Utah
USC game sparked change in Utah’s defense; will improvement be seen in title bout?
Estimated learn time: 5-6 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s protection was uninterested in answering the identical query all through the primary half of the season: Why is the protection struggling?
For the defensive gamers, admittedly, it was an unusual query given the sheer dominance on that facet of the ball over Kyle Whittingham’s tenure as head coach. It is a facet of soccer that historically reloads and delivers because it brings the physicality every week; groups really feel it — throughout and after the sport has been performed.
However for a lot of the primary six video games in opposition to FBS groups on the schedule, the protection seemed out of types — misplaced, misplaced, missed assignments, poor tackling, and so on. — and struggled to comprise cell quarterbacks or get a lot of a cease within the run sport.
It was not the standard Utah protection.
Whittingham known as the protection “gentle” and was annoyed with the dearth of execution from his gamers, whereas additionally recognizing that he had a whole lot of inexperience within the entrance seven.
That very same script performed out within the first half in opposition to USC in October when the protection gave up 364 whole yards, together with 249 yards by way of the air and 115 yards on the bottom, in what was a largely one-sided affair for the visiting crew.
One thing needed to change or Utah’s season was largely in peril, particularly contemplating the preseason expectation and a loss the week previous to UCLA.
Defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley simplified the scheme and adjusted up among the crew’s calls to assist showcase his gamers’ expertise in a greater method. All of it result in a defensive efficiency that held USC to 192 whole yards within the second half — slightly below half its manufacturing from the primary half — and gave the offense an opportunity to make a eventual comeback in a 43-42 win.
“Actually, that was the onset of the protection type of pivoting and making a reversal and taking part in effectively the second half of that sport; we performed extraordinarily effectively within the second half of that USC sport,” Whittingham stated. “From that time on, we have performed fairly good protection.
“Our guys have grown up, I assume you can say, this yr, and nice job by coach Scalley and his workers getting them prepared each week. Nice job by the gamers taking the preparation course of useless severe and ensuring that we haven’t any wasted time on the sphere or within the assembly room. It is a very businesslike method with our protection, and so they’ve actually performed some good soccer, like I stated, as of late.”
Within the first six FBS video games, Utah averaged 158.5 dashing yards and 235.8 receiving yards per sport, and a mixed 19 touchdowns. However within the remaining 5 video games, the protection tightened up and allowed solely 68.2 dashing yards and 203.6 receiving yards per sport, and a mixed 10 touchdowns.
A few of that improved manufacturing is a results of the groups Utah performed down the stretch of the season, in accordance with Whittingham; however even in video games in opposition to the highest groups within the Pac-12, Utah’s protection has proven indicators of progress and now ranks seventeenth within the nation and first within the Pac-12 in whole protection.
In actual fact, Utah ended the common season main the Pac-12 in whole protection (317.5 yds/gm), dashing protection (111.25 yds/gm), passing protection (206.3 yds/gm), and scoring protection (20.1 pts/gm). Utah additionally ranks ninth in defensive effectivity within the nation, in accordance with ESPN, which ranks first within the Pac-12.
It is a protection that’s no less than nearer to what Utah expects each season now.
“It is only a matter of the protection, maturing — guys gaining expertise,” Whittingham stated.
“We have grown up in a whole lot of areas, a whole lot of place teams did not have a ton of expertise. Early on, we weren’t taking part in very basically sound, we have been leaving gaps, we have been method smart not actual good, we weren’t tackling actual effectively in the course of the season. And we simply continued to get higher and higher because the season wore on.”
Linebacker Karene Reid stated it was the crew coming collectively and realizing that all of them needed to work collectively to provide higher on the sphere. And in these weeks that adopted the USC sport, gamers like Simote Pepa emerged and have become a much bigger risk on the defensive entrance seven.
Reid was fast to level out that it wasn’t only a one-man present on the defensive facet of the ball; it took all 11 guys on the sphere shopping for into what the coaches wished them to do earlier than Utah might be the place it wanted to be.
“I feel it actually must be a crew effort,” Reid stated forward of the Pac-12 championship sport. “We won’t have the Clark Phillips present or the Cole Bishop present. Like, as a lot as I would like them to do effectively, everyone’s gotta have a superb sport; that is what it is going to take.
“It is obtained to be a crew effort. In addition to the DBs cowl, there’s obtained to be strain on the quarterback, as effectively. That quarterback’s too good to get an interception purely off of fine protection; it is obtained to be a pair shifting items.”
Utah’s protection will likely be tasked with stopping the perceived front-runner for the Heisman Trophy in sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams on Friday evening. The way it performs in opposition to an elusive quarterback will go a good distance in figuring out Utah’s destiny that evening within the championship sport — and a report on how far Utah’s protection has come this season.
“I feel not solely is he shifty and cell however he is a powerful child,” Reid stated of Williams. “So arm tackles isn’t going to do it. You’ve got actually obtained to have nice physique place to take him down.”
