Three Utah offensive linemen made their first collegiate starts in last week’s season opener against North Dakota as the Utes, who are replacing four players from last year who made NFL rosters, saw mixed results in their first game.
Despite all the changes, the Utes compiled 499 yards of total offense. However, statistics alone won’t appease assistant head coach/offensive line coach Jim Harding, who described the performance as “not up to our standards.”
“I thought we played extremely tentative,” Harding said. “We didn’t play up to our ability early in the game. I thought it was better early in the half. We don’t have the luxury to start slow this week so I’m looking forward to seeing the progress.”
North Dakota recorded three sacks. While one of those sacks can be attributed to sophomore quarterback Tyler Huntley vacating the pocket early, pass protection remains an area the Utes would like to clean up.
Harding chalked up most of the slow start to jitters with center Lo Falemaka, right guard Jordan Agasiva and tight tackle Darrin Paulo starting the first game of their careers. Falemaka played the majority of the California game last season after entering the game due to injury, but he sustained an injury prior to the next game.
“It wasn’t mental errors or assignments,” Harding said. “I just think that it was nerves, and we weren’t coming off the ball the way we should. We were more or less reacting to them versus dictating what we were trying to accomplish.”
Eyes on the target
BYU will play the first half of Saturday night’s game without safety Micah Hannemann because of a targeting penalty he received in the third quarter of his team’s 27-0 loss to LSU.
Utah defensive coordinator/safeties coach Morgan Scalley, a former All-America safety for the Utes, has no illusions about how the targeting rule change might have impacted his playing career.
“It’s tough,” Scalley said. “On the defense, they limit you with the penalties. For us, you do as much as you can trying to teach it through drill work when those opportunities show up — to go at the strike zone rather than high. Had that penalty been in effect when I was playing, I would have been kicked out of plenty of games.
“So it’s just the way of the world now in college football — shoot, in the NFL and football in general. It’s protecting players. It makes it tough on the defender when he’s going a million miles per hour and he’s got to make that split-second decision. Hopefully, you practice enough that it doesn’t show up, but no one is immune to it and it’s going to happen.”
Ready for the stage
True freshman cornerback Jaylon Johnson, a four-star recruit from California ranked the sixth-best cornerback in his recruiting class by Rivals.com, didn’t start in the opener, but got a significant amount of playing time.
He made two tackles and broke up one pass against North Dakota. Johnson said the environment in Rice-Eccles Stadium made him want to play better as opposed to making him nervous.
“I have high standards for myself,” Johnson said. “I did pretty good for a start, but I’ve just got to keep getting better in my technique and just learning the defense.”