watching football.

First the good, and there is a lot of good.

DEFENSE
The defense is still great. The last two scores were mercy touchdowns. The defense dominated a very good offense. The front seven are as good as advertised. Kafusi is a "stud" at stud linebacker. If there are two better safeties in the conference, I'd be surprised. Parker and Sanders both played great. My favorite play in the game was late in the 3rd quarter, utes on d. I notice parker start going in motion, which is normally done as a response to an offensive player go in motion. He stops, puts his arms out, and the flanker on USU gets this "oh yeah" look and goes in motion. Parker knew their formation better than USU did. Physical Talent combined with football brains. I love it.

CORNERS
the corners were pretty good, but Justin has a habit of falling down at the wrong time. Crockett looked pretty good, Scott and Nagahi didn't get tested too much, which means they were covering. If they would improve their technique by turning and looking when the receiver looks (keeping your hand on the guy to feel for changes) and look back, they would have had 2 or 3 more interceptions. This needs work, as in past years

The D will keep us in many games and will even win a few. Kyle is the greatest asset this team has.

RUNNING GAME
Quite a stable of running backs. Johnson, Hunter, and Tate were all great. Johnson might be the best of the 3. Hunter got a lot better since last year. Tate is the same as last year, but may be 3rd best this year.

OFFENSIVE LINE
All in all, pretty good, but it's hard to tell against an undersized aggie line. They dominated their counterparts, but they should have. We'll see next week if they are as good as they looked.

RECEIVERS
another bright spot. They were continually open and gain yardage after the catch. Mac always seems to find JC's that can play. this year the JC is Paris Jackson. Big, rangy, with great hands. a perfect complement to Russell. Houston looked good too. Lyman didn't seem as sharp as he dropped an easy, short pass. Russell was open all night long...see QB review under "the bad". Russell will play at the next level.

SPECIAL TEAMS
Special teams was ok. Kaneshiro is good at short yardage and the new kicker seemed good. No screw-ups, but no game breaking plays. Scalley is probably a pretty good return man, but after steve smith, everything looks in slow motion.

COACHING
Yes, finally, play calling that was diverse and went at the defense's weakness. It was great to watch the Utes line up and not know what play they were going to run. With all the talent at RB, the 2 back set is perfect. We didn't throw the ball long, because the running game was working and the QB wasn't. Lots of off tackle stuff. Would have liked to see a sweep or two. But I did see a couple of throws to the RB and to the tight ends. The nice thing was the discipline was much better...not perfect, but much better. I liked what I saw.

THE BAD

There was only one consistently bad position tonite: The QB. In Rice's defense he played with poise, and made all the right reads. Only one problem: THROW THE BALL TO THE RECEIVER! HE CAN'T CATCH IT IF IT IS 20 YARDS OVER HIS HEAD. Seriously, we should have had 40 points but Rice's accuracy was stunningly bad in throws of 10 yards or more. Balls were sailing 20-30 yards over the heads of open receivers. On the opposite side, the quick outs landed at the receiver's feet. You could just see Rice aiming instead of throwing. If I were a receiver, I'd question the need to stretch out and get killed because my QB. Russell had 3 sure touchdowns where he was so open it didn't require a great throw, only an average one. He also missed Lyman once very badly, and the tight end twice as well, once in the end zone.

I'd like to think this was first game jitters, but I remember the same sympton from last year. Rice overthrows recievers downfield, and aims too much on short throws. I don't think it will get better. He is a smart qb that makes the right reads. That's light years ahead of last year, but if you can't deliver the ball, it doesn't do you any good.

In my season prediction, I said the number 1 question was whether Rice was a D1 QB. Tonite, the answer was no. Let's hope Ver Steeg can work with him, somehow.

In summary, we dominated just about every aspect of the game, and the score was artificially close from late scores. All the pieces of the puzzle are in place except for one...QB. If Rice even has an average game, we score 40. I like Ver Steg's offense, but he can't throw the ball and we will get killed without the ability to pass.

I think we see the continuation of Mac's history of picking the wrong QB to start the season. Rice is a good, smart kid, that, as of yet, can't get the ball to his receivers downfield.

Everything else looked good, and I'm excited again about U Football. If they solve the qb problem, either by a change, or by rice fixing his problem, I stick with my prediction of 7-4 and challenging for the title. If the qb problem lingers...then it's 5-6, or worse

Night All.

