Utah vs SUU - Post Game Recap

all right what is up Utah fans this is Joseph back with the Utah Utes football digest and Utah just put the smackdown on Southern Utah University we all expected Utah to win but I think the game went significantly better than you know the general expectation would be you thought we'd have a big win but I think some of the things we saw tonight really have me optimistic for the season are there some things I want to point out as a critique that we could have done better yeah absolutely uh but overall I mean damn our team looked awesome I'm excited we're going to break down every position group talk about how they look tonight uh talk about some of the injuries as well should be a great time before we dive into it guys smash the like button that'll help get it out to more Utah fans also comment down below I want to hear what you guys thought about the game do you agree with my take on each position group what did you see that maybe I missed uh or anything I'm pointing out that you didn't notice while you were watching and if you haven't already subscribed to the channel we put out a ton of Utah UT football content let's go ahead and dive in and go Utes the number one position group to talk about is going to be the quarterbacks guys quarterback was awesome to watch tonight there was a lot of storylines going on you start with Cam Rising 250 plus yards uh five touchdowns looked awesome I mean you know we it is an FCS team but you did have this feeling in your mind like hey how how will he look tonight right I think we all didn't in the in the game again when we did the spring game it wasn't live action right no one's really hitting cam like Whittingham would have got you off the team if you hit cam during the spring game but in this game it was like Hey guys are gonna get to hit him what's he gonna look like and I can't imagine asking for a better performance than what we saw I'd say that was A+ through the roof cam looked awesome like I said 250 plus yards five touchdowns and I feel extremely confident that cam is going to be the guy to lead us to a super super successful year uh doesn't get much better I mean some some of the throws were pretty open but that's being nitpicky I mean he was just slicing and dicing these defenses apart uh in an FCS game I would have liked to see him slide more right there there's some hits he took that felt unnecessary but overall just such a good game by freaking cam Rising dude um then we have a little bit of a different story with Isaac Wilson Isaac Wilson I think the stats are going to show that it was the stats will make it look worse than it was I definitely thought when you know the first five plays were kind of concerning and he had some interceptions like I'm not going to act like he had a good performance because the bad was really bad but I do think we saw him piece together some drives look good get it done and just kind of you know we got to see that he can work the offense I would say though this whole throwing a random bad throw that that doesn't make a lot of sense trying to force something is starting to become a bit of a trend I think the first interception he threw um in the game against suu was uh his hand got hit and that's why it was such a bad throw but that second one was just another forced pass just like in the spring game where he threw a forced pass that didn't make a lot of sense uh a definite up and down game for Isaac Wilson I'd say overall not a good game right you'd want to see more from him um but I we did see him string together together some drives and he does look like he can leading offense right once once you round out those rough edges now can you get him to stop making these decisions where he's throwing the ball down ffield into lots of coverage that is to be seen I'll say this I feel awesome about cam rising and and we'll go over all the other position groups there's guys that I I was neutral on that I feel awesome about this year and I feel great I I do not feel super confident right now if Cam were to get hurt God forbid obviously but if Kim were to go down I don't feel great about the backup quarterback situation and I'm just being honest about that hopefully Isaac Wilson can work some of this stuff out but I did not like what I saw when you consider that he's next up if Cam goes down but that's a quarterback position a lot of good and cam looked freaking awesome now let's talk about the running backs and the guy that really stole the show tonight I'm sure everyone knows who it is before I even say the name is djon Stanley this guy had quite the freak day um really really tore it up uh all night right towards the end of the game it was more rushing plays for him where he started looking good um but really had quite the game guys I was I was very very impressed with dejon Stanley um basically if you weren't watching the game there cam hit him twice on this wheel route for 60 plus yards for a touchdown and I mean it felt like we were watching Dijon Stanley's coming out party and there and he had you know quite a bit of rushing yards as well um I I couldn't be more impressed with the guy I'm very excited about his future before this game I was kind of feeling like he was getting lost in the mix and and it almost feels like he was a secret weapon they were hiding for this season and they didn't tell anyone about because all I've heard all off season is Mike Mitchell and mcki Bernard and then dejon Stanley comes out there and looks like he's gonna be you know a firecracker this year he he looked awesome I was super impressed djon sanley obviously super super fast and a guy if you're a fan of this channel you've been aware of for a while but um just a great night from him maai Bernard looked very good as well less action for McKai Bernard right not a ton of plays and not a crazy statline but a good average yards per carry I I was impressed with what McKai Bernard did when he got plays there very little bad plays by marar Bernard and it did feel like when he got the ball he was getting something done with it uh Mike Mitchell had a pretty good night a low average per carry but there was a few explosive carries in there and he had a touchdown so a nice night overall for Mike Mitchell I do think you would have liked to see a little more same with Jaylen Glover uh started out pretty nice I think what we're dealing with here guys is a