Friday, October 11, 2013

Q & A About the Utes

Great to be on here with you Dylan!

What do you think it will take for the UU to become competitive in PAC-12?

- Winning? haha, obviously that's the answer right? Specifically it has to be finishing games. That means A LOT to the Utes right now. They haven't been able to finish two games and look where they are at. They have played better than anyone (including myself) could have expected and kept themselves in both PAC-12 games but they have yet to finish one. I think the Utes have been the younger brother in the PAC-12 for the past 2 years and will continue to be one for this year. I originally thought they would win 4 game this year and be a better team than they were last year, just with a tougher schedule. It looks like they might exceed that expectation but I still predict that they will have a break-out season next year. I think playing these tough teams close will only help them next year when they continue to drive higher talent to their program to finish games. Honestly, from the past two years we can only really go up.

What do you think of their current recruiting tactics?

- That being said I know Coach Whitt, Brian, Kalani, and now Dennis have really been targeting more talented players and have been spending quite a bit of time in Texas and California as well as a few trips to the Dirty Dirty. I don't really know too much of their tactics other than targeting corners and D-linemen because of the success they have had in the NFL. I think they are getting better and I remember reading a quote from coach Whitt saying that it has been great to have an in with some players just because we are in the PAC-12 and can give them great exposure as we play some of the top ranked teams in the nation and hopefully become one of those top ranked teams

What is your prediction for this week's game?

-Prediction for this weeks game.... Man that's a rough one. We are so much better than we were last year and unfortunately so is Stanford. They are big, fast, strong, intelligent players. I don't know if you have looked at game stats going head to head for Stanford and Utah. It's incredible how similar in most categories these two teams are. They both average 39 points/game, Utah/Stanford rush for 195/210/game, Utah/Stanford's defenses average 26/21 points/game, Utah/Stanford surrender 274/260 yards/game through the air, and Utah/Stanford hold opponents to 131/111 yards/game on the ground. With those numbers it really looks like they are a pretty evenly matched team. Stanford has them beat in every one of those categories but not by much. According to the numbers Utah actually has a chance. Here is where I am conflicted. Numbers don't tell ALL the story. Stanford is a better team. There is no beating around that bush. They deserve their 5th in the nation ranking. They are that good. That being said I think they will probably win on Saturday. This kills me as a fan though. How can I in my heart of hearts vote against my team when I have an ounce of hope. Therefore, I'm going to call the Utah upset, 34 - 27. I know that's awfully close to my prediction last week but If the Ute's are going to be able to pull it off they have to be clicking on all cylinders and SCORE! Penalties have to be minimal, INT's have to be 0 (although with 6 picks last week we still had a chance so maybe only 3 this week?), turnovers total need to be 0 and they need to be +2 in the turnover margin and have 14 points off of turnovers. Realistically Stanford should walk all over the Ute's but given the numbers and the heart the Ute's have shown they might actually pull this off. Look for some creative play calling because the Utes literally have NOTHING to lose! This has already been chalked up as a loss, give it everything you got and we will see what happens.

Utah - 34
Stanford - 27

Finny-Fin-Fin

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