Football – Page 16 – The Ute Blog

Are you jumping off the Ute bandwagon? I don’t blame you if you do. I simply can’t. I’ve been a Ute fan for my whole life. I won’t jump off the bandwagon, but I will express my disappointment with this season.

What has happened to this team? Sure we lost a coach, a #1 QB and some other talented players. But did we just go brain dead too?

Defensive coach, no defense

Kyle is a defensive coordinator. So naturally our defense would kick ass, right? No. Our defense has as many holes as a block of swiss cheese. We couldn’t defend the run in the 2nd half. And some of our pass coverages were so bad CSU players were wide open in the end zone with no defender in the same zip code.

Johnson?

Johnson made some good plays today. He really did. But he made some bad plays which just can’t be made in big time college football. Countless times this year Johnson has taken the snap and run the wrong way. He’s getting his frigging lefts and rights mixed up. I can understand once, maybe even twice at the first of the season. But we’re deep into the season in a crucial conference road game. He runs right, the team runs left: Loss of yardage.

Another crucial Johnson mistake is the fumbles. Last week the fumbles most likely cost us the game. Today he fumbled a shotgun snap with no defenders around him. This was on a crucial down. We end up losing yardage and basically a down.

But Johnson is only a mere fraction of the problems we have. We can’t stop other teams’ offenses when we really need to. And we can’t score from from the one foot line with 3 straight attempts to win the game.

OK coach, let’s call the last offensive series shall we?

We’re on the one foot line, 2nd and goal. Under one minute to play in the game. A touchdown wins the game. What’s you’re call coach? Perhaps a play action to the middle to draw the linebackers and DB’s to the middle, then option run or pass down the line? NO. Rush it straight up the gut and get stuffed.

OK we’re fine. It’s still 3rd down and one foot to go. What do you do now coach? Option, pass in the flat? Slant pass? Counter play? Fake up the middle and do some kind of run/pass option? Off tackle? Blast? NO. Sneak it (OK, decent call I guess) and get stuffed.

OK now we’re not fine. The game, and possibly the team’s attitude for the remainder of the season is in the balance now. It’s 4th and goal from the one foot line. What do you do now coach? Option, pass in the flat? Slant pass? Counter play? Fake up the middle and do some kind of run/pass option? Off tackle? Blast? NO. Run it straight up the middle and have NO decent offensive line blocks. Ganther gets stuffed. Game over. Season probably over.

So we try to stuff the ball straight up the middle three straight times. PREDICTABLE, and easier to defend.

3-3 and going the wrong direction

So now you have a 3-3, mediocre Mountain West team who has no chance of winning the conference. Can you imagine the pathetic turnout this team is going to get next week at home? Parking and traffic shouldn’t be a problem.