really crowded running back room and it's going to be tough for someone to really take over this room it's a lot of talent but I think it's a really good thing for us as Utah fans um the negative could be it's going to be tough for someone to really get a ton of carries and you know kind of get the ball rolling and and get that momentum looks like a really good group either way I don't want to spend too much time nitpicking but I I liked a lot of what we saw guys and I think the running back room looks very good again dejon Stanley stole the show but the running back room looked really good in my opinion now let's talk about wide receivers wide receivers tonight I thought Dorian singer impressed you know only a couple catches but on those catches you know he only got so many reps and he and he looked good when cam did Target him I think that's another game where he seems to be Cam's favorite Target at receiver which is a good sign for us um also a guy dran zipper looked really good when he was in had a couple nice catches broke a couple tackles you know some nice Yak after the catch uh I thought it looked pretty good there um no one else really wide receiver wise really stood out to me in this game I don't know if anyone else stood out to you guys um we'll talk about the tight ends real quick as well that was a wildly good group tight end obviously brand keithy stole the stole the show right three touchdowns almost 70 yards receiving looked awesome and it was such a delight to see him connecting or Cam connecting with him the way they did tonight it felt like was in a time machine to 2022 early 2022 when you know the world was ahead of us and uh to see that back just makes me super optimistic for this year and super excited Brant keithy definitely stole a show in the tight end room uh Kaleb loner looked really physical really strong like a a good good receiving weapon I was I was pretty impressed there outside of that at tight end I don't think I really saw anything that I would I would you know make a comment about but I did see um a real physical group of tight ends that that looked good right that the Run blocking looked solid um I I just think outside of those two there's not too many names to mention um but that's that's the wide receivers in tight ends uh Brank Heath looked awesome Caleb loner looked good Dorian singer Dean zipper there's a lot of talent out there um but Brent keii is really the only one that really shined tonight in my opinion okay the final group on the offense we're going to chat about is going to be the offensive line I was very impressed with the offensive line I would love to know what everyone else saw but I saw a dominant performance I mean sure there was a couple um Blown Blown blocks where they got back there to the QB but in general it'd be like four good Downs to one bad down which is a real good ratio for offensive line I thought pass blocking looked good but run blocking looked quite dominant in a lot of situations it looked like we were really moving people off the ball again this is an FCS defensive line in southern Utah but I was very very impressed with the offensive line and and if you're fans of this Channel and follow it a lot you guys know I've been extremely critical of the offensive line at times in the past I think if that's what we're seeing game one right out the gate and uh and you know we improve from here that's a very promising starting point so I I was really impressed with the offens line I thought good pass block really good run block and uh very excited to see what that group does as we keep going uh on the year okay guys and now we're moving on to the defense we're going to start with the defensive line unfortunately during the game aliki vahi did get injured it didn't look good it didn't look as bad as one of the other injuries which I'll touch on here in a little bit but it it I could see it being for a few weeks but hopefully he can come back if we have't up at the time I'm releasing this video you know just drop it in the comments um so sad to see that he's a really good player and a guy I was excited about this year so hopefully he's back pretty quick um let's talk about the dline though that you know outside of the injury I thought it looked really good like I thought as a whole they played really well you know van fillinger was pretty dominant a couple tackles for loss uh pass deflection and you know he's a guy that we keep waiting for him to kind of come on I think tonight was a really good flash that hey is this the year that we could see van fillinger kind of break out it break out of his shell and become an impact player I mean Jonah Ellis did it last year and it feels like after tonight I wouldn't be shocked uh to see van fillinger come out of a shell uh Conor OU looked good as well uh he had half a sack uh tackle half a tackle for a loss didn't look bad um Logan fono I feel like I you know he had the half a sack right let me see here um why can't I find him here oh Logan Foo yeah he did have half a sack uh but outside of that I didn't really see him much so I couldn't tell you how great of a game he had or didn't have but still a guy I'm excited about on the year I think uh the dline group as a whole looked really good uh again at the defensive interior Kean tanasa looked very very good I I was impressed with him you know he had four tackles uh you know two of them solo tackles I thought he looked really good and definitely had more pressure on top of those stats as well I thought he looked very good um so good-look group in the defensive line um those three I thought stood out more than anyone else Conor oou van fillinger and Kean tanasa I do think one thing that tends to happen with Utah early in the year that it always takes us a few games to get right is The Edge rushers containing the outside right so when when an edge rusher is playing one of their jobs is to make sure that players quarterbacks specifically scrambling do not get outside of them but on run plays as well they don't get outside of you and and I did not think most of the game we did a great job of that especially against a team where we have you know a significant Talent Advantage uh so I would like to see us clean that up but almost every year that tends to happen for the first few games for us but it would be nice the schedule gets tough pretty quickly you know from here out it has a bit