OFFICIAL Utah State Game Thread

[DeacAssured]

I'm watching the condensed game right now. The most telling part of the reviewed toe tap USU TD is WR Mariner's reaction. When he sat up and saw the official's call, he just slapped his knee in frustration. He didn't spring up and point to where his foot landed in bounds. He didn't protest the call at all. He didn't act like a guy who got his toe down.

By the way, the condensed game is weird. I'm about 20 out of 30 minutes in and they've shown several punts and none of the 4th down stops.

Mariner didn’t react with resistance most likely because he didn’t know with certainty if he had secured the toe tap in bounds. Guy has some integrity I would presume.

 

[DeacAssured]

^but that doesn’t mean he didn’t actually secure the toe tap in bounds.

 

[Deaconblue]

Mariner didn’t react with resistance most likely because he didn’t know with certainty if he had secured the toe tap in bounds. Guy has some integrity I would presume.

His eyes were concentrating on catching the ball. He was reaching back with the toe, but there is nothing he can feel with his foot to tell him if it was in or out of bounds. He knew helis body landed well out of bounds at the end of the play.

 

[jaybone]

I watched about half the condensed game and holy cow, David Woodward seemed to get about 5 of his tackles on the sidelines on Sage Surratt on the catch and run. Granted, Surratt juked the corner after beating him and cut in to get 5 to 7 more yards, but it is pretty amazing that the middle linebacker is making sideline tackle after sideline tackle. What a motor on that kid.

 

[Deaconblue]

I watched about half the condensed game and holy cow, David Woodward seemed to get about 5 of his tackles on the sidelines on Sage Surratt on the catch and run. Granted, Surratt juked the corner after beating him and cut in to get 5 to 7 more yards, but it is pretty amazing that the middle linebacker is making sideline tackle after sideline tackle. What a motor on that kid.

Woodward looking like he will make some NFL team very happy in a year.

 

[CONeill]

Talked to Essang about that play this morning and I'm probably not going to use the quotes in a story, so ... (italics are me)

Anything different you could’ve done on the touchdown pass?
Oh, there were so many little things I could’ve done different.
But it was a great throw, great catch. Replay, I guess, he was in. So you win some, you lose some. Hopefully you go on to win more than you lose, but great throw, great catch. It happens.

You guess there was enough to overturn it?
I don’t think so, personally.
I didn’t think so either.
I didn’t think so, but, it is what it is.
Not like you can argue about it now.
Yeah, leave no doubt next time.

 

[HONDO2]

Woodward looking like he will make some NFL team very happy in a year.

Yea....I'd say he's a shoe-in for our end of season All Opponent team.

 

[JuiceCrewAllStar]

thought Claude looked pretty good

surprised he hasn't gotten more targets over the years

 

[bmoneydeac]

thought Claude looked pretty good

surprised he hasn't gotten more targets over the years

He is really quick once he gets the ball. Seemed to maximize YAC on all his catches to convert a lot of third downs.

 

[BarcaDeac]

what happened to Groulx? wasn't he supposed to be the next big thing?

 

[DeacsOrDie]

Talked to Essang about that play this morning and I'm probably not going to use the quotes in a story, so ... (italics are me)

Anything different you could’ve done on the touchdown pass?
Oh, there were so many little things I could’ve done different.
But it was a great throw, great catch. Replay, I guess, he was in. So you win some, you lose some. Hopefully you go on to win more than you lose, but great throw, great catch. It happens.

You guess there was enough to overturn it?
I don’t think so, personally.
I didn’t think so either.
I didn’t think so, but, it is what it is.
Not like you can argue about it now.
Yeah, leave no doubt next time.

Bassey all but shut down his side of the field. Even the toe catch, he was all over Mariner and required a perfect throw and catch to complete.

 

[piratedeac92]

I never thought his toe touched the ground in replay and didn’t think there was enough to overturn it. Looked like it, but the only grass churning was Basseys foot on the zoomed in version. But who cares, we won a great game

 

[Stan Gable]

what happened to Groulx? wasn't he supposed to be the next big thing?

For the most part, 18 yr olds shouldn't be pushing for playing time in established programs. I hope its a function of the talent we have on the roster and not Groulx's skill level.

 

[BudatWake]

I thought most of the replays I saw on ACCN did not warrant reversal of the on field ruling. Maybe the replay official had some angle and shots they didn't show, but I thought generally the ones that were overturned should have been ruled "stands as called"

 

[DeacDaddy]

I just can’t fathom what we would be feeling right now had we failed on the Kendall 4th down play.

On highlights it shows Newman with his helmet off after the 70 yarder to Sage. Was it knocked off? He’s not allowed to take it off, right?

 

[PhDeac]

For the most part, 18 yr olds shouldn't be pushing for playing time in established programs. I hope its a function of the talent we have on the roster and not Groulx's skill level.

Yeah. I haven’t seen the participation list but I think only Surratt, Hinton, Washington, and Claude played at WR. We shouldn’t need to rely on a true fresh at this point. I wouldn’t expect to see him against Rice either. There’s a few other guys who need to get some run.

 

[HCF3]

Bassey all but shut down his side of the field. Even the toe catch, he was all over Mariner and required a perfect throw and catch to complete.

Also, thought Henderson had a great game - although he missed a few tackles. Both Bassey and Henderson were left all alone. That should be a great advantage as Greer/Davis get more experience.

 

[jaybone]

I just can’t fathom what we would be feeling right now had we failed on the Kendall 4th down play.

On highlights it shows Newman with his helmet off after the 70 yarder to Sage. Was it knocked off? He’s not allowed to take it off, right?

Utah State fans were complaining about that a lot on their board. They said THEY got a 15 yard penalty for the same thing last year - but I think Newman was walking to the sidelines on the assumption it was a TD, he wasn't jawing USU; he was celebrating with our sideline so they either didn't see it or didn't think it warranted the penalty.

 

[CONeill]

Yeah. I haven’t seen the participation list but I think only Surratt, Hinton, Washington, and Claude played at WR. We shouldn’t need to rely on a true fresh at this point. I wouldn’t expect to see him against Rice either. There’s a few other guys who need to get some run.

All correct. I was surprised that Sage went to the slot when Hinton was out, instead of Isaiah Isaac, but alas, if you can get Sage, Scotty and Steve all on the field together, that's pretty potent.

The real key, and maybe not as much of a factor this week as it'll be next week, is getting Jaquarii Roberson back healthy. Clawson repeatedly said they couldn't afford to play Dortch 90 snaps/game last year, and Greg didn't have the chronic injury woes that Kendall has had (he had one freak injury that punctured his small intestine, before someone gets hung up quoting how many games he played in his career to me). Playing Hinton on 60-70% of snaps, with Roberson getting the rest, I think is their goal.

 

[Dekin]

thought Claude looked pretty good

surprised he hasn't gotten more targets over the years

And he’s one of the fastest guys on the team. Think we should have him run fly patterns with other receivers to tire out the DBs, and then let Claude blow by them. That could give us some of the explosive plays that Clawson is looking for.