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

[cougarfreeutah]

I wont disagree with the premise of your arguement bama4ever. Having said that, I feel that Utah would have beaten the green wave by at least 20 if they had come into Rice Eccles Stadium at the begining of the year. I realize this arguement is moot and you have to look at a teams body of work... and I give that edge to Alabama having defeated a team like Georgia. This is your hight ranked win correct? While TCU is ours. Georgia is #15 and TCU is #11 I believe. Who knows the outcome of a TCU vs. Georgia Matchup.... I believe that would be a great game! But the overall thing I am getting at is Utah 2's and 3's are no match against the Tide's 2's and 3's. I feel our 1's are damn close however. What I mean by that overall is Utah (as is) has no chance to do what Alabama did in the SEC this year. Anyone with common sense (including Utah Nation) knows this. Utah starters would get nicked up and our 2's and 3's (and walk-ons) wouldnt be able to get the job done week to week. But for one game? thats a different story. We can play with you for one game. Just like the 1980 usa hockey team played with the soviets. If you put Utah in the Big 12 of SEC... sure they would be a barely bowl eligble team for a few years... but we would be exposed to the SEC and all the recruting perks that come with it. Keeping everything else constant regarding the program and coaching schemes Our 2's and 3's would get better and we could start competing at a higher level.

The reason Teams like Utah, TCU, Boise St., BYU have risen form obscurity is because of the scholarship limitations implemented by the NCAA accross the board. These caps hinder SEC teams from being deeper than they use to be. The BCS will continue to see teams like us from here on out because of this... and my bet is we (Non-BCS) will always have a better record than the big least and the acc in the bcs. The ACC and Big East have no right having an auto bid this year because Utah would dominate each of those leagues. The ACC is 1-9 in the BCS. The Non BCS is 2-1.... The Non BCS would have to lose its next 17 BCS games to match that feat!

 

[uafan4life]

The reason Teams like Utah, TCU, Boise St., BYU have risen form obscurity is because of the scholarship limitations implemented by the NCAA accross the board. These caps hinder SEC teams from being deeper than they use to be. The BCS will continue to see teams like us from here on out because of this... and my bet is we (Non-BCS) will always have a better record than the big least and the acc in the bcs. The ACC and Big East have no right having an auto bid this year because Utah would dominate each of those leagues. The ACC is 1-9 in the BCS. The Non BCS is 2-1.... The Non BCS would have to lose its next 17 BCS games to match that feat!

Bingo, we have a winner!

Can't say that I could really argue with anything there. As a matter of fact, about the only thing I would venture to argue with in your entire post would be the statement from the first part that said the 1st strings of Utah and Bama are very close.

You're spot on with the depth thing, though. However, the first strings of the team teams being equal or very close depends a lot on definition.

At the skill positions, I'll give you that argument in a heartbeat. You've probably got WR's that can catch the ball and get open, at least some, on our DB's. You've probably got some DB's that can do at least a decent job of covering our WR's. LB's, RB's, and the QB position you could make a good argument for as well.

Where I think the biggest talent and execution difference exists between our two teams is in the trenches. Our OL versus your DL and our DL versus your OL is where the pendulum swings in our favor. And a big part of the reason goes back to what you said about scholarship limitations. Those limitations have evened out the playing field for the skill positions. There are enough WR's, DB's, RB's, LB's, and even QB's to go around so that just about every D1 team can have some good talent. Superstar players at those positions are still hard to come by, but serviceable guys who can play the game and make plays for you aren't in short supply. Even Quarterbacks, to an extent. On the lines, however, it's a lot rarer. You see a lot of skill guys drafted from non-BCS schools in the mid to late rounds that catch on in the NFL. You don't see that nearly as much with linemen. Sure, you can find some examples, but the majority of the linemen in the NFL come from BCS schools. The ratio with the skill guys isn't nearly as large.

What does that mean? It means that there's more NFL caliber talent in the trenches on our side than yours. It also means that our guys have faced more NFL caliber talent on the other side of the line all season than your guys have.

