I’ve been perusing your site for a few weeks now, and I must tell you how excited I am to see y’all in the Superdome. I’ve watched 4 Bama games now (Florida, that-blue-team-which-shall-not-be-named, Mississipi, and LSU), and I’d like to share my thoughts. I do think that do to our poor TV coverage, most of you haven’t seen Utah play – and I’ve seen all 12, so I’d like to share with you my thoughts.
First, let start with Utah:
I believe Utah may be the most flexible team in the nation. Whatever their opposition does poorly, Utah can take advantage of it. Whatever their opposition does well, Utah does a decent job of taking that away. A great deal of that comes from coaching and an odd recruiting style. They will bring in the best athletes they can find, than switch them to other positions. Two of our best players started at significantly different sides of the ball. Sean Smith, the CB who will surely go against Julio, was a RB/WR. Kruger, a DT, was a QB in HS. When you have some extra time, take a look at this story about Paul Kruger, who has already lost a Kidney, and came within inches of losing another: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/...les.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_/ai_n24979469
Conversely, unlike Bama, Utah doesn’t do many things extremely well, other than our kicker and our two-minute drills.
I’m sure you’ve heard of our unanimous AA Kicker, Loiue Sakoda. He really is as good as advertised. He is unlike any kicker I’ve ever seen. The guy is completely the opposite of the head-cases out there. He has missed two field goals out of 25 this year, both in Colorado Springs, from 47 and 53 yards in high wind. Those of you who have been to Colorado in Fall know the wind I speak of. I can’t wait to see him kick in the dome.
He also does our punting. In the Wyoming game, he had an 81 yard punt (61 net touchback). That thing actually went ~130 yards (they don’t have seats in the endzone in the hell Wyoming calls Larame.). It caught the 50 mph winds and just took off. But that’s not what makes him a great punter. Last year, he averaged nearly 50 yards a punt, but allowed too many returns. This year, he’s increased his power slightly, but increased the angle, giving Utah’s special teams time to get to the returner. 50 punts, 9 touchbacks, only 9 returns attempted. The other 32 were fair caught or the returner got drilled. He’s pretty damn good at giving oppositions very, very long drives. He will really, really be missed.
Like the 2004 Utah team that went undefeated and cremated Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl, our receivers don’t drop balls. I think you’ll notice how well the receivers keep their feet in bounds and hold onto the ball, even after getting creamed by SEC DBs.
Utah’s schedule is strongest in recent history (sagarin ranked 70), with 3 current top 25 wins – all at home. The last Utah team to have such a schedule was in 1994, when Utah beat 4 teams that would end up in the top 25, and ended up 8th in the AP and 10th in the Coaches. Ah, the torment of playing in the MWC.
Utah is pretty poor at punt returns (ranked 92). That stat is a little misleading. It took us 5 games to find a returner that doesn’t fumble.
Utah is mediocre at sacks allowed (ranked 63). Brian trusts his line too much, holds onto ball too long…seems to have solved those issues last 3 games.
Utah is mediocre at sacks (71). The lighter, athletic Dline gets their pay from disrupting the passer via knockdowns and getting in the qbs face to make up for lack of getting to the qb. Kruger is uncanny at knowing where the ball will be, just like San Diego starter and former Ute Eric Weddle (both were QBs in HS).
The majority of the teams we faced either ran to the outside, or had little run game. Combine that with interior line injuries early in the year, and we starting using lighter Dlineman (Shelby and Newman). However, against heavier, middle-running teams, we will use Siliaga (6-3, 325), and Eilapo (6-0, 303). The latter was hurt for the first 7 games this year. We will not likely swap out our DTs. I’m thinking Kruger and Misi will surprise you with their athletic ability.
Utah is good at every other major category:
12th in Scoring Defense
14th in Rushing Defense
15th in Scoring Offense
16th in Turnover Margin
16th in Passing Efficiency
18th in Total Defense
22nd in Pass Efficiency Defense
29th in Net Punting
31st in Total Offense
30th in Kickoff Returns
34th in Tackles for Loss
40th in Pass Defense
41st in Rushing Offense
41st in Passing Offense
Interesting note: Ben Vroman (aka The Sausage King of Chicago) does our kickoffs. He leads the country by a mile. Part of that is due to our proficient scoring, and the altitude of MWC teams. But I suspect your folks will catch it a little deeper than they are used to.
The bottom line is that Utah is playing it’s best ball now, eliminating turnovers and penalties, and Brian’s “football intelligence” will keep us in the game.
Everyone knows about Bama’s awesome defense and run blocking, but here are the few things I’ve learned about Alabama via the 4 games I’ve seen, combined with a little help from NCAA football rankings:
You have some of the best tacklers I’ve seen.
You’re outstanding at stopping the run (ranked 4th), but mediocre at sacks (61). A little better at TFL (47).
I’m impressed with Bama’s play-making ability, but I’ve seen some ‘emotional’ issues (on all 5 teams in these 4 games) that you probably won’t see at Utah.
Bama is good at allowing sacks (22)- partly due to heavy run/pass ratio.
Great at punt returns (12), but I’m not sure you’ll get too many opportunities (see above)
Schedule is weakest for Bama in recent history (sagarin ranked 58), due to disappointing performances by SEC teams, and mediocre out of conference teams.
Bama also has improved significantly over the season. Am I right in stating that the Florida game was probably your best? And can you imagine not destroying Tulane now?
