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Northern Colorado head coach Earnest Collins Jr. believes his team, which went 0-11 last season, can stay in its season opener against Utah on Thursday night.
Game Notes- Utah (0-0, 0-0 Pac-12) vs. Northern Colorado (0-0, 0-0 Big Sky)
- Date: Thursday, Aug. 30
- Time: 5:15 p.m. MDT
- Site: Rice-Eccles Stadium (45,017/FieldTurf)
- TV: Pac-12 Networks • in Utah Comcast 757 (HD) & 37 (SD)
- Radio: ESPN700
- Series Record: Utah leads 2-0
- Last Meeting: 1937 (Utah 7-6)
- Kickoff Weather: Partly cloudy, temps in the upper 80s
“We need to go out and execute and we’ll be in the game,” Collins said. “For us, it’s about trying to control the tempo of the game.”
Under Collins, the Bears have been very pass heavy. Last season, they threw it 409 times to just 277 running plays. Collins believes the key to turning things around in 2012 after a winless 2011 is balancing that out.
“Our main focus is to maintain balance,” he said.
Part of the reason the Bears threw the ball so much is the versatility and ability of their quarterback, Seth Lobato.
“Seth is our main guy,” Collins said. “He’s our guy and we’ve got to get the ball to him.”
Last year, Lobato threw for a total of 2,448 yards with a 54.5 percent completion rate.
Collins is guessing to some extent as to what to expect from the Ute offense.
“I’m fully expecting to see some spread from them because they’ve had some success with it in the past,” he said.
With Brian Johnson taking over as the new Utes’ offensive coordinator, Collins expects to see some of what Norm Chow left behind as last year’s offensive coordinator but also some of what Johnson ran when he was playing.
“The only thing we have to go on is what he’s done in the past when he was a player there when it was more of a spread,” he said. “He’s not going to throw everything away that Chow did.”
That said, Collins knows where the Utes’ strength lies.
“We have to stop the run first,” he said. “John White is their main source. He is our main focus.”
Trevor Amicone is the editor of byutahinsiders.com, a website that will be launched before the 2012 football season to cover both Utah and BYU football as well as national college football. Follow his very entertaining Twitter feed at @TrevorAmicone.