“He is a playmaker,” Gabe Reid added. “He is a giant time expertise, however we’re trying to comprise him and trying to spoil their enjoyable.”
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Utah
Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame
TORONTO — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night.
The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.”
Several city streets had been closed during the day for an annual Santa Claus parade.
The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2.
The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation.
It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time.
In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena.
Utah
Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer
SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is Driven to Change and that includes bringing you reports on important topics like road rage, construction, and wrong-way drivers. During our coverage, we continually ask for any questions or concerns you may have along Utah’s roadways.
The feedback has gotten an enormous response, so FOX 13 sat down with Lieutenant Cameron Roden on Good Day Utah to help address input we have been getting, from the perspective of Utah Highway Patrol.
Speeding in Utah, there’s so much of it, and then you can sometimes say that that leads to tailgating, which may lead to road rage incidents. What are you seeing out there in terms of speed and what can we do to lessen the effects of that?
Lt. Cameron Roden: Speed is our number one thing that we see. That’s our number one traffic stop that we make, and we know that it leads to the majority of crashes in the state of Utah. So we definitely put an emphasis on speed and it does lead to other things. Not just crashes. It leads to road rage and other things .So, as far as what changes can we make, we need to start with ourselves, and really say, ‘Hey, do I have a problem?’ You know, we just need to start with ourselves and not think that it’s something else’s problem. If we slow our speeds ourselves, and then it’ll start to to catch on and people will do that speed limit. So, but the legislature has definitely taken some steps to help us address, especially the the speeds that are those excessive speeds where we have that one zero five law now that addresses those speeds and increases fines and and hopefully discourages people from those extreme speeds.
Some of our viewers talked about maybe capping some of the speed limits for truck drivers. Is that something that’s even feasible?
You know, that would be something that would have to go through that, that legislative process to see whether we that would be something that would help. But ultimately, if we we start with ourselves, hopefully that will make that change and reduce crashes and fatalities.
There are things being done to try and intervene and stop wrong-way drivers before they happen. But some of our viewers propose things like spikes. What are your thoughts on implementing something like that?
We’ve had over the last several years, a rash of wrong-way drivers, and it’ll come in onesie twos, and then we’ll go for a period of time without that. And so, but this spike over the last couple of years has caused us to to create a task force to look at wrongly driving what things can be done. And so getting all these stakeholders together between UDOT and Highway Safety, looking at what technologies and things that could be implemented, and and things like, wrong way detection cameras. Those are some things that are being actually used in the state of Utah right now to help us spot those and and advance signage, getting people to realize they’re going the wrong way and turn around. The the spike strips have actually been talked about in our task force a little bit. And if something like that would even be, it is that technology available right now. And as what we could actually implement in the state of Utah, there’s nothing that really fits the bill right now because of our environment. We have our snow plows. We have snow and things like that. Something like that really wouldn’t be practical right now.
Probably the most talked about topic that we’ve received was distracted driving, texting while driving. You went out, I saw on the UHP social media page, that you guys just driving and you look to your right and left and you can find someone texting. What kind of enforcement do we have against distracted driving specifically on your phone?
This is something that we like you said, we see it every day. We go out to crashes,and and we may suspect that a driver may be distracted. And so, it’s something that’s definitely under-reported. It’s it’s a bigger problem than than the numbers really show.And so not only do we address it during our normal patrols.Our officers are seeing it, and addressing it while they’re out there.But we’ll also do targeted patrols where the highway safety office actually gives out additional funds for that targeted enforcement, where we’ll get an unmarked vehicle. We go out driving down the roads where we try to spot these vehicles and and get them stopped because those are those are a big danger on our roadways where our attention and our focus needs to be on driving.
If you have ideas or suggestions for how to make Utah’s roadways safer click here to be taken to our Driven to Change form. There you can share your ideas or suggestions.
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Utah
Utah National Guard gets new, top-of-the-line Apache helicopters
WEST JORDAN, Utah — The Utah National Guard has been serving the state since 1894 with roots dating back to the Minutemen of the 17th-century American colonies.
This weekend, they received quite the boost in the form of the Army’s most advanced attack helicopter.
“These aircraft are extremely fast compared to our other aircraft,” said Col. Patrick.
On Saturday, the Utah National Guard took their new Apache helicopters for a spin.
“The flight went better than we could have hoped for. A little weather on the east coast, but after that, it wasn’t bad at all,” Patrick said.
The first four of 24 Apaches arrived early Saturday morning after they went under full inspection.
“They’ve got software on there that it’s like playing a video game. You just fly the video game and the airplane… is fast and smooth, which is the good thing, and so it’ll just hold the altitude and airspeed and just keep on trucking along. It’s pretty good,” Patrick said.
The first Apache helicopters arrived in Utah back in 1992.
“It just continues the legacy of the air pirates and what we bring to not only Utah, but really to the global fight and security, really,” Patrick added.
The colonel calls it a major step forward.
“What a great day for Utah as we advance into the next couple decades of combat operations and what we can provide to, you know, the global security.”
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