Inside the Numbers: Southern Utah

The University of Utah gets a breather with an FCS game after the heartbreaker in Gainesville last week. Here’s what Utah fans should expect to see from SUU. Because of the limited information for FCS teams, I won’t address what they lost from last year, only what we should expect to see this week.

I will point out two things about last year’s SUU team. First, that team went 1-10, losing to SJSU (45-14) and ASU (41-14) along with losses to all of their FCS opponents except Tarleton State, who they beat 40-35.

Second, they had an NFL draft pick at LT Braxton Jones, who was taken in the 5th round by Chicago.

First, let’s take a look at the offense:

QB - Justin Miller: Miller is in his 4th year as a Thunderbird and was rated pretty well last year at 70.9. He was also rated really well last week against St. Thomas, at 83.7 (#1). He went 21/33 (63.6%) last week for 359 yards (10.9 ypa) with 3 TD and 0 INT. He also had 2 carries for 2 yards and 1 TD.

Miller had a great game last week against St. Thomas, who SUU beat 44-13.

RB - Bobby Cole: Cole played 22 snaps last week, his first year at SUU after transferring from New Mexico. He had 6 carries for 16 yards (2.7 ypc) with 1 TD.

RB - Elijah Burns: Burns played 17 snaps last week, his first year at SUU after transferring from William & Mary. He had 5 carries for 13 yards (2.6 ypc).

RB - Joe Davis: Davis played 10 snaps last week, his first year at SUU after transferring from Colorado. He had 4 carries for 8 yards (2.0 ypc).

RB - Isaiah Williams: Williams only played 5 snaps, but he led the RB in rushing yards, with 4 carries for 29 yards (7.3 ypc)

That’s a lot of RB, and it’s not the entire list (Tosh Wright had 3 carries and Braedon Wissler had 1). The total rushing yardage for the team was only 128 yards, so SUU is clearly going to rely on the pass this year as long as Miller is playing like he did last week.

WR - Steve Jenkins: Jenkins played 38 snaps last week and was rated 52.7. This was his first year at SUU after transferring from UNLV. He had 2 catches on 5 targets for 31 yards (15.5 ypc)

WR - Isaiah Wooden: Wooden played 38 snaps last week and was rated 76.2 (#2), his first year at SUU after transferring from Kent St. He had 4 catches on 5 targets for 137 yards (34.3 ypc) with 2 TD.

WR - Tim Patrick Jr.: Patrick is former Utah WR Tim Patrick’s half-brother. He played 36 snaps for SUU last week after transferring from USU and was rated 58.3. He had 2 catches on 3 targets for 16 yards.

WR - Ethan Bolingbroke: Bolingbroke played 34 snaps and was rated 58.1. He had 2 catches on 4 targets for 13 yards (6.5 ypc)

WR - Brennan Hutchings: Hutchings played 28 snaps and was rated 59.7. He had 1 catch on 1 target for 16 yards.

While only Wooden had a good game, all of the top three WR are all transfers from FBS football and are experienced players. Jenkins in particular had nearly 700 yards receiving last year at UNLV.

TE - Mata’ava Ta’ase: Ta’ase played 52 snaps and was rated 72.7 (#3). He had 5 catches on 6 targets for 96 yards (19.2 ypc) with 1 TD.

TE - Francisco Calderon: Calderon played 28 snaps and was rated 62.2. He mostly blocked, running only 7 routes with no targets.

Ta’ase had a good game last week and looks to be turning into a solid TE.

LT - Collin Gardner: Gardner played 64 snaps last week and was rated 64.4. He did a good job pass blocking (84.2) but not as good run blocking (55.3)

LG - Kyle Sfarcioc: Sfarcioc played 63 snaps last week and was rated 55.2. He was rated average or below at both pass blocking (60.8) and run blocking (52.3)

OC - Leonidas Jacobsen: Jacobsen played all 69 snaps and was rated 63.3, although he was much better pass blocking (83.9) than run blocking (57.3).