There's not a lot of stone-cold concrete facts about how to win a football game. Really none, in fact, because on any given Saturday... And on some Saturdays, a team can do everything right and lose and another team can do everything wrong and win. However, there are two things that seem to be the largest and most consistent factors in winning a football game: the line of scrimmage and turnovers. All other things being equal, if you own the line of scrimmage you own the game.

As long as we don't kill ourselves with turnovers, we win this game.

 

[CapitalTider]

I wont disagree with the premise of your arguement bama4ever. Having said that, I feel that Utah would have beaten the green wave by at least 20 if they had come into Rice Eccles Stadium at the begining of the year.

Of course the counter-argument to this is you are not considering the entire situation. For example, would Utah have beaten Tulane by 20 at home, if Utah were just coming off of an emotional upset and Tulane had had two weeks to prepare for the Utah game? For us the Tulane game was the classic let-down or trap game, except we didn't lose. We had just beaten a highly ranked Clemson team in the Georgia Dome as a big underdog. Meanwhile, Tulane, due to a hurricane, had spent the entire week prior to the game and the week leading up to the game in Birmingham, out of school with nothing to do but focus on beating Alabama.

As you point out, you can't read too much into one game. If that logic prevailed, we would have beaten Florida, since they lost to Ole Miss and we beat Ole Miss. As others have said, with scholarship limitations, Utah's starters, especially the skill players, may be as good as Alabama's. The difference will be in the trenches.

 

[cougarfreeutah]

Gentleman..... I am really enjoying our conversation. You give great insight to a college football fan in Cottonwood Heights, Utah.

I agree about the trenches.... I mean just look at your all americans and draft prospects and it says it all. You might be interested to know however that Brigham Young has the same size O-line as the Crimson Tide... We beat BYU by 24 points and TCU beat them by 25. TCU shut down BYU rushing and passing completely. Now, your O-line may be more athletic, but from a sheer beef standpoint... their size never wore us down. Having said that, we schemed BYU to a 'pass first' defense approach and pretty much gave them the run. They were getting 7 yards a carry, but our coaches knew that the BYU coaches are egomaniacs and would go to the air instead of just keeping on the ground. The result = 1 fumble and 5 pics. I felt bad for their QB... which put up incredible numbers this year and was in the heisman conversation for a few weeks. Our D-line is smaller but very very fast and athletic and gets to the QB.

If Utah gets up in the later stages of the game for whatever reason (turnovers, great offensive plays.... whatever) and Saben is forced to go to the air, then I really like our chances for an upset. We have exceptional DB's and D-ends that pressure a QB. I am not knocking JPW, because he seems to manage a game very well, but I think our defense could give him fits if scoring points is on his shoulders.

I feel our game plan will be as followed.

Mix stunt, twist, blitz packages all while stacking the box to try and slow up Coffee and Ingram. Man up your WR's. This is our base D anyway. We play man 80% of the time and our corners ar both 1st team all conference. Man Sean Smith to JJ. Spy our fasted LB (Sylvester) to your biggest threat Tight End.

Offensively...

Our base will consist of 5 to 7 yard pops to a core of 3 senior WR's that are very good at finding space. Our most efficient set is 4 or 5 wide outs... The run game will be tough but we must try and trap Cody. We run some decent option, wildcat, sweep packages. We will probably not use this much just enough to keep the Bama backers honest. We will also go deep to a few speedsteers once every other series.

To be honest... I cant wait for the game to see how we stack up. I can gaurantee you one thing... We are no Hawaii and we will make it a game. Urban taught Kyle a lot and Kyle has not changed much of what Urban implemented from a program management mentality standpoint. I will be very excited if we have a good showing and come close to winning or win. I hope if this happens the Utah Utes will garner a new found respect from the Crimson Tide and SEC fanbase.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

You wouldn't know it, but you've posted pretty much the same game plan which has been attempted against us all year. Only UF really made it work. Guess we'll just have to play the game...

 

[Crimsonfan]

I will be very excited if we have a good showing and come close to winning or win. I hope if this happens the Utah Utes will garner a new found respect from the Crimson Tide and SEC fanbase.

I can't speak for all the Bama fans , but... I assure you Utah has my respect. Undefeated???? can't get any better than this. I just hope after the Sugar, you have 1 loss. Should be a great game, I am really looking forward to it.:BigA: