I know the rest of you have moved on already. I take a lot longer. I am ready to put this one in the old refrigerator but have a couple more thoughts, after analyzing the film I will try not and rehash the things that have already been mentioned.

First of all Utah D is really good. I was very impressed with their dline and their linebackers. Nate orchard was in on every tackle I swear. For our first outing our offense played pretty dang good, especially against a good defense. Here are some things I noticed after watching a couple times that I didn't while watching live:

First tackle of the game.... Little Vigil on ST on the first kick off. He actually played in nickel/dime situations the entire game and was great on special teams and also almost sacked Wilson a couple times. He played very well as a frosh. Really excited for him in the future.

Stewart never saw the field (as far as I can tell maybe I missed him). Our corners played really good. Nevin shut down Dres for the most part. Most of the big pass plays we were in zone and the safety's got beat bad. Mo was great blitzing and was all over the field and great against the run, but got it handed to him in coverage. Murhpys TD and THE PLAY (huge pass play on 3rd and 14 late in the third when it seemed they were dead in the water after we shut them down the first two plays of the series and then they had a false start, this was the turning point on the game IMO) were his plays to make and he didn't. He also caused the fumble we recovered. I am still not sold on as much zone as we played. Almost all of the big pass plays were zone defenses. I t didn't seem like we played a lot of zone last year?? (I would love for someone to comment on this that knows more about this than I do)

DJ was banged up, I was told he was in a boot all week and was lucky to play, you could see him grimace a few times in the game and his calf area had tape on it. Other injuries : Connor (we know about this one), Suite had to get an ankle retaped at the end and was limping, Sanders came in ad spelled him for a couple plays at the very end. Then there were the cramps... We really missed Connor, they ran it right at that end almost esclusively, and especially late they made us pay.

Suprised that Tmac did not play, is he hurt maybe? Nor did Seefeldt. I thought he would play some, Ricky Alifua played a few snaps. King wheat was in a couple plays, Chuckie threw once to him and it looked like he ran the wrong route I thought I saw butler in for a couple plays in the first half. NO KW, I would like to see him on returns, maybe a RS.

I noticed MW and Demartino get into it on the sidlines and he plays very little after that.

I am excited for Hill. He seemed a little too patient at times, but has a killer burst and is more shifty than kerwyn, I think he is going to have a great year.

Ok, now I am ready for AF. I think if we come out with same effort and energy, and clean up a couple things we should win by 10 or more.

Anybody else notice anything that hasnt been mentioned? I love little tidbits like this.

Good post.

We played a lot more zone against Utah than I remember use typically using last year. When you are breaking in new guys in the secondary, it is easy for them to make poor reads and go to the wrong zone or guard air in a particular zone. I think that happened to Alexander a few times. He was very slow to react or bit on play action and left gaping holes in the middle of the field. I also think he lacks the speed and fluidity to recover if he is slow to react which is obviously a problem.

We ran the hurry-up extensively in the first half and early 3rd quarter and whenever we gained a first down, we would do a simple read play between Keeton and Hill, usually with Hill taking it into the line. This rarely worked for more than a few yards, but we consistently ran this play on first down in the hurry-up. I kept waiting for us to do some sort of play fake off of that or add another variation to it, but I don't remember us really doing that.

I was extremely impressed with the receivers. They were very aggressive in going after the ball at its highest point and for the most part caught everything with their hands. I was very disappointed that we went away from them so much in the second half. TVL and Swindell were excellent in the first half, but were hardly targeted in the second half after our TD driver to open the half. I was much more impressed with the receivers than I was with the running backs who I thought were only adequate. Demartino seemed to be the guy we looked to in tough, short yardage situations, but he wasn't great and Hill was pretty good.

I can only remember one play where it was clearly a called QB run and that was a big gain I think on our TD drive in the 3rd quarter. It was very well executed and a well timed call. The other runs were either reads of Keeton's or on broken plays if memory serves. I imagine we will see a similar reluctance to put Keeton in harms way as the year goes on and rightfully so.

I thought Wells was about what you would expect for a first time head coach, but we were clearly outcoached IMO. This is to be expected, but I think we win that game with GA. Utah adjusted better to what we were doing on offense and kept attacking the deep middle of the field and we never found an answer. Also, the onside kick thing was a disaster. Not sure why our front line back pedals but it cost us dearly and it was something that we should have had some idea was coming. The crowd was very quiet before that and it changed the game completely. It also didn't help that they upgraded tremendously at OC. Erickson is a brilliant offensive coach, especially in the passing game. Brian Johnson should be a Grad Asst. not an OC.

