Football is back: Article 001

“False Start - Offense, everyone but the center.”

Intro’s first. I’m Jen, a University of Utah football fan, and this is Football by Jen. If you’re looking for deep rooted analytical insights, you probably won’t find them here. If I’m being honest, this is my first article, and I’m not really sure what you’ll find here, but I do know that I love college football and I feel like if you didn’t stop reading after, “I’m not really sure what you’ll find here,” then you probably feel the same way. So without further ado….

College Football Season is here. Technically it started last Saturday, in Ireland? Does Ireland even like football? Not sure. How did Florida State end up playing there? Not sure. Was Pat McAfee there yelling loudly during Gameday, and at bars after the game? Absolutely (I’ll spare everyone the shirtless pub vid.) But in true college football fashion, we saw the first upset of the season, on the very first game of the season. (Oopsie, ACC!)  Did I write the game off and go to the beach? Yes. Did I miss Georgia Tech’s game-winning field goal? You betcha. Do I regret it? No, because, read above: beach. 

Fast forward to last night, Utah vs. SUU, admittedly not super exciting after playing Florida for the first game of the season the last two years. Anyone else remember being in the middle of a bunch of sweaty Florida students in Gainesville and watching all our hopes and dreams for a comeback crushed in an interception at the end zone? I do. (Sorry Cam, we won’t dwell). Or a 74ish yd bomb from Bryson Barnes last year on the Utes first offensive play of the game? Me (Waving emoji). 

Well last night we got SUU, and I think the thing that drove most of the fans' excitement was hearing the familiar words of, “I see a bad moon rising” and seeing our quarterback, with beautiful flowing brown locks, run out onto the field.

Side note: Was I the only one holding my breath on those runs tonight? He looked good, and I’m not just talking about the hair. We saw him going shallow, going deep (That felt weird to say.) and it felt like, dare I say, another conference championship is on the way. Maybe, gees, don’t @ me. 5 TD passes, 3 to Kuithe (A favorite connection, reestablished?) and overall 10/15. Not too shabby. I liked what I saw, but TBH he wasn’t the biggest stand out for me, which leads me too….

Dijon Stanley. He’s sooo fast. This dude, where did he come from? Turns out, he was on the team last year. I must have been too busy worrying about how Micah was recovering from his scooter accident or if/when Barnes was gonna throw another pick (Too harsh? Maybe. He gave us his all.), to pay attention? Either way, tonight he showed out. A threat on the run and as a receiver, with 2 TD’s. I see him coming through BIG for the Utes this year, and I’m stoked for it. 

Another person a lot of Utah fans were waiting to see? Issac Wilson. Did he disappoint? I don’t think so. People are harsh these days, but give the kid a break. Because that’s exactly what he is, he’s still a KID. 18? years old. A true freshman. His first collegiate appearance. A lot of his passes looked good, and some obviously did not, but I’m not too worried about it right now… 

Which leads me to the part of this article where I slam team stats in your face, because that should probably be part of this? 513 Total Yards, 328 of those came from passing, and 185 from rushing. I’m bad at math, but I’m pretty sure that adds up. I REALLY like the running back room. (Does anyone else ever wonder why it’s called a room? Is there a legit room that’s only for running backs, with a sign that says “Running backs Only?” Someone pls let me know in the comments).

I was a little worried going into this season losing Jackson (Obviously, wish him the best. He seems like a good dude), but it kind of felt like tonight we were stacked? Between Bernard (Glad his face is okay, re: scooter accident, saw it on the jumbotron, it looked fine.), Mitchell, Stanley, and Glover.. I like it, it feels dynamic and I’m excited to see all of them in action against a higher caliber team.

Obviously there were some losses, namely our starting Cornerback, Kenan Johnson. I heard he left on crutches which is never a good sign, I hope he’s able to make a full recovery. Also, Aliki Vimahi, who seemed like he caught the rough end of a hold that lasted like 20 seconds and everyone could see from a mile away. Were some SUU players a little dirty? I’ll let you decide, but I can imagine it’s easy to get frustrated when you’re getting crushed 49-0. 

That’s enough about the Utes though, I’ll wrap this up with a little segment I like to call, Fans In The Stands, (I just made that up, we'll see if it sticks). To the guy two rows in front of me who may have gotten a nose ring between seasons, I don’t hate it. To the kid sleeping on his Dad’s knee during the 4th quarter down the row from me, I feel you buddy, (Not the Dad’s knee part, that would be weird at my age.) To the sweet older man in front of me with the headphones, I always wonder what you’re listening to, but I like to think that instead of a play-by-play on the radio it’s smooth jazz. To the man a few rows behind me, who constantly calls “Touchdown” or “Pick Six”, you’ll get it right one time pal, I have faith. 

Overall, last night at the first Utes football game of the season I realized a few things.

1. It’s nice when the evening air gets crisp (but ugh, wildfire smoke go away, am I right?)

2. There’s such a thing as standing jeans and sitting jeans for women, and tonight I wore standing jeans (so cute, but gotta break them in) which was a mistake. (if you know, you know.)

3. Apparently, “False Start - Offense, everyone but the center.” is a thing that can happen (and it happened to us.) 

If you made it this far, congrats! And thanks! This has been Football by Jen. I’m not sure how/when I’ll write these articles, but feel free to subscribe and I’ll try not to be too annoying. 

Go Utes!

P.S. Who knew that spinning the ball could get you an unsporstmanlike conduct penalty (probably everyone but me), but it just looked like skilllzzz from where I was sitting.