QB - Grade: C-
I'd acutally like to grade it lower, but it's the first game, and I'm really trying to keep Grumpy SOB Ute subdued for another week. Rice was exactly the QB I feared he'd be. He didn't make any mistakes, but he didn't make any plays either. The one bright spot in his game was his two minute drill at the end of the first half. He actually looked like he could move the team when it mattered for a little while - and if we had had any TO's left, we could've run the ball inside the 5 and would've scored a TD. For the rest of the game, however he squandered opportunities. He also nearly got Marty Johnson killed stretching for an overthrown ball with a PO'd safety charging at him. I'm more than a little disturbed that we managed to get 5 Aggie turnovers and convert them into a whopping 6 points. There's certainly room for improvement -

TB - Grade A-
I'd acutally grade this higher, but I don't want anyone getting big heads. All three of these guys did a great job. The best part is that they weren't EVER dragged down on first contact. They always kept their legs moving, and got tons of extra yardage. Marty Johnson brings a dimension that I didn't see from Hunter or Tate. Hunter and Tate broke off several 8-12 yard runs, but Johnson broke two big runs. He's got the ability to fly through a hole and get big gains. According to several game summaries from his JUCO career, he did that quite regularly at Butte. Now, all he needs to do is learn how to not get caught from behind.

FB - Grade B
They did what they were supposed to do, but Sirstins dropped two really nice passes, and Marty Johnson missed two critical blitz pick-ups on third downs deep in USU territory. I like Johnson at FB, though. He looks like he has nice hands, and him being out there with Tate/Hunter really provides a nice dual threat. That said, I'm really looking forward to the return of Thomas Fortune.

TE - Grade B
These guys did what they were asked, but you can certainly tell they weren't recruited as pass catching TE's. I'm understating things considerably by saying our TE's aren't overly athletic. Richardson could've made two really nice plays if Rice could've thrown a decent ball. Price made a key grab on a third down in the first quarter and paid the price for it. I don't know what happened to Dennis Smith. He looks to be on the Ryan Shea plan. I really wish Ben Allison wasn't an idiot. He would really fourish under this system.

WR - Grade B+
Cliff is a man. If he'd have had a QB who could get him the ball the last two years, he'd be getting some serious AA run. Unfortunately, it doesn't really look like he'll get a QB who can get him the ball this year either. There were a couple of dropped balls, but for the most part they were running crisp routes. What they need to do is learn how to adjust said routes for poor passes. (Or the QB needs to get better. Whatever.)

O-Line - Grade A-
A much better start than last year. There were nice holes, Rice only got sacked twice. I didn't like seeing the center put the ball on the ground at a key time, but otherwise, I have very few complaints. I hope they can keep it up. It'll be nice to have Eddy back.

D-Line - Grade A-
Ma'ake and Garret had big games. They were putting Fuentes on his butt fairly consistently, though generally not as quickly as one would like. However, there was decent pressure, and Kyle said the team only blitzed 20% of the time. Kaufusi remains a stud. Marcus Jones was fairly quiet. We'll need a lot more from him next week.

Linebackers - Grade A
Those who were worried about Kaufusi sinking into anonymity at the stud position need worry no longer. He had a great game doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing. The thing about Kaufusi is that he can make plays despite being blocked. Kautai struggled in this area because he wasn't as adept at shedding blockers. He was much better plugging holes. Sheldon also had a strong game. The MLB's were quiet, but did a decent job of shutting down White and USU's running game.

Safeties - Grade A
I don't know what I can say that hasn't already been said about Parker and Sanders. Sanders bailed out Arabin Justin twice, and D'Shaun twice. Parker made some incredibly athletic plays. His speed is absolutely incredible. I hope he gets a couple of picks this year. I'd like to see him with an open field.

Corners - Grade B-
I was somewhat underwhelmed by the performance of the corners. They allowed 4 or 5 big plays. They can't give those to Oregon, or it'll get ugly in a hurry. (What I mean is uglier than it normally would be. I'm not looking forward to next week.) Nagahi made a great bat away of a pass, but otherwise was fairly quiet. Arabin Justin was average, but got beaten badly a couple of times. Antwoine Sanders bailed him out, or he would've had two TD's on him. D'Shaun was average as well. Yohance Scott looked decent. I think he'll be a mainstay at one corner. The other side is still a fairly noticeable weakness, however.

Kickers Grade: B+
Kaneshiro was solid. He was 3 of 4, and the one he missed wasn't his fault. Lewis had a bad first kick, but showed a strong leg on the rest. Also, I really hope that the last punt was angled to go out of bounds, but wasn't angled enough. If it wasn't, I'm going to have to lower my coaching grade.

Coaching Grade:C-
I liked what Ver Steeg brings, and Kyle was great as usual. I have some problems with a few of the decisions, however. I don't understand going for it on 4th and 6 on USU's 22. That's a 39 yard FG. Those had been working all game, the passing game hadn't. I think we should've gotten the easy points, but it's irrelevant. I was pissed, however, at the mismanagement of the clock at the end. Mac took a knee on firsd down with 1:37 left and USU with one TO. This forced the punt with 3 seconds left. Now, problem #3. Why do you punt with 3 seconds left. You should just have the punter scramble around, or better yet, don't even put the punting team on the field. Run a pitch or an off-tackle. Even with the clock stopping on change of possession, they'd run off 3 seconds. The last thing I'd do is kick it, and if I did, I'd kick it WAAAAAAAAAAY out of bounds. Don't even give them a chance. OK, I'm done griping for a while.

GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, the Utes look very similar to last year, tough defense but poor offense, primarily because the passing game is weak.

I really like Lance Rice as a person, but he is not the answer. He twice missed a completely wide-open Cliff Russell for touchdowns due to poorly thrown balls. I think Ver Steeg tried to help him out by calling mainly short passes. Any pass beyond five yards was not even close. In addition, he still doesn't seem to be able to go to a second or third receiver. I believe Breska or Elliot (although I believe Elliot is injured) should get a shot and if neither is better than Rice then we are in for a long year. The offensive line and running game were pretty solid, but such a one-dimensional offense is going to get us killed.

The defense was solid with the front seven dominating at times and the secondary doing a decent job and making a few plays, but without a quarterback it will be a mediocre season.

Utes dominated both lines. RB's looked good. We rushed for about 240 & held USU to around 80. I expected more out of the passing game. The only thing that seemed to work was simple 5-yard out patterns. I am nervous about Rice, he missed several open throws that would have gone for long yardage & 2 or 3 td's. If Rice is the best QB in the program it could be a very average offense for the next 3 years.

USU's offense was not impressive. White was held in check all night, Fuentes threw a lot of bad passes, a few were completed but I wasn't impressed.

It seemed like the Utes were in the nickel defense all night. DB's didn't get burned but had they turned around they would have had a few more picks. I heard Whittingham say that USU threw 43 times and that 1 sack was not acceptible, but I never saw the Utes blitz, so that may be why.

I'm just relieved the Utes won.

and to be honest, I was pretty disappointed. Not by the kicking game, which seems to be pretty strong. Not by the defense, which seemed to do what it always has...bend but don't break. Excepting a couple of long pass completions, the D-backs played pretty well for the first game of the season and the first big playing time for the four of them. I was also not disappointed in the play calling, which seemed to be there. I was upbeat about the mistakes...there were very few stupid things that the Utes did.

The problem, IMO, is the same as it has been the last couple of years...the quarterback. Yeah, yeah, I know that it is the first game of the season, Rice's first start, yada, yada, yada.....

I don't see the problem with the offense as being a problem with the play calling or the players themselves, minus one. Granted, Rice didn't make any mistakes, but neither did he make plays. He overthrew or behind so many receivers that I wanted to cry. He missed Russel WIDE OPEN by miles TWICE and overthrew Richardson who was wide open and behind the defense another time. His poor throw cost the Utes another touchdown when POOR Russel had to come back to a ball after beating his man....Russel caught the ball but was dragged down immediately after making the catch. If he had been delivered the ball in stride, he would have crossed the goalline easily instead of being dragged down inside the 5. I could go on and on, but it seems pretty apparent that this isn't a problem with implementing the new offense...the receivers were open and the plays were working. The only problem? Lack of a quarterback capable to deliver a semi-decent ball downfield....

On a positive note, like I said, the kickers looked good. The defense looked adequate, at least for this game. And most positive...when is that last time the Utes opened at home and won the game????? It has been a while, but it happened tonight!

As one of the worlds biggest pessemist I cannot believe that stuff I'm reading. Granted, Rice will never win the Heisman. But if you watched every aspect of the game you would've seen how much better he was than last year. I only saw one time where he missed a read (for those Darnel lovers, he rarely made a good read). I also concede we should've had at least two more TD's if Rice could've hit wide open guys. BUT.....every ball he threw was safe and away from the defenders. That's something he's been taught....also something we haven't seen for five years. There were at least 3 to five balls that should've been caught for good gains.

The O isn't going to air it out very often. I don't know why..... They definately looked rough for the first quarter. BUT....a safe O is fine if it sucedes. Furthermore the longer balls are harder to hit in game situations then the shorter ones in a real game setting. I honestly think Rice will start hitting those...hopefully in the Oregon game.

All in all I think that there is hope. The only thing that really bothered me is when Mac started stalling with 8 minutes left. STUPID! The bonehead needs to learn that a 80 point lead is always better than a 3 pt lead and that mistake arn't alway made by the players. We didn't turn the ball over all day....keep running the O as if we were behind by 10, not up by 10.

I say give Rice a chance and see. Maybe when he settles down he'll do it.....Afterall, what else do we have?

Go Utes!

Unsatisifed and unimpressed is how I felt when leaving RES last night.

Apparently my feelings were not unique. I am glad to read that the Utes eren't overly pleased with their effort and performance.

I'm pretty sure that we still cannot tell a whole lot about this team from the game last night.

The running game was effective, but then again, the running game was effective against USU a year ago. Will the O-line be able to open holes agains larger, more physical fronts?

