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No BYU-Utah Rivalry Football Games in 2014 or 2015

jazzman12 said:
Conan's right, Nelson is more of a gamer and tougher than Wynn. There's actually parts of Wynn's game that I think are merely "ok", but I don't spend a ton of time worrying about it because this guy is Utah's version of Chad Pennington. You know the next good hit he takes, one of those shoulders is blowing up again. However, unlike the past, this time Utah has guys like Travis Wilson/Chase Hansen who can take the field and never give the starting job up.

I think Riley Nelson will continue to look good against teams who don't have good athletes on defense. Utah's D is the perfect example of what Riley is going to struggle with:

-A unit with a strong defensive line that can pressure the QB up the middle, thus negating many of the rushing lanes Riley tends to want to take when the pocket breaks down.

-A defensive backfield that plays man coverage almost all the time, allowing Utah to put more players in the box to account for Riley's running ability.

-Athletes across the board on defense that will be able to contend with Riley's athleticism.

It must be maddening for the Cougar fan with good football IQ (all 12 of them). Riley will look like a Heisman candidate against half the schedule and they'll have to hear uneducated Cougar fan go on and on about how he was the right choice over Jake Heaps, what a great/gritty player he is, etc. Meanwhile, against the teams with better talent, he's most likely going to struggle. Just my opinion, but if you're talented enough to contend with his ability to improvise, you've pretty much contained 90% of his game.
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Be careful what you wish for. Hansen's game is very similar to Nelson's. But that's irrelevant as I don't think Hansen plays a down at QB for Utah (more like LB or TE).
 
fishonjazz said:
Personally i thought it was a bad move to go with riley over heaps even though riley might have been the better qb last year. Our best players were all very young last year (hoffman, apo, van noy) so i would have preferred to stick with heaps and let him struggle with the hopes that he would get better and better and then when he and the other good young players all were seniors maybe byu could do something special like utah in 04, 08. Instead we sacrificed that hope for an awesome future so that we can be average now.

As far as wynn versus riley.... thats a tough one, they both suck but i would take rileys leadership and toughness over wynn. I think both team have better qbs backing up the starters.
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The team was solidly behind Riley even before he was the starter. Heaps' attitude probably didn't help either. In the end, chemistry won out over talent.
 
As far as the backup situation, ok this year with Lark.

The problem is 2013 with a tough schedule you got Munns and maybe T. Hill (Olsen sucks balls). But Munns is hurt and not getting reps anyway. Hill is talented but has yet to get qualtiy reps.

It will probably come down to how the season is going when/if Nelson gets hurt.
 
CONAN said:
What Utes are on what watch-lists or nominations or whatever?
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Chuck Bednarik Award (best defensive player): Star Lotulelei
Biletnikoff Award (best receiver): DeVonte Christopher
Walter Camp Award player of the year): John White
Lou Groza Award (best placekicker): Sean Sellwood
Rotary Lombardi Award (lineman): Star Lotulelei
Maxwell Award (another best player): John White
Bronko Nagurski Trophy (best defensive player): Star Lotulelei
Outland Trophy (interior lineman): Star Lotulelei
Rimington Trophy (center): Tevita Stevens
Doak Walker Award (running back): John White

Does someone else want to find BYU players on the lists?

https://www.ncfaa.org/12watchlists.pdf
 
nightmare3983 said:
Does someone else want to find BYU players on the lists?

https://www.ncfaa.org/12watchlists.pdf
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Good find. Sure, here you go:

Cody Hoffman - BILETNIKOFF AWARD
Uona Kaveinga - BUTKUS AWARD
Riley Stephenson - RAY GUY AWARD
Braden Hansen - ROTARY LOMBARDI AWARD
Kyle Van Noy - ROTARY LOMBARDI AWARD
Riley Nelson - MAXWELL AWARD
Kyle Van Noy - BRONKO NAGURSKI TROPHY
Riley Nelson - DAVEY O’BRIEN AWARD
Braden Hansen - OUTLAND TROPHY
Michael Alisa - DOAK WALKER AWARD

Edit: Oh, and in case you failed to notice this:
# awards being watched = BYU 10 , Utah 10 (tie)
# athletes being watched = BYU 7, Utah 5 (advantage BYU)
 
colton said:
Edit: Oh, and in case you failed to notice this:
# awards being watched = BYU 10 , Utah 10 (tie)
# athletes being watched = BYU 7, Utah 5 (advantage BYU)
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But... WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE LAST TEN YEARS HERE! Didn't you see the STATS that green posted?!
 
fishonjazz said:
Personally i thought it was a bad move to go with riley over heaps even though riley might have been the better qb last year. Our best players were all very young last year (hoffman, apo, van noy) so i would have preferred to stick with heaps and let him struggle with the hopes that he would get better and better and then when he and the other good young players all were seniors maybe byu could do something special like utah in 04, 08. Instead we sacrificed that hope for an awesome future so that we can be average now.

As far as wynn versus riley.... thats a tough one, they both suck but i would take rileys leadership and toughness over wynn. I think both team have better qbs backing up the starters.
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I agree with this. For the life of me, I'll never get why they let Heaps struggle through the only decent teams, then pull him their pathetic WAC schedule and let Nelson look good against crappy competition then crown him the hero. Anyone would have looked good against those teams.
 
fishonjazz said:
Travis wilson/chase hansen per jazzman12
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I think Travis Wilson is going to be the real deal and could contribute as a true freshman. Once again, I'll agree with Conan that Chase Hansen is in the Riley Nelson mode. However, with Hansen going off on a mission after this year, I also doubt he'll ever see a snap at QB. Utah just nailed a commit from Conner Manning, a QB out of SoCal that broke the single season passing yardage record for the county which was previously held by Matt Barkley. He's only a 3 star, and Utah got in on him really early, so it's hard to tell if any of the major schools had much interest. Rivals listed USC, Wisconson, Colorado, and Oregon St. as some of the bigger name schools that were interested. Take that list with a grain of salt. I think USC is 4-deep at QB with former elite 11 QB's, so I'm not quite sure just how interested they were in him.

This early of a verbal is always a bit shaky. The kid has yet to take any official visits, so while it's a nice get for Utah, it's far from signing day yet. However, I think it shows that Chase Hansen is probably going to have trouble inserting himself back into the QB debate once returning from his mission. Travis Wilson could still be here finishing his senior year, Conner Manning could possibly be there waiting in the wings as a RS Junior, and I think Utah learned from getting caught with their pants down last year when they had to bring in a QB from Division 12 to back up a QB who isn't that good to begin with. They should be a lot more active in keeping that QB pipleline full from here on out.
 
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