To be honest, I expected to beat Utah. I thought, and still think FWIW, that we have more talent than they do. For whatever reason, mistakes made by our Special Teams continues to doom us. GA never figured it out and so far Wells has not either. Missed FGs, Onside Kicks, Poor Punt Coverage, Missed EPs, etc. have all cost us games over the past 3 years and yet the mistakes continue. We are finally at a point as a program that our offense can move the ball and score on just about any team, and our defense can compete with just about any team, but our special teams is noticeably deficient when we play other teams at or above our talent level.

Well, after letting it stew all weekend I'm fine with moving on from this game. I always have a tough time watching a game we lose, so I haven't watched the Utah game yet. I think I will take a look at it this week because I'm curious how my live viewing opinions will differ from my TV viewing opinions. With that said, I give you the following:

1. The officiating crew at this game was flat out too slow. There were some calls that they just flat out missed. They definitely had a small impact on the game, but we should be better at overcoming this problem. I was extremely disappointed that the crew was so bad in such a big game. I also refuse to blame this lose on the officiating. We made our own mistakes that were just too poor to overcome.

2. The helmet rules need to change. I'm fine with making players sit out a play if they lose their helmet. It makes players strap them up better (Gallagher always lost his lid). It is frustrating that they aren't penalizing players that illegally remove their opponents helmets. The Larsen call was correct. I won't dispute that at all even though I don't like the rule. I just think they need to watch the blows to the helmet better. That was a tough one to swallow and ultimately led to a TD for them. Dumb play by us.

3. I am getting sick and tired of special teams hurting our team. The missed PAT definitely changed the game. We cannot miss those kicks. The onsides kick was the game changer. I bet half the Aggie fans saw that one coming from a mile away. How stupid is it that we have our guys backpeddling before the kick? We hadn't returned a kickoff all day. Why the hell are we not being mindful of the onsides kick? This one lies completely on the coaching staff. This one has me mad as a hornet.

4. Our safeties were terrible. Most of their big plays and TDs came on our safeties. They don't cover well in man and they are absolutely terrible in the zone. I don't like Mo Alexander back there at all. We are going against his natural instincts. We will get lit up this year if this doesn't change fast.

5. Our defense is worse this year. I don't like that we have changed to so much zone coverage. We just aren't that good in the zone. I also don't think we were able to get as much pressure on Wilson as last year. Orlando has a lot to prove in my opinion.

6. It is frustrating to me when we lose the way we lost. I feel we had the better team. Utah's coaching staff consistently outcoached our coaches. They exploited our weaknesses and we didn't counter their changes very well. I put this loss squarely on the coaching staff.

I could go on, but I'm done. We have a good team this year. We missed an opportunity to take the program to the next level in the state. I like the fact that we expect to win these games. The problems we have can be fixed. Here's to beating Air Force.

Just a quick note on the special teams on side kick.

Apparently it was something Utah State was doing last year as Utah's special teams coach said he had noticed it on film and it was something they thought they could exploit. They had practiced it during the week. After a the first half he told Whittingham that it was available if he wanted to try it.

You will unfortunately have to give your coaching staff some time to grow together. Aside from the addition of Dennis Erickson, Utah's staff has been together for a long time. Trust me we had these same discussions in 2005 and there were plenty of fans that wanted to fire Whittingham in 07 and even a few before the 08 season who called the 8 wins out of 9 games to end 07 a fluke.

Part of the reason they went away from the passing game is that Utah changed their Defensive Ends from playing zone to a pass rush. In the first half they were so concerned about containing Chuckie that they didn't get any pressure on him. When they found out they couldn't contain him anyway they decided to try and pressure him some.

I will agree that the officials were bad, but they were bad all around. However, there were plenty of missed calls and bad calls throughout the entire game. USU was fortunate to not have one of their players ejected on the play right before Chuckie goes out with the cramp. One of USU Oline does a blind side helmet to helmet hit on one of Utah's Dline guys.



Anyway, just glad that they are Big-12 refs and that we won't see them again.

Does anyone else feel like we disguised our blitzes better last year? It seems like our guys were flying to the line well before it was snapped. Last year it seems like teams were always guessing if we'd blitz and where it'd come from.

Wow. You really want to bring that up? Look earlier in that play and see #41's 'bump' on I think Natson which, while probably not as bad, he lowered his helmet and looks to have hit Natson helmet to helmet. Then there's #9 cleaning his cleats off in Keeton's facemask at the end of that play. So sure, eject Markosian and maybe 41 for the rest of the game. Just don't forget that if they were making that call then Salt would have been ejected in the 1st quarter and #58 probably would have been gone late in the 3rd on a flagrant too. The officiating wasn't anywhere near even. And don't be so sure you won't see them providing you with home cooking again. I wouldn't be surprised to see them in a few weeks at USC. A couple different plays here or there (including official screw-ups) and we win that game, even w/ the officiating issues. You needed serious help from the officials, an onside kick and various other things at home to win that game. Just be glad you got the W and that you aren't playing us next year.