The passing game was more diverse, but Rice missed open receivers by a mile, not just an inch. The receivers also dropped some passes that should have been caught. Fortunately his bad passes were overthrown and not underthrown. Underthrown passes go for touchdowns in the opposite direction. I would have liked to see Breska get in the game with the score 23-6 and 6 minutes left. At lease he would have taken some snaps.

The run defense was very good. Deckart can run to the ball.

Pass defense was shakey. Although our line hit their QB alot, we only had 1 sack. Sanders had 2 picks, but the Aggie receivers should never get behind the FS down the middle. It happened twice.

Kicking game was much improved except for the last punt coverage.

How can we still have trouble with clock management?

Question of the week. Do you spend alot of time preparing for Oregon or do you start your preperation for Air Force? As a competitor, I would never want to overlook an opponent because you feel your best would never be good enough. For a coach to do so would be insulting to his players. However, the Air Force game is alot more important than the Oregon game. As a fan, I'm not sure that a perfect game by the Utes will be enough to stay with Oregon. I'm hoping that the Utes can keep the point margin below 21 and not have any serious injuries. I wouldn't feel too bad if the defense started to get ready for Air Force.

I know Rice missed several open receivers, but I loved the idea that we ran many different plays and we actually had open receivers. I liked that we ran sweeps and we threw in the flat. I love our running backs. I say give Rice 2 more games. He's too good to make some of those mistakes again. Also, give Ver Steeg time to fix the problem. Most of what Rice was doing wrong was probably due to being the first game of the year. I was nervous as hell. I can imagine he was probably going out of his mind. I completely feel in my heart that he will improve between games 1 and 2.

I enjoyed the game last night. Our defense looks solid. Except for Airibin. Holy crap, he was burned several times. Look for Oregon to throw early and throw often. It could get ugly.

I think we have a good chance against Oregon. With the exception of them and BYU, I believe we can win all of our games. Everyone needs to get off the ledge (sp?). This is why playing Utah State is bad. It's a no win situation. When we win, it's because we're suppossed to. When we win by only a few touchdowns (I'm not counting the last 2 minutes of the game when it was out of reach), it's not good enough.
Remember people, USU thinks this is their bowl game. Utah fans couldn't care less about USU. That in itself spell problems.

All is well. All is well. (Hopefully)

Go Utes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

The offense was a little better, but it looked like Ver Steeg found a copy of Tommy Lee's playbook and added a few throws to running backs. If it wasn't for the trademark running game of the Utes, which they had before Ver Steeg got here, the Utes would have lost this game. The Utes were still late in getting in the plays to the QB so that he would have at least a few seconds to check the defense and change the call if need be. This situation is no better than under Tommy Lee.

The defense was good (except for Justin).
All I could think was, How much longer is Whittingham going to put up with Mcbride not getting a good Offensive Coordinator.

I was at the game, and sat right behind the team on the East side. Whittingham is really on top of everything the defense does. Getting the right people in and out for specific situations, teaching and correcting as he went along. Nagahi was good, but was a little lost in a couple of situations. Whittingham took him out from the starting position and put in Y. Scott. Nagahi came in as a Nickle back. Sanders missed a couple of plays early, and Whittingham was giving him a talking to. By the second half Whittingham pretty well had it figured out who could play and who couldn't in a game situation. Whittingham really has his "game plan" together, and he executes it.

The positives I saw:

Looks like we have a solid Punter and Kickoff man in Brian Lewis. If he can kick long field goals, then that is a bonus.

Kaneshiro looks pretty solid on field goals from 40 yards in. If the offense can get to within 25 yards of the goal, then we have a good scoring chance. This basically won the game for the Utes last night.

Marty Johnson looked really good. Not just that he had long runs, but he is big enough to break tackles, and quick enough to go outside if need be. He showed great hands on one catch. Hope it wasn't an aberration. I predict he will be seeing a lot of playing time.

Paris Jackson and Devin Houston looked like the real deal. They could be great. This is nice, since Cliff Russell, for all the hype just doesn't look that good to me. He dropped a few, and doesn't look strong enough to catch anything in traffic.

Morgan Scalley was very solid as the punt return guy. He didn't drop a catch, or fumble on the runback. He actually is pretty slippery and broke some tackles. If Cliff Russell is so fast why don't they use him for kickoff or Punt Return man.

Arnold Parker is only going to get better and better, and with Sanders the other Safety, I think the Utes will improve steadily in the pass defense department. (Hope the inexperienced corners improve)

Sheldon Deckart is solid at the Rover. He was all over the place making tackles.

Thank heavens for Ma'ake K., Garret, and Sape. They give the Utes a nice defensive line.

Well, just a few observations of the game. Hopefully, the offense will come along while the defense keeps the Utes in the game.

Go Utes!! Beat Oregon