Weekend Recap Week 1: The State Goes 1-2.

September 5, 2022 Eric Jensen CFB, Uncategorized 0

Another weekend of Football in the books, now we take a look around the state of Utah and the nation in the Weekend Recap.

Football has returned and all three teams in the state of Utah are back and playing. Tough losses against SEC teams for Utah and Utah State and a dominating win for BYU over USF.

The season is at a turning point already for the Utes who now must try and be perfect for the rest of the year if they believe they have a shot at the playoffs, meanwhile, BYU’s shaky defensive line play remains.

NFL is just around the corner, and man am I happy for that to be back! Let’s take a look at the weekend that was for teams across the state of Utah. Here is the weekend recap.

Utah

The Utes took a frustrating early loss to Florida in the swamp, this is not the end of the world for a Utes team with Pac-12 championship and Rose Bowl aspirations.

Aside from a disastrous last drive the Ute’s offense performed very well. The offensive line didn’t allow Cam Rising to be sacked and the run game was efficient moving the Utes up and down the field.

Struggles came in the red zone for a Utah team that made multiple trips into scoring territory and came up empty several times.

Tavion Thomas had 115 yards and a touchdown on the day as he looked to start the season in form. Thomas will be a target for NFL draft scouts throughout the season, but his performance against a talented and fast SEC defense will most certainly stand out to talent evaluators.

Meanwhile, the outside passing production for the Utes in game one was subpar as Devaughn Vele the top receiving option for the Utes only managed to post 36 yards.

Whereas Brant Kuithe lead the way for the Utes with over 100 yards catching and a touchdown. The hype around Utah’s receiving talent has always seemed overblown by the coaching staff, this is a school that prides itself on running the ball and having great tight ends.

Kuithe and Dalton Kincaid should be expected to be the team’s top receivers this season.

The defense on the other hand for the Utes was sloppy. The team was gashed on the ground by Florida QB Anthony Richardson as Utah’s inexperienced linebacker core was not able to keep contain on a dynamic running threat.

Utah’s normally stellar d line was unable to sack the Richardson even once, that’s very uncharacteristic for a Kyle Whittingham team. To me, that is where the difference lies between these two rosters, Florida has just recruited SEC level offensive lineman who compared to Utah’s usually stellar pass rush simply dominated.

You can’t do much about those disparities.

Rising’s final throw, was it bad? Yes, but that doesn’t characterize the passing performance he put on. The signal caller looked tight in the first half but I thought put together several great drives in the third and early fourth quarter. You live and learn as a QB in those situations.

BYU weekend recap

This Cougar offensive front is as good as advertised, and while the first real test will come against a bear of an offensive line in Baylor a week from now the Cougars are well positioned to control the line offensively.

BYU mauled USF on the ground in a game that was never particularly close. While there is a lot to be said about Utah’s struggles, almost nothing aside from a Jaren Hall int went wrong for BYU in week one.

A concern for BYU, injuries, Puka Nacua after a fantastic first half that saw him put up 76 yards on the ground left the game with an apparent ankle injury. This is a concern of course, this BYU team wants to lean heavily on Nacua as a play maker this year. Gunner Romney was held out of action in preparation for the Baylor game upcoming this week.

Also starring for the Cougs was stellar running back Chris Brooks who put up 135 yards on the ground. Again all these fantastic rushing numbers are a testament to a dominate offensive line Kalani Sitake has built at BYU.

The duality of that is the issue though. BYU once again only put up one sack against a weak USF front, you just have to be better and get more pressure against a G5 school.

We will get more in depth on this in the weekend preview this week but here is a fact, if BYU isn’t able to pressure Baylor up front, it likely also means they won’t be able to stop the run.

If Baylor decides to pound the ground against the Cougars they could be in serious trouble, this once again looks like a group of defensive players that can be bullied by stronger offensive linemen, if that’s the case the Cougars are in deep trouble.

This Baylor game is massive for them, not only must they win it if they hope to attain a new years six bowl but they also are moving to the Big-12 next year. If they don’t have the athletes and recruits to keep up with a team like Baylor they will be an early afterthought in the conference.

The games still have to play out but the Cougars must get a more stellar pass rush and quickly. They have all the other tools to be a team that competes for national relevance and with their schedule potentially a top 5-6 spot near the college football playoffs.

The line is a massive concern though defensively.

Moving on with the weekend recap, check out this week’s episode of Pioneer Pigskin here for more thoughts on the weekend.

USU

Briefly, very briefly, this was a Mountain West school, going to play, the best team in the country hands down no question about it.

Sure Georgia may be ranked number one by the voters this week but I doubt Alabama loses a game this year. You live, you learn, most importantly the Aggies stayed healthy and now move on to Weber State.

Side note: Ike Larsen is quite good at football and should be looked at as a potential all-Mountain West player.

I had to produce this thing Aggie fans, you really don’t want to hear more about this, simply a buy game that didn’t go the Aggie’s way, still contenders in the Mountain West.