BTW, do you know what else I noticed about that play? Your guy is complaining and looking for a flag. Another guy is probably held a little and what does he do? Complain and look for a flag. Larsen gets targeted and his helmet yanked off by the facemask and what does he do? Keep playing. Chuckie gets a fist to the chin and he gets up and leaves the field. Chuckie gets hit late out of bounds and he waits for some help up, and goes up the sideline. Maybe our guys need to whine more. Or maybe they can just keep the blue collar attitude and keep going regardless what is thrown at them.

BTW, I'm not sure about challenging the spot on the Natson catch. I'm just not convinced they wouldn't have come back and said inconclusive or some garbage like that. One official had already overruled one on the other side who had the spot about right. The one spotting the ball had it about right before he was moved back by that official too. And it would be nice on plays where a helmet comes off that they automatically look at how it came off. They can use replay for targeting.

BustaMcNutt wrote:Does anyone else feel like we disguised our blitzes better last year? It seems like our guys were flying to the line well before it was snapped. Last year it seems like teams were always guessing if we'd blitz and where it'd come from.

I like they way we blitzed for the first three quarters. It seemed to me we quit in the fourth and give Wilson plenty of time to pick a receiver. Over all I think we will be fine.

ryanolsen wrote:Wow. You really want to bring that up? Look earlier in that play and see #41's 'bump' on I think Natson which, while probably not as bad, he lowered his helmet and looks to have hit Natson helmet to helmet. Then there's #9 cleaning his cleats off in Keeton's facemask at the end of that play. So sure, eject Markosian and maybe 41 for the rest of the game. Just don't forget that if they were making that call then Salt would have been ejected in the 1st quarter and #58 probably would have been gone late in the 3rd on a flagrant too. The officiating wasn't anywhere near even. And don't be so sure you won't see them providing you with home cooking again. I wouldn't be surprised to see them in a few weeks at USC. A couple different plays here or there (including official screw-ups) and we win that game, even w/ the officiating issues. You needed serious help from the officials, an onside kick and various other things at home to win that game. Just be glad you got the W and that you aren't playing us next year.

BTW, do you know what else I noticed about that play? Your guy is complaining and looking for a flag. Another guy is probably held a little and what does he do? Complain and look for a flag. Larsen gets targeted and his helmet yanked off by the facemask and what does he do? Keep playing. Chuckie gets a fist to the chin and he gets up and leaves the field. Chuckie gets hit late out of bounds and he waits for some help up, and goes up the sideline. Maybe our guys need to whine more. Or maybe they can just keep the blue collar attitude and keep going regardless what is thrown at them.

BTW, I'm not sure about challenging the spot on the Natson catch. I'm just not convinced they wouldn't have come back and said inconclusive or some garbage like that. One official had already overruled one on the other side who had the spot about right. The one spotting the ball had it about right before he was moved back by that official too. And it would be nice on plays where a helmet comes off that they automatically look at how it came off. They can use replay for targeting.

Seriously. If it's a serious enough risk for players to play without helmets that you'll give the opposing team an incentive to forcefully remove the helmet further putting the player at risk, you should put measures in place to protect the players. Refs aren't going to be watching every player all the time, but the cameras are. I don't like adding new rules because I think each one takes a little bit away from the game, but there is a case to be made about protecting the players. As long as they are doing that, go all the way and fix the loopholes.

FWIW

The Block U community was extremely complimentary of us after the game. In an article with 25ish comments, almost all of them said we'd go on to be their best win this year, win 10 games, win the MWC, etc...

I think there may have been a certain "If we barely won at least it was to a darn good team, and now that we beat them we want them to look good" tint to the emotion behind the comments, but all the same, it's nice to hear.

My thoughts:

1. You have to blame coaching errors on each of the following:

a. Taking the air out of the offense, slowing things down to milk the clock, letting the pukes' D to catch their wind and retain their confidence after the 2nd-half-opening score -- way too early in the game to worry about that;

b. The onside kick;

c. The failure to make adjustments on offense to the pukes' defensive adjustments in the 2nd half; and

d. The failure to sit our green safety down, get him calmed down, and get him to play position/assignment football -- he could become a liability during the game with the Zoomies, where you play position/assignment football or give up 600 yards.

