Posted By: Ma'ake
Date: Tuesday, 16 April 2002, at 7:20 p.m.
After yesterday's Sahara sandstorm / spring blizzard, the team was in the big tent today, on the Astroturf. Using the air horn inside is like chasing away seagulls with an F-16, but the guy who operates it was pretty good about giving it just a split-second blast.
The dome is actually pretty nice inside, and while it wouldn't work very well for special teams practice (particularly punts and kick offs), just about everything else is do-able. Right after Ute FB practice, the Baseball team came in to use it.
The defense overall continues to look good, they're very quick, especially at closing the gaps. The D-Line in particular looks really good, and the drop off between 1st unit, 2nd unit & 3rd unit is just not that great, at all. Tevita Kemoeatu DT #96 had a couple of nice plays where he got very quick penetration. Those guys all appear to be pretty much interchangable.
> Steve Smith is getting better & better at FS. The improvement from practice to practice is pretty noticeable, and its nice to see Bill Busch not on the field so much. ;-)
> Arnold Parker is playing well at CB. Parker seems to rarely need to crank up the speed to full, he's a next-level talent who rarely seems to lose his feet, does a good job of sticking to his guy, and can close the gap (if need be) if the receiver gets some separation.
> Morgan Scalley continues to look good at RB. IMO, Scalley is making a strong case for Brandon Warfield to redshirt this year, as he brings us to 4-5 quality backs: M Johnson, JR Peroulis, E Benton, R Sirstins, M Scalley. We haven't seen yet S Havili and B Warfield. We're in really good shape at RB, IMO.
> Al Johnson is looking more comfortable at TE. After the main part of practice, he & the other TEs were catching some passes from the QBs. Al got a little hot, apparently, and took off his shirt. He's a nice athlete, with just a little bit of a gut. (Not that a gut is a *bad* thing, especially with my having the wisedom of a few years.)
Bad news: WR Paris Jackson went down with an injury. Good news: It's a 2nd degree sprained ankle, which is a helluva lot better than a knee, and probably means he should stay out of the rest of spring practice, and let it heal fully. His position is pretty well established, he'll get plenty of PT, IMO, could very well start next fall. No need to come back too early.
Ofcourse, these guys heal a lot faster than I remember my pathetic body healing, at that age, as J.R. Peroulis is looking 100% after being dinged pretty good last week.
TE is looking better & better, with Matt Hansen, JD Jorgensen, Chad Jacobson & Al Johnson. In the same way we got quality TE production from Mike Richardson & Dennis Smith last year, I think TE will be fine this season. And we haven't seen Ben Allison / Peni Moa, yet.
Two of the three young talented WRs continue to improve, with the third, Lynzell Jackson, waiting patiently for the fall. Steven Savoy had a sweet TD bomb reception and a number of nice catches. This kid just makes it all look easy. Juan McNutt (pronounced "Ju-won") is recovering from a quad issue and a shoulder ding, and is just now getting some good reps. He's about 6-2, maybe 6-3, about 190#, and looks an awful lot like Jerry Rice, physically, ie, he's athletic & pretty rangy. He had a nice looking post route where he showed some nice acceleration, but dropped the damn ball in the endzone. That's where the Jerry Rice comparison ends, at least right now.
These three could make for a nice group of WRs in the years to come...
Lewis Powell #27 DT picked off a pass, complete with a laid out effort, with good form on the catch. With the number 27, he almost looked like an oversized Josh Lyman, only with a gut. *smile*
All three looked good today, overall, with just a few mistakes. The QB play continues to improve, with better hot reads, IMO. Elliot had a couple of sweet downfield throws, but threw into coverage once where Bo Nagahi nearly picked it off. Lance & Breska both looked solid.
A big guy who came in late looked familiar. It turned out to be Eugene "Geno" LaRocque, the wildman DT from the Wayne Howard days in the late 70s. The last time I saw Geno, in the early 80s, he had driven up to Saskatchewan in a 1970s model Buick LeSabre battleship, and then returned in some beat-to-hell truck. When I asked him what happened to the big cruiser, he said it died and he had to leave it in Canada in a ditch and hitchhike into town, where he bought the truck and came back to SLC. A quality citizen... *smile*
Geno's still in town, still doing well, still drives up to Saskatchewan to see his parents. "I would have flown, but when I saw the airfare I told them I didn't want to *buy* the airplane, just have a ride in it."
LaRocque was a wildman on the D-line, along with Pancho Negrete, Mike "the Snake" Kinsella (who owns the Cotton Bottom, according to Geno) and Mike Sobolewski, who now owns horses in Kentucky.