RG - Lyle Santos: Santos played 63 snaps and was rated 70.7. He was the best run blocker (75.9) but was rated the worst at pass blocking (50.2)

RT - Brandon Dillard: Dillard played 63 snaps and was rated 67.6. Like Santos, he’s a better run blocker (70.2) than pass blocker (57.2).

Based on the run blocking being so much better on the right and the pass blocking on the left, I took a look at the direction of the rushing for the team. Of the 28 rushing attempts that aren’t QB sneaks, 19 of them went to the right and only 9 to the left. That’s surprising. For comparison, last week Utah had 36 rushing attempts that weren’t QB sneaks. 17 went right, 19 went left.

Now a look at the defense.

DE - Francis Bemiy: Bemiy played 55 snaps and was rated 71.0. He had 1 tackle and 3 QB pressures last week.

DE - Zach Strand: Strand played 50 snaps and was rated 77.2 last week. He had 3 tackles and 2 QB pressures.

DE - Julian Sanderlin: Sanderlin played 23 snaps and was rated 67.6 last week. He had 1 tackle and no QB pressures.

DT - Payton Payne: Payne played 47 snaps and was rated 67.9 last week. He had 1 tackle and 3 QB pressures.

DT - Wyatt Dawe: Dawe played 37 snaps and was rated 48.2 last week. He had no recorded stats.

DT - Rylen Sua-Filo: Sua-Filo played 36 snaps last week and was rated 62.6. He had 4 tackles and 2 QB pressures.

This is a young Defensive line that didn’t get any sacks last week despite leading most of the game. Expect Utah to protect Rising pretty well and for there to be some available running lanes for the RBs

LB - Trent Whalen: Whalen played 61 snaps and was rated 67.7. He had 4 tackles and 1 QB pressure.

LB - Kohner Cullimore: Cullimore played 48 snaps and was rated 55.7. He had 4 tackles and 1 missed tackle.

LB - Cameron Dahle: Dahle played 27 snaps and was rated 61.1. He had 2 tackles and 1 QB pressure.

Whalen and Cullimore are the starters, but as the next section makes clear, SUU played a lot of nickel and dime coverage. They had five other LB with at least 10 snaps, but the three above are the ones Utah fans should expect to see most of the time this week.

CB - Damaje Yancey: Yancey played 63 snaps and was rated 60.0. He had 4 tackles and gave up 3 receptions on 7 targets (42.9%)

CB - Quadir Lockett-Smith: Lockett-Smith played 44 snaps and was rated 62.5. He had 5 tackles, 1 missed tackle, and gave up 5 receptions on 8 targets (62.5%)

CB - Davin Wilson: Wilson played 41 snaps and was rated 82.6 (#1). He had 2 tackles, 1 missed tackle, gave up 2 receptions on 3 targets (66.7%) and had 1 INT.

CB - Malachi Harrisom: Harrison played 25 snaps and was rated 70.1. He had 3 tackles and gave up 1 reception on 1 target.

S - Josh Dunn: Dunn played 74 snaps and was rated 63.4. He had 7 tackles, 1 missed tackle, and gave up 5 catches on 5 targets (100%)

S - Mitch Price: Price played 65 snaps and was rated 65.8. He had 4 tackles, 1 missed tackle, and gave up 0 receptions on 2 targets (0%)

S - Roderick Ward: Ward played 47 snaps and was rated 75.7 (#3). He had 7 tackles, gave up 2 receptions on 5 targets with 1 PBU and 1 INT.

S - Tre Caine: Caine played 31 snaps and was rated 52.2. He had 4 tackles, and gave up 3 receptions on 5 targets (60%).

8 secondary players with at least 25 snaps is surprising. They had 2 picks, so Utah will need to pay attention to keep from turning it over, but they also gave up a lot of catches and yards, suggesting they’re a fairly opportunistic secondary that isn’t playing super tight coverage.

SUU appears to have improved dramatically from last year’s 1-10 team, but not enough to make a game of this. Expect them to get probably one good pass for a touchdown on a broken coverage and for Miller. The Thunderbirds could make Utah fans uneasy for a quarter before Utah pulls away, as it’s an important game to get a lot of guys reps.

Prediction: Utah 31 - SUU 10