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News Article: Utes not worried after studying film of 'Bama

crimson_blood

crimson_blood

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Utes not worried after studying film of 'Bama

The Utah Utes have studied Alabama in the days since their Sugar Bowl matchup with the Crimson Tide was announced. So far, it doesn't seem like they have seen anything that made the Utes worry.

Alabama (12-1) has a highly regarded running game and big lines, but the Utes (12-0), who held their first bowl practice Thursday, don't feel they're overmatched.
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Nothing major, but plenty of bulletin board-eligible quotes in this article from the Utes' players. They have every right to be confident, but I get the feeling that they're underestimating Bama just a little bit...
 
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Tokolosh

Tokolosh

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crimson_blood said:
Utes not worried after studying film of 'Bama

Nothing major, but plenty of bulletin board-eligible quotes in here from the Utes' players. They have every right to be confident, but I get the feeling that they're underestimating Bama just a little bit...
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Can a sportswriter be the one to provide bulletin material? Those quotes are the writer and not the team. The teams quotes seem to give 'bama respect but also show they are confident in their own abilities to play with Alabama.

I would not want my team to get in front of the mic and say "Boy, we're really in for it here. These guys are going to walk all over us."

FWIW, Saban has been providing some material for the Utes. I'm sure in practice he is making the team work their tails off and get up for this game but he's made some snide comments about the non-BCS teams.
 
bayoutider

bayoutider

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They might want to check the jersey numbers to see how many snaps Cody and Chapman share. Just when you think you have one worn down in comes a fresh monster.
 
derek4tide

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Yeah, they really shouldn't worry about us. We are a weak team from a weak conference, who hasn't played anyone all year. They will probably blow us out and win by at least 21 pts.


<sarcasam off>
 
YellowhammerLA

YellowhammerLA

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Corner Sean Smith said after watching film he feels the Utes match up well with the Tide defensively.
"We're not worried about the passing game," he said. "We feel like if we can stop the run, we'll be OK."
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Huh. Exactly what Auburn said before the Iron Bowl. It does SOUND easy, doesn't it?
 
Tokolosh

Tokolosh

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Crimson Surfer said:
Good, Bama is not worried about kicking the Utes tails either. :biggrin:
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I guess that can depend on the Utah offense. 'Bama will probably get ground yards. But they aren't a team that racks up a ton of points. If Utah's offense can be fairly efficient in this game we may be trading points quite a bit. In that case I like Utah's chances. Brian Johnson is nails when it comes down to two-minute drills.
 
T

TiderB

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Tokolosh said:
Can a sportswriter be the one to provide bulletin material? Those quotes are the writer and not the team. The teams quotes seem to give 'bama respect but also show they are confident in their own abilities to play with Alabama.

I would not want my team to get in front of the mic and say "Boy, we're really in for it here. These guys are going to walk all over us."

FWIW, Saban has been providing some material for the Utes. I'm sure in practice he is making the team work their tails off and get up for this game but he's made some snide comments about the non-BCS teams.
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You bet. Not a sportswriter, but a few years ago former Auburn coach Pat Dye said in an interview that Georgia was not man enough to beat Alabama. Georgia definitely used that as bulletin board material in their win over us.
 
bamacon

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Tokolosh said:
I guess that can depend on the Utah offense. 'Bama will probably get ground yards. But they aren't a team that racks up a ton of points.
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Tell that to Arkansas, Georgia, Clemson, Auburn, Miss. St. etc.

We might not score 60 per game but we do play in a league where defense is valued. Did Utah score 40 on TCU? Even our weakest schools play good defense for the most part.

Correct me if I'm wrong but compared to recent years Bama put up more points this year. Bama scored more than 30+ in 8 out of 12 games. Keep in mind these results are with a run first, control the clock philosophy. Pretty good production IMO.

2008 Season results
 
A

Alasippi

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About 15 years ago Auburn played Indiana in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Before the game they talked a lotta smack about how they weren't worried about Indiana......blah...blah...blah

When the game started Auburn came out playing very physical and the game got heated and almost got out of control.

Auburn took an early 18-4 lead but Indiana came back and won handily.

After the game Bobby Knight was asked.."Do you think Auburn was trying to intimidate your players?"

Knight replied.."Auburn trying to intimidate Indiana in basketball is like a canary trying to intimidate an elephant".

Kinda reminds me of the situation we have here.
 
C

CapitalTider

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I didn't see anything particularly bulletin-board worthy in there. I don't know what some of you expect the other team to say, they are entitled to think that they can win, they are undefeated after all. I didn't see anything that was disrespectful to Alabama. The only questionable comment was the one by the player that he wasn't worried about our passing game. Hopefully he will have a rude awakening as far as that goes. We may not be Oklahoma or Texas Tech, but if they don't at least double Julio every play, it will be bad for them. Very few teams seem to talk real trash these days (at least up to the old Miami standards) and very few coaches poor mouth their team anymore. Of course I have my poor mouthing my own team speech prepared: "I just hope that they don't score a 100 on us, that would be embarrassing. Thank goodness Bob Stoops isn't the opposing coach, then I would have to worry about all of the starters being in the game with the score 77-0 at the top of the 4th with him trying to set some silly record."
 
L

LCN

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They must think our roundball team is headed to New Orleans :rolleye2:


I do feel that Utah is a quality opponent but IMO , they won't be able to post anywhere near enough points for a win .
 
uafan4life

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Tokolosh said:
I guess that can depend on the Utah offense. 'Bama will probably get ground yards. But they aren't a team that racks up a ton of points. If Utah's offense can be fairly efficient in this game we may be trading points quite a bit. In that case I like Utah's chances. Brian Johnson is nails when it comes down to two-minute drills.
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How do you figure that?

Utah's Scoring Offense is ranked 15th scoring 37.42 points per game.
Bama's Scoring Offense is ranked 30th scoring 31.15 points per game.
Not a huge difference there.

Utah's offense has done this against 11 FBS teams giving up an average of 30.8 points per game. Utah is scoring 6.6 points per game more than their opponents average giving up.
Bama's offense has done this against 12 FBS teams giving up an average of 22.45 points per game. Bama is scoring 8.7 points per game more than their opponents average giving up.

Utah is giving up an average of 17.3 points per game.
Bama is giving up an average of 13 points per game.

Schemes and such aside, these statistics would point to a final score of:
Bama 26 Utah 20

Beyond that, Utah has faced 5 scoring defenses ranked in the top 50, and 1 ranked in the top 15. Bama has faced 6 top 50 scoring defenses, with 5 of them being in the top 15.

Against scoring defenses ranked in the Top 50, Utah is averaging 28 points. Against TCU, the only top 15 scoring defense they faced, they scored 13 points.
Against top 50 scoring defenses, Bama is averaging 27 points. Against the 5 scoring defenses in the top15, Bama is averaging 29 points per game.

Utah is going against their second great defense. A defense that is equal to, if not greater, than the best defense they've faced.

Bama is going against their sixth good to great defense. A defense that ranks in the middle of the pack in the good defenses they've faced.

Against good to great defenses, Bama is scoring just as much, if not more, than Utah.
 
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