Utah/Utah State Open Thread

Submitted by enlightenedbum on

Watching last week's opponent to try to figure out how good they are.

7-0 Utes late first, though USU is driving after a great catch on a deep ball and a roughing the passer penalty.  Spread is a little more effective running the ball than we were, which is concerning me.  Utah's offense has looked pretty good with an easy TD drive and a second really promising drive that was killed by a penalty that the refs forgot to announce (PAC-12 refs!).

Early indications are a little concerning for the offense but encouraging for the defense.

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UofM626

September 12th, 2015 at 12:23 AM ^

HGH is a huge problem in football. You think steroids in baseball is big the HGH problem in college and pro football makes steroids in baseball look like it never happened. This year and especially next year you will begin to see a shit load more injuries. Especially torn ACL and MCL. #1 side effect of HGH and Roids is weak knees and groins when you cycle off. Wait till next year at how many injuries you see once the testing is in full blown mode! This is only the beginning. The games about to slow down a bit as well. You will see

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UMgradMSUdad

September 12th, 2015 at 12:47 AM ^

Utah State is a decent team and they came to play.  They surprised Utah with some of their trick plays and formations, not showing any of that in their game last week.  Utah's backup QB is a good runner but nowhere near the passer Wilson.  That will be a huge loss if he's out for very long.

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Danwillhor

September 12th, 2015 at 1:03 AM ^

and it really says more about how I see our team. We should have won that game but we didn't and I didn't predict that we would. Yet, Utah didn't look that great to me. I think they're an above average P12 team. They're not a major bowl team, IMO. It just kinda reinforces my opinion that no team can be seen as a gimme and we could easily go 6-6 or 8-4 some lucky bounces. As I said before the season, I think we fans had our fun in the Summer of Harbaugh but need to realize that this is a rebuild no different than what he did at Stanford. In fact, possibly harder because he's not in California where very talented kids can easily fall through the cracks. They let the man build and I'm concerned that most UM fans expect too much too fast.

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Danwillhor

September 12th, 2015 at 8:21 AM ^

I had a family friend on Harbaugh's first Stanford team. They were bad. It's just different in a lot of ways but not in that we also have a long way to go, IMO. Oregon was the only fast paced hyper-spread team in the conference at the time, IIRC. The power was a "traditional" pro-style team in USC. Immobile QBs under center, etc. In a game with two teams like that I'll always like any team coached by Jim. CFB changed a ton in the years he was in the NFL. I think he'll have a mixed system but he has to build it because I don't think this team, this program, is ready to win. The one thing we know is the same is that we need to completely rebuild. I hope everyone is patient b/c I heard things from many after Utah -one game - that make me think too many expect instant results. We won 5 games last year but it could have easily been 3. Our total the last two years could easily be around 8. We're not as far as many seem to think.

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snarling wolverine

September 12th, 2015 at 1:16 AM ^

I forgot this game was on.  Reading through this thread, I assumed Utah had lost - and was surprised to find out that they won, and by 10 points.  

 Sometimes we can be a bit on the Eeyorish side.

 

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rockusa

September 12th, 2015 at 7:08 AM ^

They seem pretty legit.. we lost to a good team.  More on us than on them though.. schedule them later in the season and the final score would be totally different.

Joined: 11/15/2009

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JayMo4

September 12th, 2015 at 8:42 AM ^

I'm a little disappointed with Utah tonight as well, but it's worth noting that they were a poor matchup for us as they generally defend power teams better than spread and/or option type teams.  USU had most of their offensive success running the types of plays that our offense isn't going to be running.  That doesn't mean our O line and backs don't need to get better - they do - but the key to moving the ball on Utah continues to be making them play in space.  We wouldn't or couldn't do that, so we struggled.

It was also our very first game under a new coaching staff and system.  We were never going to be as good in week one as we likely will be in November.

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