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Congratulations To The Utah Utes!!!

Congratulations to everyone over at BlockU.com, and all other Utah fans on the Utes' blowout win over the Alabama Crimson Tide. The 31-17 scores is somewhat misleading, as Utah came out hot early on, building a quick 21-0 lead in the first quarter that forced 'Bama to play from behind all game long. Alabama would come as close as 4 points, whittling the lead down to 21-17, but Utah immediately scored again to make it 28-17, and put the game away, for all intents and purposes.

Brian Johnson finished with 336 yds passing with 3 TDs, and had several key runs in the 4th quarter to help run out the clock. This game has to put to rest the argument that the spread won't work against the speed of SEC defenses; Alabama has been soundly beaten in successive games by two teams running the spread single-wing offense, because the Tide's vaunted defense hasn't had an answer for this scheme. Conversely, the Tide's more "traditional" pro-set offense was stymied by the Utes' defense. Utah tallied 8 sacks, including a forced fumble and fumble recovery on 'Bama QB John Parker Wilson, and 2 interceptions.

This is Utah's second BCS bowl win and second undefeated season in the BCS era, but unlike the 2004 squad, this Utes squad was dominant on defense. The Utes gave up 289.2 yds per game, impressive an any season, but especially in the era of wide-open spread offenses that we are in today. Kyle Whittingham, the former Ute defensive coordinator who became head coach after Urban Meyer left for Florida following the 2004 season, is to be congratulated for this continued excellence. The Utes held Alabama to 208 total yards of total offense, stuffing Alabama's potent rushing attack, holding them to just 31 yards.

The bigger story to me, though, is the success of Utah's offense against Alabama's defense. The conventional wisdom in the SEC has been that spread offenses can't succeed in the SEC, because the team speed on defense is too great. Apparently, some SEC fans fancy themselves a minor-league NFL, because the same rationale is given by NFL apologists about the running the spread in the League (Incidentally, the 2007 New England Patriots proved this theory wrong, setting records for offense on the way to the only undefeated regular season since the League went to the 16-game schedule). The spread single-wing scheme gives an offense a potent passing game with a strong, power-based running game. I'm actually surprised more SEC fans haven't been quicker to embrace this scheme, given the love for power football in that conference. I guess it doesn't conform to their stereotype of "true football", where offenses need a FB and TB in the backfield, and playcalling is unimaginative and boring. The success of Utah against SEC powerhouse Alabama proves that this scheme is not only viable but can be incredibly successful in the SEC. After two consecutive games of their defense being torched by it, maybe now Alabama fans will believe it, too.

 

College Football BCS Rankings, Scores, Schedule and Blog Posts - SB Nation

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Thanks!

And it was good to have you join our gameday chat last night.

Definitely won’t forget that game for as long as I’m on God’s green earth.

by JazzyUte on Jan 3, 2009 3:16 PM CST reply actions   0 recs

Why not Utah at number 1?

I love it, I love it. This is exactly the type of debacle we need to get rid of this jacked up system. How can the team that just whooped the supposedly number two team in the greatest conference of all time not be ranked number one if Florida wins. Florida needed the greatest fourth quarter in school history as Urban Meyer stated to beat an average one dimensional ’Bama team while Utah controlled the game from start to finish. If Texas blows out Ohio State as everybody expects the national title game winner will have so much doubt about it. They will have to question their legitmacy. I love it, I love it.

by PrimeTime2012 on Jan 4, 2009 8:59 PM CST reply actions   0 recs

even if they weren't going to blow it up after last season's two-loss BCS champ debacle

I wouldn’t hold out hope for this year.

’Bama just showed that they were, as Dennis Green once said, what we thought they were.

Not to denigrate Utah’s accomplishment in any way, but there is a big difference between getting a month to prepare for one game and getting only a week. I would even argue that Florida’s win gave Utah a blueprint on how to attack ’Bama.

by Beergut on Jan 5, 2009 2:48 AM CST reply actions   0 recs

I think the real question is....

Is our pro-style offense going to be able to succeed?

It is easy to look at USC and say “Hell yea, this is going to be awesome.”
but look how Alabama was shut down by Utah.

by jarrett.adams on Jan 5, 2009 7:58 AM CST reply actions   0 recs

exactly

I think USC is somewhat of an outlier, kind of like Miami. Miami would kick everyone’s ass with their pro-style offense b/c they siomply had more talent than everyone else, so they could run simple schemes very, very, very well.

by Beergut on Jan 5, 2009 2:50 PM CST up reply actions   0 recs

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