Through two games, what grade would Utah cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah give his group?
“If I had to grade us right now as a unit, it would be like a C-, and that’s being really gracious on the grades,” Shah said.
Contrary to Shah’s assessment, the stat sheet paints a favorable picture of Utah’s secondary, and defense as a whole. The Utes have allowed just 9.5 points per game (21st in the nation), 147 passing yards per game (32nd in the nation) and have intercepted three passes, including a pick-six by cornerback Jackson Bennee.
There have been good plays — including Bennee’s pick-six against Cal Poly, which extended Utah’s interception-return-for-a-touchdown streak to an NCAA-record 22 seasons.
Yes, the competition was UCLA — which looks so far to be a lower-tier FBS team — and FCS Cal Poly, but when a team allows just one touchdown over its first two games, there’s definitely more good than bad happening in the secondary.
Bennee has stood out so far at nickel with his pick-six, plus another near interception and three pass breakups against Cal Poly. Smith Snowden has also done fairly well in coverage, even with the addition of being a significant contributor on offense on his plate.
When coaches turn on the tape, however, they see plenty that needs fixing in the secondary before Big 12 Conference play starts next Saturday against Texas Tech. For Utah’s defense to hit an elite level, coaches know that there are things to clean up.
Coverage breakdowns in the first two games didn’t lead to touchdowns or big gains, but against better opponents, they almost certainly would have.
A couple examples: On UCLA’s first drive of the game, former Ute Mikey Matthews was uncovered deep down the field and could have scored if he caught the pass from quarterback Nico Iamaleava, but Iamaleava’s pass was just a bit too far for Matthews to haul in.
Then last Saturday, Utah was completely fooled on a Cal Poly double-pass, but Mustang receiver Michael Briscoe couldn’t connect with an absolutely wide-open Alek Marshall for what should have been a touchdown.
Of course, you can’t be perfect as a secondary, but coaches noted that there were too many coverage lapses in Saturday’s 63-9 victory over Cal Poly and in the season-opening 43-10 win over UCLA.
While it certainly isn’t the end all-be all and is just one data point, Pro Football Focus, which grades players on every play, has just two players in the secondary — cornerbacks Bennee and Rock Caldwell — who have a season coverage grade of 80 or above.
Snowden has a grade of 68.3, and cornerback Blake Cotton is at 65.9. Every other player in the secondary that saw significant snaps in the past two games has a season coverage grade of 63 or below out of 100.
“We still are, we’re just a ways away,” Shah said. “... We were out of position too many times and good teams will make you pay. Better quarterbacks who are more accurate will make you pay.”
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham attributed the coverage lapses to the lack of disciplined eyes.
“Too many turning guys loose up the field, and that’s due to poor eyes,” Whittingham said. “...That’s really the key. The key is disciplined eyes and particularly in man coverage, because we’re a heavy man coverage team, and as soon as you start getting nosy and looking in the backfield, you’re going to lose your guy and get separation, and that was the case on just about every route that we turned loose is because of bad eyes.”
Being more disciplined with where his cornerbacks are looking in coverage has been a point of emphasis for Shah this week as the Utes prepare to travel to Laramie for Saturday’s game against Wyoming.
He noted that an integral part of good cornerback play is not just speed and sticking with your man, but being able to block out everything going on around you and just focus on your assignment — especially for a man coverage-heavy team like Utah.
“Because to look at the film, we were good at certain times. We just weren’t consistently good. We lost our eyes so many times trying to think that, ‘Oh, maybe I can get a feel for what that quarterback is looking at,’” Shah said.
... Just having a level of discipline for a more sustained period, having good eye discipline, because I’m just telling you, the receivers that we’re going to play in a few weeks will hurt you. You’re not as sticky as you could possibly be.”
Utah has one more nonconference game, and another week of practice following that, to get its secondary ready for a big test in Texas Tech at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Sept. 20.
“I’m cautiously, patiently optimistic that we’ll learn at a rate that’s going to be faster because it doesn’t get any easier for us,” Shah said.