2. For a freshman, 1st-game outing by a largely new staff, this was a pretty dang good job of game prep and game coaching. We were the better team, but failed in execution at critical times. That is a player AND a coaching problem. I'd give 'em a B+, when we were expecting an A- or A.

3. Hill lacked fire and explosiveness.

4. Our LT is our weak spot on the OL right now. He needs to man up yesterday.

5. Overall our OL was terrific. You cannot expect to have our QBs have a full minute to pass against decent teams. 3 seconds used to be the most one could reasonably expect. Chuckie had plenty of time most of the time.

6. Our OL still needs to get a bigger push on critical running downs . . . see # 1, above. We should get stronger as the game goes on, like we did vs. the Rockets in Boazy.

7. Our LBs and corners did just fine. No worries.

8. When the refs take you out of your game by making weird or unusual calls (or a monstrously stupid rule results in an obscene advantage for one team over another) and you then expend a whole lot of energy getting back into the game (we see this in basketball a lot) you DO NOT EVER pause to take a deep breath . . . inevitably this allows your opponent to take back control of the game.

9. Chuckie: inexplicably short balls to DiMartino when, if he had hit him in stride, we would have scored. Gotta work on that.

I give our game plan and execution overall a B. This is enough to win most of our league games. This gets us thumped by SC, we lose a barnburner to San Jose, and we are fighting for our lives against Boazy and the stench.

USU78 wrote:My thoughts:

1. You have to blame coaching errors on each of the following:

a. Taking the air out of the offense, slowing things down to milk the clock, letting the pukes' D to catch their wind and retain their confidence after the 2nd-half-opening score -- way too early in the game to worry about that;

b. The onside kick;

c. The failure to make adjustments on offense to the pukes' defensive adjustments in the 2nd half; and

d. The failure to sit our green safety down, get him calmed down, and get him to play position/assignment football -- he could become a liability during the game with the Zoomies, where you play position/assignment football or give up 600 yards.

I agree with pretty much all of this

2. For a freshman, 1st-game outing by a largely new staff, this was a pretty dang good job of game prep and game coaching. We were the better team, but failed in execution at critical times. That is a player AND a coaching problem. I'd give 'em a B+, when we were expecting an A- or A.

3. Hill lacked fire and explosiveness.

I am actually not very confident in our run game at all right now. Hill showed some speed around the edge but nothing between the tackles and there was no real contribution from anyone else at this position

4. Our LT is our weak spot on the OL right now. He needs to man up yesterday.

5. Overall our OL was terrific. You cannot expect to have our QBs have a full minute to pass against decent teams. 3 seconds used to be the most one could reasonably expect. Chuckie had plenty of time most of the time.

6. Our OL still needs to get a bigger push on critical running downs . . . see # 1, above. We should get stronger as the game goes on, like we did vs. the Rockets in Boazy.

7. Our LBs and corners did just fine. No worries.

I expected to see more rotation in this position - that helps with keeping people fresh, heaven knows we have the depth here

8. When the refs take you out of your game by making weird or unusual calls (or a monstrously stupid rule results in an obscene advantage for one team over another) and you then expend a whole lot of energy getting back into the game (we see this in basketball a lot) you DO NOT EVER pause to take a deep breath . . . inevitably this allows your opponent to take back control of the game.

9. Chuckie: inexplicably short balls to DiMartino when, if he had hit him in stride, we would have scored. Gotta work on that.

How much of that was Chuckie throwing short and how much was DiMartino running a bad route? I don't know where Joey is supposed to be in those situations, but if he's not where he was in all of the fall camp/practice sessions, that could be one explanation for the uncharacteristic passes

I give our game plan and execution overall a B. This is enough to win most of our league games. This gets us thumped by SC, we lose a barnburner to San Jose, and we are fighting for our lives against Boazy and the stench.

We need to establish the run game. This is very important. Also, we can't rely solely on Hill, some others are going to have to step up.

Was VanLeuwen dinged up a little bit in that game? He made some great catches early in the game and took some pretty good hits (one in the back that snapped his neck back and couldn't have felt good) but then he was quiet later in the game - maybe they started keying on him defensively.

Tialavea can catch the ball - throw it to him.

We did not do a very good job getting the ball to our speedsters (Natson and Hill) in the open field where they can make plays. Utah did an excellent job containing them, but we ran the running back screen beautifully several times last year and we need to come up with ways to get those two the ball in open space.

Travis Reynolds could not get open. I thought he would have played a bigger role this year but the Utes shut him down.

Tay had some issues covering number 83..the replacement for Kenneth Scott. I can't recall on his catches if they were in zone or man, but Tay was the defender making the tackle pretty much every time which makes me think we were in man and he was on him. He did a decent job on him but the kid kept getting open enough to complete the pass.