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My major concerns going into this game for the Utes were whether or not the offensive line has come together, whether or not Wynn will be effective enough to compete in the Pac-12 and the kicking game.
I don’t know if any of those concerns really were assuaged on Thursday night. The offensive line was as solid as it needed to be against Northern Colorado. There were no major breakdowns that left a linebacker in Wynn’s face, but there was some sloppiness. Jeremiah Tofaeono was not on top of his game at left guard so we may see some more rotation there next week in Logan.
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Wynn is my biggest concern coming out of the game Thursday. He still looks like a baseball catcher trying to throw a stealing base runner out at second base. He short-arms everything and almost throws it side-arm, rarely stepping into throws.
That is disconcerting going forward. He did look more comfortable in the pocket, but still not as confident as he should be. I spent the drive home trying to convince myself over and over again that Wynn is better than Travis Wilson. Wynn obviously has the experience that the true freshman Wilson doesn’t, but Wilson is more talented.
I know that he only threw two passes, but it’s been hard to watch him throughout the spring and the fall and think that Wynn is the better quarterback. I know experience is HUGE, but Wilson is just plain more talented — right now. He’s considered the quarterback of the future and should bring the Utes up to par in the conference of quarterbacks, but he’s the best quarterback on the roster RIGHT NOW.
If you watched practices throughout the spring and fall, taking experience out altogether, you would logically come to the conclusion that Wilson should be the starter.
That said, you simple CANNOT take experience out of the equation. That’s why the Ute coaching staff has Wynn starting and it’s hard to blame them, but Wynn has to step up his confidence level. Utah will not be able to outscore the likes of USC, Washington, Arizona State or Cal with Wynn playing like he did tonight.
We need to see some more and Utah State should be a better barometer for Wynn. So let’s wait before we start calling for Wilson to start, but the Utes need more from Wynn.
The kicking game is just not good. Coleman Peterson has it in him, but it looks like he’s turned into a head case. He’s got to get it figured out or that situation is going to cost the Utes a close game.
Now to the good things. The defense is as good as it has been in a long time. Once again, I know the competition was bad, but there is speed everywhere. You can see that regardless of competition. The linebackers are fast, the defensive line is fast, the secondary is fast. The speed is scary.
John White looked solid again, quietly rushing for 119 yards, averaging nearly five yards per carry. He’s going to be the main man in the backfield for the Utes despite the hype around Kelvin York who underperformed in minimal time. Jarrell Oliver is going to be good when White needs a spell. You could see glimpses in Thursday’s game of what the Ute coaches saw to move him above York on the two-deep.
The tight ends are going to be the key to the offense being effective in 2012. Wynn will look to them often. He found them nine times on Thursday night and he will use the “Fab Five”, as he calls them, a ton. Wynn tends to look quickly to his safety valves and Jake Murphy, Dallin Rogers and David Rolf will be good ones to have.
If the Ute offense is able to compete in the Pac-12 this year, the tight ends will be why.
Lastly, Brian Johnson is going to be just fine as the offensive coordinator. The game plan going in was to be very vanilla and very generic, so the jury is still out on the play calling, although it was pretty good at times. What you can take from a game against a bad opponent, however, is the flow of the offense. It actually was better tonight than it ever was in the Norm Chow era.
Overall, it’s really hard to take anything away from a game against a team like Northern Colorado, but the Utes certainly need to fix some things, none of which are on the defensive side of the ball.
For more breakdowns of the game, check out BYUtahInsiders.com.
Trevor Amicone is the founder of byutahinsiders.com which covers BYU, Utah and national college football with weekly polls and bowl projections, opinions and analysis. Follow its brand new Twitter page at @BYUtahInsiders and Trevor's at @TrevorAmicon