of a ramp up period but then it kind of takes off so hopefully we can get that cleaned up at least before Oklahoma State and you know hopefully right away and I'm guessing the coaches noticed that as well um but but outside of that I thought the dline room looked looked like a great group let's just get that containment a little tighter and you know move forward from there okay guys and next up we've got the linebacker group ER Barton Karina Reed and C fotu obviously some other linebackers got in later in the game and got some decent reps um but talking about those guys I I actually thought son fotu who's kind of not that he's a weak link but of the three linebackers he's kind of the one you're most concerned about heading into the year he's the one filling in for Lani deun and I thought he looked pretty good I saw a couple open field tackles he made um you know looked re really solid like I said a couple open field tackles uh Lander Barton made a really big hit it's not looking like it counted as a tackle for a loss but it was like right at the line and I actually thought it was a tackle for a loss I thought that was a really nice play by Lander Barton looked very dominant very strong uh Karina Reed um you know I don't think he made a bunch of plays but he was flying around the field all night and I thought he looked you know fairly good um and I also think once those guys were out and the backups were in it didn't feel like a crazy drop off so I think that's a pretty good sign right Jonathan Hall had a couple tackles uh Josh Calvert had a couple tackles the the group looked you know pretty good to me uh so I I'd say linebacker room didn't really stand out to me anything significant but they did look like a good group so that's the linebackers all right guys and finally let's talk about the DBS so the DBS we had a bunch of really good performances and I think the one that really stood out to me there's a couple good ones but Smith Snowden right really nice tackle for a loss where he really cracked the dude and then he had another tackle for a loss after that two tackles for a loss in the night four total tackles looked great in coverage looks like a guy that I am excited to have starting every play um really looked awesome right uh seriously just I I won't touch on him too much but I was very impressed with Smith Snowden tonight and I think we are going to see a big season from that kid unfortunately Keenan Johnson got injured tonight now he was a one of our starting outside corners which is a huge injury right he's a really good player I've been speaking his Praises for a while now and I am you know kind of bummed to hear that he's injured that's that's a tough one um and the injury looked bad right the reporters say he wasn't putting any weight on his leg and then on top of that he was seen leaving the medical tent screaming in what's what sounded like the way they were describing it like frustration as if he was informed that this is probably a very serious injury um so I think we're at a point where hopefully he comes back but from what that sounds like I doubt we're going to see him back this year hopefully he is back I'm not saying I have any you know real knowledge of the situation but uh that sucks man real good guy and you don't want to see that happen but it happened it is what it is we move for it now in the cornerback rotation as he got injured we got to see Elijah Davis come in and actually have a quite a game here Elijah Davis looked pretty good he had an interception on the day um really nice interception too not like a a gimme he had to like go in there and snag it out and uh had a tackle as well I thought uh in general he held his own right I didn't think he ever looked bad and and I thought that was a good sign right I thought Elijah held his own while he was out there I felt like with Smith sden Elijah Davis and Zaya vaugh it it wasn't a bad group and we could compete with a lot of Big 12 receiving course right so I think we're fine there uh speaking of zayon really good day even when they did get a throw on him it felt like his coverage was airtight and and I do expect him to have a big year you know another physical guy if you're not familiar with Z zayon check him out he is one of the best corners in college football he's an awesome corner for Utah so um I thought the DB room looked great um at least at corner um I didn't think the safeties looked bad I saw a lot of ta Johnson I saw a lot of uh acki Gilman and I saw a lot of Nate Richie it seemed like there was a significant rotation of those three kind of going in and out uh and I think that's kind of what we talked about heading into this game that we would see that right we would see all three of them the field at different times I don't think any of them looked super impressive but I don't think any of them looked bad either I saw Teo Johnson miss a tackle um on the sideline but he was kind of going for a big hit when it was a sideline play and he had a lot of backup so I won't hold that against him uh I just don't think the safety room anyone really stood out to me or looked super impressive uh so that's that that's the DBS for Utah okay guys so that was the breakdown of the suu game uh I know I was critical at times but there's a lot of Praise in there too right overall it was an awesome performance like I mentioned I don't think you can expect much more out of the team really really good performance and it has me super optimistic as we head into the year we're going to be putting out a ton of content guys as we uh head into the season as we're in the season now baby it's this is the first real day of college football especially for Utah fans um and so it's going to be a wild ride from here on out every week that you Utah as a game we do breakdowns we do analysis it's a ton of fun and if you want to be informed going into each and every game I do believe this is an awesome channel to subscribe to so make sure you do subscribe if you haven't already also please like the video that'll help get out to more Utah fans and I do want to know what you think right we this is me watching the game live so I haven't gone back and watched the tape so if you guys have any opinions on what was going on out there something I missed good performances I missed bad performances I've missed I'd love to know what you guys think outside of that I am out of here and go Utes