Geno was another recruiting "find", as he came in as a 21 year old freshman (and his time between HS and coming to the U had zero to do with serving a mission - depending on how you define "mission".)
Mac gave Geno a bad time today, saying "Hey Geno, have you told your son about when you were a 23 year old high school student?".
Eugene, with his son by his side, did not laugh.
The game and Ute football are quite a bit different now than in Geno's time. He told me there's no way he could have played on this team. "I'd be the guy getting the clipboard for the coaches."
Later,
Ma'ake
FOOTBALL: Man, will I ever beat Ma'ake to the computer? Here are my thoughts on practice - parroted directly from Ma'ake's.
Posted By: ColoUte
Date: Wednesday, 17 April 2002, at 9:11 a.m.
Here are just some general thoughts by position.
- QB: It's looking more and more like the QB choice will come down to whether the coaching staff wants a playmaker, or whether the want someone who will minimize mistakes. Elliot really does have that playmaking knack, but for every great play he makes, he'll follow it up with a poor read, a miscommunicated route, or an unnecessary attempt to thread the needle through defenders. (And really, is there ever an excuse to give up an int. to a back-up D-Lineman? - Well, I guess Rice did it twice in the Air Force game.) Don't get me wrong, Rice is making his share of mistakes, but he doesn't have the number of misreads that Elliot is having. The sad thing is that Elliot's reads would improve greatly if he was getting starter's reps, but since we know how conservative Mac is, it's tough to know if he'll ever get that shot.
- RB: You know the thing that's most impressive about Scalley is his extra gear. Most good RB's have that extra gear that allows them to break away once they're in the clear, but Scalley has one that actually hits BEFORE his cut. I've never seen it before. He'll be headed right into the waiting arms of a LB or SS, and all of a sudden, it's almost like he teleports 6 feet away. I've never seen lateral quickness like that.
- WR: You know, I'm liking Steven Savoy more and more each day. When I saw him in the first week of practice, I actually wanted to start the "O-ver-ra-ted" chant myself. I couldn't believe this was the guy Mac claimed could be the best receiver he's ever recruited. As he's gotten in shape, though, I can actually see what Mac saw in him. The guy is just silky smooth. He can catch a ball, and not have it make a sound. He's got great speed and is a nice leaper. He still needs to get in much better physical condition, and needs to get more experience with his cuts and head-fakes, and needs to learn some of those Stevonne Smith borderline legal moves to create space. I think we're going to love watching him for the next 4 years.
- TE: I actually like Chad Jacobsen at TE. I'd been hoping to see him make this switch for a year now. He'll be more of a Henry Lusk type TE than a Mike Richardson type, but I still think he'll be effective. Like Ma'ake said, he needs to get more physical and work on his blocking, but something tells me that Gehrke's not going to let this slip. As of right now, he's probably got the best hads of all of the TE's, and certainly has the best speed. He may just add a different look at that position for a few reps a game until he can add some size.
- O-Line: Souza looks to be getting more comfortable in the Tackle role. He made a couple of sweet trap blocks yesterday that gave the RB's some cut-back gaps. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you're looking at it from our defensive point of view), these gaps didn't stay open long.
- D-Line: Marcus Jones is getting more reps at the 5-technique (Strong-Side) End position. He tends to get trapped a lot in the run-game, but that's an experience issue. He looks really good in the pass rush. I really like the potential of having he and Kaufusi on the field together in passing situations. Even with a rolling QB, it's tough to escape a speed rush from both edges.
- LB: Here's our projected Depth Chart.
WLB - Deckart, Lyman, Thompson, Bollinger
MLB - Tune, Holdcraft, Hendricks
SLB - Bahr, Toone, Ledbetter, Dodds
Anyone want to count the number of seniors on that squad? Here's a hint - it's 2. We've got a really really solid looking corps for a long, long time.
- DB: D'Shaun's actually developed quite the attitude recently. If he makes a good play, he's letting everyone know it. Actually, the most improvement from a DB has come from Bo Nagahi. He's kind of a perfectionist, and sometimes lets mistakes get to him too much. But he's been making some really nice plays.
GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FOOTBALL: I waited for ColoUte to post first, but alas, nothing.... Notes from Big Tent Practice Number Deaux
Posted By: Ma'ake
Date: Thursday, 18 April 2002, at 7:28 p.m.
The air horn is growing on me... God that would be a fun practical joke tool, scaring the bejesus out of old ladies, parents, spouses, judges. What better way to show your young sons how to properly scare the hell out of their future wives?
Quality entertainment... OK, I guess I'm no longer 14 years old, but it's still fun to at least *think* about being immature.
"You're only young once, but you can remain immature your whole life."
PJ went down hard on Tuesday, and he's back today, in pads, with a plastic ankle splint on the bad ankle. "I'm a quick healer, man. I'll be full speed on Saturday." If it was me who suffered that injury on Tuesday, I'd be on workman's comp, disability, anything I could think of, letting my body let *me* know when it's OK to resume work.
Not Paris. Guy is out there, hobbling around, catching retrieval passes for the QBs, doing whatever it takes. This guy is a serious team guy, a leader.
It's pretty inspiring to see guys like Peroulis & Paris Jackson selling out in spring ball, fighting through injuries, when they've got solid PT coming to them in the fall. Senior leadership...
I'm standing there on the sidelines, watching a QB-receiver drill on the south side of the bubble with ColoUte, UTEopia, and Wild Ute, watching Elliott (thanks Monica on the spehling), Breska & Rice threading the needle in a passing drill against a zone defense when my concentration is rudely interrupted by Gerke yelling at....er...."motivating" his O linemen at the north end of the bubble.
Matt Hansen dropped a pass in a scrimmage drill and he soon heard the wrath of Alex (who is also quick to congratulate players for doing well).
If Alex Gerke was my spelling coach, I swear to God I would never misspell another word in my life. Ever.
Between Gerke & Dondo, we've got two excellent O-line coaches.
Bill Hall didn't act the part of a fashion hell's angel today. I don't know if he had his mother help him with some type of Garanimals coordination scheme, or if he ran out of his regular wardrobe, but he actually looked presentable today. It might have had something to do with a fair number of visitors at practice today, mainly HS coaches.
Ofcourse, just because I noted this, sure as hell, he'll assault everyone with a purple & brown outfit (or some getup of equivalent offensiveness) in some future practice. *wink*
Wasn't D'Shaun Crockett sort of a quiet, humble kid in his earlier years at the U? Well, if so, those daze are looooooong gone. Dude has got a constant commentary running all practice long. We're not talking Harold Lusk sort of mindless self congratulatory bravado, but just yappin', staying positive, talking a little bit of smack, keeping everyone's hearing systems occupied. He's got to be in some kind of excellent aerobic condition, being able to play & talk simultaneously for hours on end. (Just goofin', D'Shaun.)
UTEopia had a great comment about every year there being someone who, despite being apparently on the short(er) end of the talent stick, guts it out and forges some PT for themselves. Josh Lyman, Chris Christensen, Kimball Christianson, Chad Kauhaahaa, Nate Kia, etc.
It's the dog days of spring football. Who will push through? Who will not be denied?
Marty Johnson now has the #1, and today he stayed late, catching passes with the WRs. Marty looks smoooooooth, is very fluid, good hands, and appears a bit lighter than last year. I would put him at about 225#, with the irritated knee not apparent at all anymore - no limp whatsoever.
FOOTBALL: Receivers coach making impact and other ramblings...
Posted By: UteNick
Date: Thursday, 18 April 2002, at 5:40 p.m.
In talking with some of the receivers and people I've observed practice with, we have some damn good people on the receiving end of the passes.
The single biggest difference between this year and last is the new coach. Last year at this time, the OC Ver Steeg would yell for a few minutes about routes or going full speed, but that was about the extent of it. Imagine going from one of your favorite professors in the smallest class to the biggest class with the T.A. as your instructor. That's what happened with our WR's when we lost Coach Graves to the NFL. I think now that we have a coach to concentrate completely on WR development, we'll see more performances like were used to (Dyson, Jones, Smith come to mind).
I'm sure the post below this will involve something about Rice and how we need someone to throw the ball to our new and improved WR's. I have criticisms of Lance as well, but I can tell you that there is no one on this earth that wants the Utes to win more than he does. If Elliott becomes the better playmaker, then so be it, I'll be his #1 supporter. However you ask either a defensive player or an offensive player and I would bet you that most of them would say that Lance is still the best player available at QB. That's what I've found in the players I've talked to, and they would know better than anyone.
On another note, if there are any fellow "U" students or anyone for that matter who plan on going to some away games, we should meet up before the game. That's what happened in Vegas last year, and it was a blast. Obviously the turn out for the Vegas game is going to be better than most, but only true Ute fans are going to travel no matter what game it is. I'll be going to all the away games this year (and home of course), and I hope to see as many as can make it there with me.
Go Utes! ! !
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