Can they show those twins with the Bear hats a few more times? Seriously…uh…zoom in on the legs, please.
What else can you tell me about Bama that I probably don’t already know? And can I answer some of your Ute questions?
First, let start with Utah:
I believe Utah may be the most flexible team in the nation. Whatever their opposition does poorly, Utah can take advantage of it. Whatever their opposition does well, Utah does a decent job of taking that away. A great deal of that comes from coaching and an odd recruiting style. They will bring in the best athletes they can find, than switch them to other positions. Two of our best players started at significantly different sides of the ball. Sean Smith, the CB who will surely go against Julio, was a RB/WR. Kruger, a DT, was a QB in HS. When you have some extra time, take a look at this story about Paul Kruger, who has already lost a Kidney, and came within inches of losing another: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/...les.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_/ai_n24979469
Conversely, unlike Bama, Utah doesn’t do many things extremely well, other than our kicker and our two-minute drills.
I’m sure you’ve heard of our unanimous AA Kicker, Loiue Sakoda. He really is as good as advertised. He is unlike any kicker I’ve ever seen. The guy is completely the opposite of the head-cases out there. He has missed two field goals out of 25 this year, both in Colorado Springs, from 47 and 53 yards in high wind. Those of you who have been to Colorado in Fall know the wind I speak of. I can’t wait to see him kick in the dome.
He also does our punting. In the Wyoming game, he had an 81 yard punt (61 net touchback). That thing actually went ~130 yards (they don’t have seats in the endzone in the hell Wyoming calls Larame.). It caught the 50 mph winds and just took off. But that’s not what makes him a great punter. Last year, he averaged nearly 50 yards a punt, but allowed too many returns. This year, he’s increased his power slightly, but increased the angle, giving Utah’s special teams time to get to the returner. 50 punts, 9 touchbacks, only 9 returns attempted. The other 32 were fair caught or the returner got drilled. He’s pretty damn good at giving oppositions very, very long drives. He will really, really be missed.
Like the 2004 Utah team that went undefeated and cremated Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl, our receivers don’t drop balls. I think you’ll notice how well the receivers keep their feet in bounds and hold onto the ball, even after getting creamed by SEC DBs.
Utah’s schedule is strongest in recent history (sagarin ranked 70), with 3 current top 25 wins – all at home. The last Utah team to have such a schedule was in 1994, when Utah beat 4 teams that would end up in the top 25, and ended up 8th in the AP and 10th in the Coaches. Ah, the torment of playing in the MWC.
Utah is pretty poor at punt returns (ranked 92). That stat is a little misleading. It took us 5 games to find a returner that doesn’t fumble.
Utah is mediocre at sacks allowed (ranked 63). Brian trusts his line too much, holds onto ball too long…seems to have solved those issues last 3 games.
Utah is mediocre at sacks (71). The lighter, athletic Dline gets their pay from disrupting the passer via knockdowns and getting in the qbs face to make up for lack of getting to the qb. Kruger is uncanny at knowing where the ball will be, just like San Diego starter and former Ute Eric Weddle (both were QBs in HS).
The majority of the teams we faced either ran to the outside, or had little run game. Combine that with interior line injuries early in the year, and we starting using lighter Dlineman (Shelby and Newman). However, against heavier, middle-running teams, we will use Siliaga (6-3, 325), and Eilapo (6-0, 303). The latter was hurt for the first 7 games this year. We will not likely swap out our DTs. I’m thinking Kruger and Misi will surprise you with their athletic ability.
Utah is good at every other major category:
12th in Scoring Defense
14th in Rushing Defense
15th in Scoring Offense
16th in Turnover Margin
16th in Passing Efficiency
18th in Total Defense
22nd in Pass Efficiency Defense
29th in Net Punting
31st in Total Offense
30th in Kickoff Returns
34th in Tackles for Loss
40th in Pass Defense
41st in Rushing Offense
41st in Passing Offense
Interesting note: Ben Vroman (aka The Sausage King of Chicago) does our kickoffs. He leads the country by a mile. Part of that is due to our proficient scoring, and the altitude of MWC teams. But I suspect your folks will catch it a little deeper than they are used to.
The bottom line is that Utah is playing it’s best ball now, eliminating turnovers and penalties, and Brian’s “football intelligence” will keep us in the game.
Everyone knows about Bama’s awesome defense and run blocking, but here are the few things I’ve learned about Alabama via the 4 games I’ve seen, combined with a little help from NCAA football rankings:
You have some of the best tacklers I’ve seen.
You’re outstanding at stopping the run (ranked 4th), but mediocre at sacks (61). A little better at TFL (47).
I’m impressed with Bama’s play-making ability, but I’ve seen some ‘emotional’ issues (on all 5 teams in these 4 games) that you probably won’t see at Utah.
Bama is good at allowing sacks (22)- partly due to heavy run/pass ratio.
Great at punt returns (12), but I’m not sure you’ll get too many opportunities (see above)
Schedule is weakest for Bama in recent history (sagarin ranked 58), due to disappointing performances by SEC teams, and mediocre out of conference teams.
Bama also has improved significantly over the season. Am I right in stating that the Florida game was probably your best? And can you imagine not destroying Tulane now?
Can they show those twins with the Bear hats a few more times? Seriously…uh…zoom in on the legs, please.
What else can you tell me about Bama that I probably don’t already know? And can I answer some of your Ute questions?
