Some late Montana/SUU observations... and highlights
Above are the highlights from Saturday's game. Well-done and great that they're putting them on YouTube. Anyway, here are a few of my observations from the game.
- Marc Mariani is a monster. Southern Utah had a better chance of stopping the sun from shining than they did slowing down Mariani. He ran great routes, blew by coverage, caught the ball when it was catchable and made moves in the open field. For the first time in the four years I've been here, it looks like the Griz have a definite go-to receiver.
- Cole Bergquist loves his first receiver. From the moment he drops back, he will stare so hard at his first progression that he may be able to see into their soul. Berquist's athleticism and mobility are great but can be a negative if he only looks to his first guy then takes off. I mentioned this in the Twitter feed, he stared down his first progression like no quarterback I've ever seen. I bet he looks like Reche Caldwell out there. If Mariani continues the phenomenal play, it's going to become very obvious who he's going to throw the ball to. However...
- Berquist throws a great ball. He may not read all the way through his progressions but when he tosses it to the first guy, it's normally an excellent throw. The difference between last season and this is obvious. He's throwing with more strength, accuracy and confidence than he ever has.
- When Selle eventually steps in, there will be do drop-off. He looked every bit as good as the starter. Go back and watch some of the throws, he was placing strong throws between coverage perfectly. On top of that, he has all the mobility of Bergquist. It may have been the fact that he's the backup and therefore less worried about getting hurt, but he seemed to run with a bit more power, lowing his shoulder into linebackers at times. Tebow-esque.
- Defense is still good. There was much concern about how the defense would look after all the losses. So far, so good. They play with a bit different style. Not as much power but a little more flash. Trumaine Jackson's back-to-back interceptions were both due to great grabs.
- Kicked down the doors. After a mediocre first quarter, I was worried the Griz would let the inferior Thunderbirds hang in there. Not so. It was nice to see our offense thoroughly dominate and put the game away early.
- We need to play better teams. It's been said so many times but if you look at it from the fan's perspective, we're getting robbed of games. We only get one half of interesting football. Maybe three quarters. It's nice seeing the offense do well but even that can get old. So if you take a half out of this game, a half out of the next game and probably three quarters of the Central Washington game, that's seven quarters of good football that we don't get to see. We're getting screwed. But hey, at half a mil a game, the administration is happy. And if the administration is happy and profitable, nothing else matters.
- Bobby Hauck is a joke. When asked during the coach's show about the status of Cole Bergquist, Bobby Hauck did his usual and declined comment, saying "Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself." Oh that's funny, because I always have to laugh at Bobby Hauck. He wants out, he wants to coach big-time football and he thinks (brace for PG-13 language) the beat reporters for schools like Washington, UCLA, Colorado, and Cal are going to put up with that shit? He's your star quarterback and you can't give us an inkling as to whether he's going to play next week? Please. Damn, even Tressel let the media know about Beanie Wells. They were playing USC and he meant a lot more to his team than Bergquist means to the Griz. They may take that crap in Laramie, which is where Bobby Hauck should be going, so good for him. If you got to where you are by being good at special teams (!!), you're not going much further. Please, really, bring up the fact that he's also known for recruiting.
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Seven. It's not just a great name. Of all the rankings and statistics in football, seven is the biggest number coming into this game. The Southern Utah Thunderbirds have lost seven games in row leading up to the season-opener against the Griz. 
